Ice look for Swedish edge

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Throughout the AIHL, coaching staff come with years of experience, whether locally or internationally, if not both. In order to gain an edge, the Melbourne Ice have enlisted some outside help in the form of Division 1 (Hockeyettan) Swedish coaching heavyweights Charles Franzén and Michael Larsson, who have joined the team for the first few rounds of the season.
 
Both having played competitive hockey from a very young age, Franzén and Larsson have extensive and impressive resumes both on and off the ice.
 
Franzén, originally a Hockeyettan defencemen with Danderyd/Täby, turned to coaching full time at aged 29 and has spent 15 seasons in the SuperElite junior and Allsvenskan leagues in Sweden, along with stints in Poland and Hungary, where he led SC Cskiszereda to the MOL Liga Championship in season 2010/2011.
 
While Michael Larsson originally started at the other end of the ice as a forward, he is the current assistant coach with Vimmerby HC in Sweden and has a long standing working relationship with Franzén. Larsson started his playing career at IK Oskershamn in the Allsvenskan league.  He played from 1994 to 2000, before taking up coaching full time, which he has done now for more than 16 years. Larsson also spent time in Hungary with Franzén, helping develop and coach the youth department of SC Cskiszereda.
 
The relationship between the two coaches and Melbourne Ice is not a recent development, the idea of Franzén and Larsson coming out to Australia suggested to them three years ago.
 
“There was a Swede (Goalie Coach Johan Steenberg) who moved to Melbourne, who I coached as a junior years ago,” Franzén grinned. “He called me and said ‘I think we would like some help in Australia’ and I said sure ‘set up something and we will see if we can manage to do it’. Then in August last year he called me and we talked hundreds of times and we planned it.”
 
Michael Larsson, however, found himself in Melbourne after Franzén asked him to join him on the five-week adventure.
 
“I said I need to bring someone with me, and at that time I’d been working with Mike (Larsson) for so many years and I respect his knowledge and opinion so it was easy to bring him with me and fortunately he was able to get away to come here as well,” Franzén continued.
 
Touching down in Melbourne, it was not their first encounter with some of the members of the Ice roster. Jack Carpenter and Mitch Humphries spent their off-season’s training in Sweden under Franzén’s guidance - an experience arranged by Steenberg that both young players claimed was hugely beneficial.
 
“I had them this (European) winter,” Franzén smiled. “I was there when they arrived in late November.”
 
“It was a big step up,” Carpenter admitted. “The speed was huge a huge leap. Especially for me, being a defenceman, it gave me a whole new understanding of where to be on the ice.”
 
“For me, (training in that environment) it gives you a bit of a reality check of where you are at, which is good for me because you’re like any another player in Sweden or those who are better,” Humphries explained.
 
“It was a real eye opener for me,” Carpenter added. “Even not having the coaches on the ice speaking English was a huge learning curve.”
 
“Chaos,” Humphries laughed.
 
Despite the apparent language barrier, both players thrived in the challenged presented to them.
 
“Playing in that environment, it’s like having 23 first-line players competing against you,” Carpenter highlighted.     
 
“We were skating up to twice a day, two gym work outs,” Humphries pointed out. “We weren’t playing on the weekends but we would get home after the week and just be exhausted. It’s pretty chaotic. Some of the kids there would have four games in a weekend.”
 
Carpenter and Humphries certainly benefited from the off-season hard work, their skills and game wisdom improved since the end of last season.
 
“They grew not only as hockey players but human beings over those three months,” Franzén observed. “I saw it in their skills. They were on the ice six to eight times a week and then five to six physical trainings every week and I think that made them grow as players.”
 
With Franzén and Larsson running the Ice’s training, the players have noticed a increase in intensity.
 
“The tempo in practice has just gone up so much,” Humphries said. “They demand more out of their players. They really raise the bar, they expect more out of us and in turn we then expect more out of each other.”
 
“They are more than happy to give everyone a bit of a kick in the butt on the ice and getting them to better themselves which pushes us further and to be better,” Carpenter adds.
 
Having worked with the team before last weekend’s trip to New South Wales, both Franzén and Larsson were pleased with the progress of the team while still acclimatising to the differences in Australian hockey.
 
“We are here to help Melbourne Ice,” Larsson said. “We want to work hard for them. It’s tough for us, feeling like we are waiting a bit, we want to be on the ice every day but we learn and listen.”
 
“It’s the focus on each pass, reading the game, the knowledge,” Franzén explains when comparing the AIHL to the professional league in Sweden. “It’s the same ice, it’s a puck, so it’s about the same. But it’s about the demand and the small things.” 
 
“I’ve coached Troy (Davenport), Lasse Lassen and Chris Yule,” Larsson said. “They have played at a high level. These guys are professionals and so it this team. So I hope that each player can learn and step up to the next level.”
 
“We hope that what we can give them here for these weeks that it will help them be successful in the league. I would feel satisfied,” Franzén said. “They are group of really nice guys. Hopefully when we leave they will continue to fly and will continue to win.”
 
While both coaches are here to aid the skills and development of the playing group to build their successes, it is also the core coaching staff that are benefiting from their presence.
 
“When we leave, I hope that they can do (what we have taught them) without us,” Larsson said.
 
While in Australia, Franzén and Larsson will also take the time to offer intermediate to elite coaching clinics to the public. To book, visit the Melbourne Ice store here.
 
Thank you to Shannon Knaus for her reporting. See the original story at ice.theaihl.com.