Well the hockey was outstanding! Granted I've only ever been to three NHL games (and they have all been season openers), but I thought the NLA was more-or-less as quick as the NHL. The passing and stickhandling were great - and we saw some cracking goals. Something very noticeable was just how physical the game was. There was a lot of late checking and off-the-puck checking. Players were flying all over the place. The referees let it all go too. It all seemed very lenient - even a lot of tripping was permitted.
The Geneva v Lugano game was my favourite of the three. Not just because of fast, highly entertaining game but also because of the entertainment within the arena itself. They even had an eagle which did a few laps around the arena (reminds me of
this video where a condor got loose at a Bakersfield game). There were a lot of very talented players, but Eliot Antonietti, a 21yr old Swiss defenceman for Geneva was one of the stand-out players for me. Kaspars Daugavins had a good game too (he's averaging nearly a point per game which goes to show there is a still quite a gap between the NLA and NHL). The Lausanne v Zug and Biel v Fribourg games were a bit scrappy, but entertaining nonetheless.
The atmosphere at each of the games was very similar to a soccer/football atmosphere. It reminded me of Italian football because of how partisan the crowd were. Every time the home team would go on the PK, the fans would boo and hiss for the full two minutes! At each arena, there was a standing section behind one net where the hardcore fans are. I don't know if the person is employed by the team, but there is a person stood at the bottom of the standing section with a megaphone who starts all of the chants, etc. And the chanting was a lot more varied and inventive than the usual generic "Go Wings Go", etc style of chanting.
They all are great players and have a lot of potential (okay, maybe not Miettinen if you followed him last season..).
