TV-pucken

TV-pucken
Småland winning the 2008 event
Status	active
Genre	sporting event
Date(s)	varying
Frequency	annual
Country	Sweden
Inaugurated	1959 (1959)
Website	www.swehockey.se/Svenskishockey/serierturneringar/TV-pucken

TV-pucken (English: the TV puck) is a Swedish national ice hockey tournament for district teams of boys under 15 years of age. Since 2019, girls also compete in TV-pucken with their own tournament. It was created on the initiative of Swedish ice hockey player Sven "Tumba" Johansson.^{[citation needed]}

The tournament is named "TV-pucken" because when it was first played in 1959, every game was broadcast on television, but nowadays only the playoff games are shown.

The allowed maximum age of the players was originally 16 years, but reduced to 15 in 1979. During a meeting on Bosön in December 2002 it was decided to increase the age from 15 to 16 from the 2003 tournament, to prevent the "early exclusion" caused by young players giving up ice hockey.^[1]

The tournament has also given birth to the expressions of TV-pucken crowd (Swedish: TV-puckshög) and TV-pucken joy (Swedish: TV-pucksglädje) as the entire team throws themself onto the playing surface celebrating goals and victories.^{[citation needed]}

Starting in the year 2000 Stockholm became allowed to participate with two teams.,^[2] following an idea of the Stockholm Ice Hockey Association on its own after claiming to have so many skilled young players.^[3] and this concept has also been used later. In 2012 Småland also participated with two teams ("red" and "yellow")^[4] and so also in 2013.^[5] For the 2016 tournament the Swedish Ice Hockey Association decided to set up a new team, consisting of 22 players who'd been rejected from respective district association teams.^[6]

The 1997 edition aired over TV 3 as "TV-cupen".^[7]

A girls' tournament was added in 2019, replacing Stålbucklan.^{[citation needed]}

Several "spinoff"-variations were later developed, like cross-country skiing's TV-skidan starting in 1965,^[8] but never gaining the same popularity as TV-pucken. Even other team sports have similar tournaments, often not airing over TV, where Swedish youth district teams challenge each other.^{[citation needed]}

Districts participating

There are 24 district teams divided in four groups participating in TV-pucken. Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, traditionally participates with two teams, which are named Vit (white) and Röd (red). In 2009, however, only one Stockholm team participated in the tournament.^{[citation needed]}

Group A	Group B	Group C	Group D
Gotland	Bohuslän/Dalsland	Gästrikland	Göteborg
Blekinge	Dalarna	Halland	Hälsingland
Småland	Norrbotten	Medelpad	Jämtland/Härjedalen
Värmland	Skåne	Örebro	Södermanland
Västmanland	Uppland	Västergötland	Västerbotten
Ångermanland		Stockholm Röd	Östergötland

TV-pucken winners

Boys

Winners since 1986.^{[citation needed]}

Year	Winner	Runner-up
1986	Stockholm A
1987	Skåne
1988	Ångermanland
1989	Skåne
1990	Småland
1991	Småland
1992	Dalarna
1993	Ångermanland
1994	Ångermanland
1995	Dalarna
1996	Dalarna
1997	Stockholm A
1998	Stockholm A
1999	Stockholm A	Göteborg
2000	Värmland	Stockholm A
2001	Göteborg
2002	Södermanland	Norrbotten
2003	Stockholm A	Gästrikland
2004	Stockholm A	Västmanland
2005	Värmland	Skåne
2006	Göteborg	Skåne
2007	Småland	Stockholm
2008	Småland	Västerbotten
2009	Stockholm	Skåne
2010	Stockholm	Småland
2011	Västerbotten	Dalarna
2012	Stockholm North	Gästrikland
2013	Västerbotten	Västergötland
2014	Värmland	Göteborg
2015	Ångermanland	Stockholm North
2016	Stockholm North	Stockholm South
2017	Skåne	Ångermanland
2018	Göteborg	Södermanland
2019	Stockholm North	Östergötland
2020	Stockholm North	Västerbotten
2021	Stockholm North	Stockholm South
2022	Norrbotten	Stockholm South

Girls

Winners since 2019.^{[citation needed]}

Year	Winner	Runner-up
2019	Dalarna	Småland
2020	Småland	Stockholm
2021	Småland	Dalarna
2022	Stockholm	Småland

Statistics

^{[citation needed]}

Team	1st placed	2nd placed
Stockholm A	13	11
Värmland	8	6
Dalarna	6	6
Västerbotten	6	10
Ångermanland	6	?
Norrbotten	3	3
Småland	5	1
Södermanland	3	1
Skåne	2	7
Gästrikland	1	6
Göteborg	2	2
Västmanland	0	1

Popular culture

In Berts bravader, Bert states that a romance between him and his 56 years old counselor wouldn't work because talking old memories from the past would for Iris mean second world war, and Bert would talk about the TV-pucken final game of the previous year.^[9]

References

^ Emil Karlsson (15 December 2005). "Lägg ner TV-pucken" (in Swedish). Dagens Nyheter. Retrieved 15 September 2012.
^ Mats Wennerholm (13 October 2000). "Robert, 15, svensk hockeys nya stjärna" (in Swedish). Sportbladet. Retrieved 31 August 2011.
^ Mats Wennerholm (20 March 2000). "En fest där alla vinner" (in Swedish). Sportbladet. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
^ Hans Andersson (23 March 2012). "Två lag i TV-pucken" (in Swedish). Svenska Ishockeyförbundet. Archived from the original on 4 November 2013. Retrieved 3 November 2013.
^ Alexander Dypbukt (28 August 2013). "Inför TV-pucken 2013" (in Swedish). Webbsporten. Archived from the original on 4 November 2013. Retrieved 3 November 2013.
^ Ellen Hellmark (2 May 2016). "Nytt lag får chansen i TV-pucken" (in Swedish). SVT Sport. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
^ "Samtliga spelplatser i TV-pucken 1959-2013 och TV-cupen 1997" (PDF) (in Swedish). Swedish Ice Hockey Association. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 June 2016. Retrieved 9 September 2011.
^ "Visuellt" (PDF) (in Swedish). Västerbotten Sport Historical Society. November 2004. Retrieved 31 August 2013.
^ Anders Jacobsson, Sören Olsson (1991). "27 mars". Berts bravader (in Swedish). p. 37.