The traditional kick-off meeting before Saturday's series start, where teams and hockey journalists usually meet, became in corona times a TV broadcast in C More.
It is just as traditional for the coaches to predict which team will win the Swedish Championship gold - and 13 out of 14 coaches would have done so.
However, Leksand's new coach Björn Hellkvist did not want to give up his prophecy.
Maybe the missing tip would have given a gold favorite.
Dead heat
Now it was instead two because there was a dead race between Luleå and Färjestad.
Five other teams each received a vote.
- It is clear that we want to be at the top and fight.
We have a good team when it comes to names, but you should not stare at it blindly.
It is a job that must be done and it is extremely important to make everyone understand it, says Färjestad's coach Johan Pennerborn.
Färjestad was second in the basic series last year, a full 14 points behind the winner Luleå.
The Karlstad team scored by far the most goals, but only three teams conceded more goals.
Now the team has, among other things, brought back Jesse Virtanen from the KHL, one of SHL's best defenders two years ago.
"Standing second"
Luleå conceded the least goals of all teams last season and has strengthened going forward.
Star forward Linus Klasen is back after six years in Switzerland.
- I'm the constant second or third, so I'm really here for one thing.
To win, he tells C More.
Luleå has only won a Swedish Championship gold on the men's side, 1996, and is longing for a championship title.
Not least when last year's gold situation disappeared due to the corona pandemic when the entire playoffs had to be canceled.