Last weekend Lina Ljungblom was in Finland and played the Euro Hockey Tour with the Damkronorna.
The Monday after returning to Stockholm, she shows up for an interview at ten in the morning. Her third of the day.
She has with her the reason for the media tug-of-war. Walter Cup, the trophy awarded to the winners of the North American Women's Hockey League.
This spring, she became the first Swede to win the league played over three seasons. She did so with the Montreal Victoire, who selected her in the 15th round of the league's first ever draft.
- It is fun to be the first Swede to win, but of course I hope that I am the first of many Swedes who get to experience this, says the 24-year-old center.
The Walter cup began its first stay in Sweden with a stop in Stockholm. Billingehov then waited in Skövde.
- That's where it all started. It has been everywhere in Montreal during the celebration, but to be able to take it home is special, says Lina Ljungblom.
Being able to show the trophy to his sister and her children, grandmother and grandmother is on the schedule, as well as being able to eat Swedish sweets from it.
It will be the finale of the celebration that started in May.
- I was on top for eight days after the win. It was a long night, but I still woke up with a smile on my face and flew out of bed every day. I don't know what I lived in those days, says Ljungblom.
After four seasons in the SDHL, first in HV71 and then in Modo, Lina Ljungblom was drafted by Montreal Victoire in 2023. The following year, the national team star moved to Canada.
There awaited a professional life she had not previously experienced.
- During the first game, when we went out on the ice and they introduced us to the crowd, I felt a little "shit, welcome to professional life."
It took two seasons in the league before Ljungblom went all the way. After knocking off two-time winners Minnesota Frost in the semifinals, Montreal faced the Ottawa Charge in the final.
Before the fourth game, Montreal had a grip on the final series, and the chance to decide away in Ottawa. The last goal of the game, for the season and the final series was scored by Montreal's number 25, Lina Ljungblom.
- I had a bit of a blackout when I scored the goal, but the feeling was indescribable. The goal was a bit of a nail in the coffin.
Before the first PWHL season began in 2024, the best female hockey players were scattered across different leagues. The SDHL has long been a leader in Europe, and in North America there have been various leagues that have carried the baton. The NWHL (later known as the PHF) was launched in 2015 with a promise to pay its players. A promise that would prove difficult to keep.
After one season, salaries in the NWHL were reduced and many players turned to the Canadian league CWHL, which was long considered an amateur league but which at the same time had several of the biggest stars in women's hockey. The CWHL collapsed in 2019, and instead of migrating to the NWHL, several players chose to boycott North America's professional leagues. Then the PWHPA, an association for professional female hockey players, was founded.
During the boycott, the association staged exhibition matches, until partners Mark Walter and Billie Jean King bought out the PHF and founded the PWHL.
- We have put women's hockey on the map, and especially over there (North America). After all, the PWHL is very big there and there are many people who go to the matches and it is a big income. It's a good start for women's hockey in the world, says Ljungblom and continues:
- We are treated professionally just like the guys do.
She scored the golden goal in front of 12,362 spectators at Ottawa's home ground. Montreal had an average home crowd of 9,950. The figure for the entire league was 9,304 last year.
It is important for women's hockey, says Ljungblom, but the commitment should not only exist in one league. She remembers her time in SDHL.
- They (SDHL players) train at least as hard as others do. The girls here at home have spent as much time on the sport as those in Canada and the USA.
Ljungblom believes that the SDHL players deserve the attention at least as much as she and the PWHL colleagues do.
- They spend the same amount of time on hockey, and are paid much less. On the side, they have to have full-time jobs and throughout their lives they have had to adapt and change what they do in order for hockey to work.
During last year's season, there were four Swedish players in the world's leading women's hockey league. Next season there may be more, says Ljungblom, who believes the number will rise to six.
Next season, the league will be expanded by four teams (from eight to twelve). Ljungblom wants to see more players from Sweden in the absolute top. Preferably in Montreal if the newcomers plan to bring the Walter cup on another visit to Sweden, because Ljungblom has had a bloody tooth.
- Now you have tested it, so now you want to experience it more times. You are not satisfied, you always want more.
The first chance to quench the desire for medals and trophies comes in November, during the hockey World Cup in Denmark. The 24-year-old believes that a gold medal in the national team jersey is the only thing that can beat the PWHL win.
