EHM The Blue Line

batdad wrote:Going with the invisible Calv or the invisible lady?

Have fun ...hope you are able to keep up with the pace of the game with all that rubbish sludge hockey you watch at home. LOL Sit up in the higher seats so you do not lose track as easily.

Lol you're probably right!

Going with invisible Calv. We usually try and do a hockey road trip most years but it has been a while since the last one (IIRC it was Stockholm for the two Rags NHL Europe games). No chance of getting the invisible lady to go. I managed to take her to an EPIHL game earlier this season - though she was more interested in the break in play music than the game itself!

Hence why you never take a woman to a hockey game! And MWE that was for you as advice. And if you ever meet a woman who claims to be a hockey fan and is spewing off facts and figures...run run as far as you can run. (This is not sexist, just more likely she is trying to get to "know" a few players.) I speak from experience. Ever heard the term rink rat?

And Calv lives! Who knew.

I used to take my ex mrs to the hockey she used to love it especially the fighting

Sad. Sad. Note the word ex.

batdad wrote:Sad. Sad. Note the word ex.

I'm not sad that shes my ex

Make sure to follow Finns like Eero Kilpeläinen (Zug, fast goalie even though can't play under pressure), Juha-Pekka Hytönen (Lausanne, defensive forward), Ilkka Heikkinen (Lugano, defender, heavy slapshot), Lennart Petrell (Genève-Servette, forward, hard hitter) and Antti Miettinen (Gottéron, forward, goal scorer if he isn't injured anymore). They all are great players and have a lot of potential (okay, maybe not Miettinen if you followed him last season..).

ForNever wrote:Make sure to follow Finns like Eero Kilpeläinen (Zug, fast goalie even though can't play under pressure), Juha-Pekka Hytönen (Lausanne, defensive forward), Ilkka Heikkinen (Lugano, defender, heavy slapshot), Lennart Petrell (Genève-Servette, forward, hard hitter) and Antti Miettinen (Gottéron, forward, goal scorer if he isn't injured anymore). They all are great players and have a lot of potential (okay, maybe not Miettinen if you followed him last season..).

Will do! Thank you for the tips!

Fredrik Pettersson is a winger for Lugano that has been scoring at a point-per-game ratio since he got there in November. Not many players in the league does that

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.

Sounds like a great trip archi! We all know that Euro fans are always the best fans

I really wish the Swiss NLA wasn't so secretive. Hard to find highlights that aren't geo-blocked and there seems to be zero way to watch the league. They should just set up a NLA Gamecentre type program ! or let Loala1.tv show the games.

archibalduk wrote: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.

Even though the atmosphere isn't as emphatic the standing section thing is a standard at least in Finland. There's less booing but the home team fans are almost always behind the opponent's 1st and 3rd period net. The guy using the megaphone isn't hired (here at least) but he is usually the leader of the fan group which is usually an organization in itself. Those organizations also arrange some visitor game trips which usually contain 30 to 1000 fans. The chants do vary a lot but then again the whole crowd doesn't join the chants as often.

Here's an example pic of Saimaan Pallo Lappeenranta's aka SaiPa's home crowd: https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/ ... 7880_o.jpg (note the guy standing close to the metal bar who's leading the chants) Others: Espoo Blues, Helsingin IFK, Tampereen Ilves, Helsingin Jokerit and Vaasan Sport from Fin-2 when they were playing for a league promotion. Note that the last picture is from a visitor game which they brought 3000 fans of their own to.

Also the fan groups are quick to react at things they don't like. What happened when the league tried to ban tifos because of possible fire accidents and two different teams' fan groups chanting with eachother about the league's idiotic referee judgements (they're chanting ''The killer of ice hockey: SM-liiga!'').

Garethw87 wrote:Sounds like a great trip archi! We all know that Euro fans are always the best fans

I really wish the Swiss NLA wasn't so secretive. Hard to find highlights that aren't geo-blocked and there seems to be zero way to watch the league. They should just set up a NLA Gamecentre type program ! or let Loala1.tv show the games.

Yeah, it seems getting game highlights is difficult. However, it seems BlueWin provide goal highlights. My brother sent me an email with these links to the games we saw over the weekend:

Geneva - http://www.bluewin.ch/de/video.id-3101812597001.html
Lausanne - http://www.bluewin.ch/de/video.id-3105381495001.html
Biel/Bienne - http://www.bluewin.ch/de/video.id-3109049486001.html

ForNever wrote:Even though the atmosphere isn't as emphatic the standing section thing is a standard at least in Finland. There's less booing but the home team fans are almost always behind the opponent's 1st and 3rd period net. The guy using the megaphone isn't hired (here at least) but he is usually the leader of the fan group which is usually an organization in itself. Those organizations also arrange some visitor game trips which usually contain 30 to 1000 fans. The chants do vary a lot but then again the whole crowd doesn't join the chants as often.

Here's an example pic of Saimaan Pallo Lappeenranta's aka SaiPa's home crowd: https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/ ... 7880_o.jpg (note the guy standing close to the metal bar who's leading the chants) Others: Espoo Blues, Helsingin IFK, Tampereen Ilves, Helsingin Jokerit and Vaasan Sport from Fin-2 when they were playing for a league promotion. Note that the last picture is from a visitor game which they brought 3000 fans of their own to.

Also the fan groups are quick to react at things they don't like. What happened when the league tried to ban tifos because of possible fire accidents and two different teams' fan groups chanting with eachother about the league's idiotic referee judgements (they're chanting ''The killer of ice hockey: SM-liiga!'').

That looks exactly what it was like in Switzerland. My brother took some photos on his phone. Hopefully I'll have a copy in about 2 weeks' time. I'll post them here when I do.

It's true that, even though NHL gets easily the biggest numbers in the stands, the fans seem to miss -- not passion, but commitment. And maybe some kind of organization. There doesn't seem to be any fan groups and the chanting is always the same "Let's go <insert team name>!"

Not sure why that is. It's not like they wouldn't stand behind their team. They do. Just the fan culture is different.

Well, at least that's how it seems to go for someone like me, who watches games of SM-liiga and NHL on the telly.

NHL ---many rinks have ALOT of space that are corporate seats. Companies buy the seats and use as promotion or use for employees etc. So....those seats are occupied by people who are scared to lose access to the seats by acting the way a drunken Tasku (I mean fan) would. So you get alot of boring spots which can wreck the atmosphere.

Also Canadians and Americans have a sense of humility that pretty much only shows (For Americans anyway) when it comes to singing. We do not like to do that in public because most of us figure we suck at it, and most are right.

Finally....there is a knowledge of the game thing going on too. You notice that sometimes the quietest buildings in the NHL are the ones where there is ALOT of hockey knowledge among the fans. Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, Detroit, Boston, Buffalo, Minnesota...all considered quiet buildings even by NHL standards. Montreal is an exception. Calgary and Edmonton are actually relatively quiet as well.

But that last part is a relaitively minor part of why quiet here. the Corporate atmosphere is the main reason.

Those darn corporate scum!

Well that's in, at least, Finland too, but I guess it's on another level in the NHL. The best seats are always sold to companies and season ticket holders take the rest.

I saw my brother this weekend and he gave me a copy of his photos. Here's a small selection:

GENEVA


LAUSANNE


BIEL/BIENNE

Calv takes some great pix.

Wow, SaiPa just guaranteed its place in the top 5 for regular season with the smallest budget of the league, I still can't believe this.

All those years losing over one third of the match ups by one goal and those two seasons with one point away from the playoffs... This is so much better.

Still, we haven't won anything yet.

ForNever wrote:Wow, SaiPa just guaranteed its place in the top 5 for regular season with the smallest budget of the league, I still can't believe this.

All those years losing over one third of the match ups by one goal and those two seasons with one point away from the playoffs... This is so much better.

Still, we haven't won anything yet.

Why Top5, when they finished 4th? Anyway congrats to you and SaiPa!

jhcjobpb wrote:

ForNever wrote:Wow, SaiPa just guaranteed its place in the top 5 for regular season with the smallest budget of the league, I still can't believe this.

All those years losing over one third of the match ups by one goal and those two seasons with one point away from the playoffs... This is so much better.

Still, we haven't won anything yet.

Why Top5, when they finished 4th? Anyway congrats to you and SaiPa!

The regular season isn't finished yet you know... One round left.

ForNever wrote:The regular season isn't finished yet you know... One round left.

Hahaaaha! I thought it was. But now I get it. It was Peltonen's last "home" game (regular season). That's why I thought it was the last round...

I don't follow SM-Liiga anymore.. Just once in a week I look at the games. I'm a HPK "fan". Looking at it now, it's pretty interesting for them. They might make it.

SaiPa will be 4th, they've got against TPS.

They could've been 3rd you know, you must've been drunk again.

But anyways, we got our personal regular season points, the highest finishing position and the biggest average home match crowd attendance from a regular season records. And this was still with the lowest budget of the league. We beat TPS 6-0 which was kinda sad too in a way because one of my favourite players Fredrik Norrena was guarding the other net for probably the last time. Nobody gives two poops about him but everyone's talking about Ville Peltonen, Marko Tuulola and Sami Kapanen.

Still some records to pick up with the upcoming games...

The Finnish playoffs are on!

Go Blues

I still haven't gotten used to that 1üga -logo.
But.. Go Kärpät!!