Founding 100 for 2026/27 — The Brief opens soon, 29 SEK · €2.90 · $3 / month. Join the list · See pricing

SHL timeout sequel: Färjestad hammers the button, Växjö barely touches it

By The Hockey Analytics HQ on Aug 31, 2026

Part 1 asked whether a timeout changes the game. Part 2 asked which coaches keep pressing the button.

Part 3 is the club ledger. Coaches move. Benches keep habits.

Same MotherDuck window. Same 1,303 timeouts in 1,854 SHL regular-season games (2020/21–2024/25).

The short version

  • Färjestad 125 timeouts (47.3% of games). Volume king.
  • HV 71 used it in 50.2% of their games — the highest rate among clubs with a full-ish sample.
  • Växjö 22.9% (60 in 262). Skellefteå 27.4%. Some benches almost never spend the tool.
  • Timrå and Örebro mostly press it while trailing (82% / 75%). Malmö (39%) and HV71 (43%) do not treat it as a last-ditch-only button.

Volume vs habit

Timeouts per club, sorted by count. Rate is timeouts / team-games (each club plays once per game). Promotion/relegation means Djurgården and MoDo have fewer games — read those rows as a smaller sample, not a moral ranking.

ClubGamesTimeoutsShare of gamesTrailingIn 3rd
Färjestad BK26412547.3%52.8%68.8%
HV 7121310750.2%43.0%58.9%
Leksands IF26510640.0%57.5%84.9%
Örebro HK26510439.2%75.0%86.5%
Rögle BK2659937.4%69.7%88.9%
Linköping HC2679736.3%70.1%71.1%
IF Malmö Redhawks2649034.1%38.9%88.9%
Luleå HF2668732.7%67.8%90.8%
Frölunda HC2617829.9%62.8%85.9%
Timrå IK2397431.0%82.4%86.5%
Skellefteå AIK2637227.4%68.1%79.2%
Brynäs IF2196630.1%65.2%86.4%
IK Oskarshamn1816535.9%81.5%81.5%
Växjö Lakers HC2626022.9%63.3%93.3%
Djurgårdens IF1103935.5%74.4%71.8%
MoDo Hockey1043432.7%55.9%79.4%

HV71 vs Växjö is the punchline: one timeout every other night versus one in five. Same league. Same one-timeout rule.

Not every club waits until they are dead

Part 1 said the league uses the timeout as a late, losing Hail Mary. Clubs are not copies of the league mean.

  • Timrå 82.4% trailing, Örebro 75.0%, Oskarshamn 81.5% — the button is a deficit tool.
  • Malmö 38.9% trailing — more often tied or ahead than the Hail Mary story allows.
  • HV71 43.0% trailing and only 58.9% in the third period — they spend it earlier than most.

When Växjö does use it, 93.3% of those timeouts are still in the third. Rare, and late.

What this is not

This is not “Färjestad panics” or “Växjö is calmer.” Close games, coach tenure and roster quality all sit underneath the count. It is the club layer of a three-part study: the tool is scarce, coaches differ, and so do benches.

Source

Identical to parts 1–2: MotherDuck swe SHL regular season 2020/21–2024/25 (game_timeouts × swe.main.games × game_goals). Club names mapped from team_abbr. Artifact shl_timeouts_by_team.json from scripts/analyze_shl_timeouts_by_team.py.

Source: The Hockey Analytics · MotherDuck SHL · Stockholm.

Related Analysis

View Subscriptions