EHM The Blue Line

Well yeah, you're right about that. I'm sorry for the false statement.

Anyway, IFK managed to beat TPS today, and therefore seal the mini series. The game itself was somewhat boring. Though gotta respect IFK's young goalie Jani Nieminen. He has been absolutely stellar in his 5 games this season, the first five games ever in SM-Liiga. IFK won 0-1, and thus Nieminen had a shutout in his first playoff game as a starter. TPS played poorly, but they had few excellent chances and Nieminen cleared them all.

Lukko managed to beat Ilves today, 4-3 in overtime.

This means that in the quarter finals Kärpät will either face Ilves or Lukko, Blues will face HIFK, Jokerit will battle it on against Pelicans and Tappara will play against JYP, Starting wednesday.

Tasku, looking forward for the series. Although IFK played bad in this mini series vs TPS, I believe the quarter finals between IFK and Blues is going to be awesome. The downside is that i'm in the army at the moment, and what it basically means is that I can't see most of the games. I'll probably travel far far away to Espoo from eastern helsinki, since the game in Helsinki on friday is probably too early for me.

Yeah, eme, I agree with you on that. I was actually hoping for TPS to win, because then Blues would've played against Lukko or Ilves, who are not as intimidating opponents.

But like Baxter said after the game, HIFK will need to step it up if they intend to win Blues. Unless ofcourse if Blues' young and inexperienced squad will lose their cool and good game streak at the crucial moment. Blues has alot of key injuries (six players in total), and many of their veterans and key players are in the sick bed. Thank goodness Viitaluoma and Clarke are back though. Haven't heard anything of Oskar Osala... is he back, or is he not, we'll just have to see...

Quick question for you guys...

Would it be safe to assume that the abbreviation "JA" is Finish for "OT"(overtime)?

I've been seeing it all season and assuming it was for overtime, but I never actually tried to figure it out... 'cause I'm lazy.

The top 4 of the 8 teams that proceeded to the playoffs in Elitserien has chosen their opponents for the quarterfinals.

Here they are:

HV71-Skellefteå AIK, Skellefteås first playoffs in 27 years.
Linköping-Djurgården, the pressure at games in Stockholm is goin to be awesome, especially this first week when Djurgården won't going to play in Globe Arena, but in a smaller on right beside it.
Modo-Timrå, great games last year when Modo went all the way to be swedish champions.
Färjestad-Frölunda, to great teams in Elitserien, two teams that is often in the finals.

I will try to go at least one game in Stockholm, all depends on time and how much I have to study. But there's always time for Djurgården.

Yes, Stinson, you're safe to assume that.

The first game in the quarterfinals in Elitserien has been played here's the results:>

Skellefteå-HV71 2-1
Djurgården-Linköping 0-1
Timrå-MODO 3-2
Frölunda-Färjestad 3-1

Time for a update with the two games in quarterfinals that has passed since my last post here.

Second game:

HV71 - Skellefteå 2-1
Linköping - Djurgården 4-1, Djurgården did a very bad match in Linköping.
MODO - Timrå 2-5
Färjestad - Frölunda 4-2

Third game:

Skellefteå - HV71 1-7 (2-1 to HV71 in total)
Djurgården - Linköping 4-2 (2-1 to Linköping in total)
Timrå - MODO 6-3 (3-0 to Timrå in total)
Frölunda - Färjestad 4-0 (2-1 to Frölunda in total)

The game was great, except the first period and the first half of the second. Then the goals came, 1-0, 1-1, 2-1 and 3-1. Linköping scores 3-2 early in the third period and Djurgården scored 4-2 in open net.

Yay! 1-1 baby, yeah!

http://www.sm-liiga.fi/ottelut/raportti/35074.html

BOOOO!!

23 secs and we would have won it. God damnit.

Hah!

Well, however it turns out, the winner of this series will be my favourite for the championship.

I've never seen such an exciting battle between two teams.

RESPECT - for both teams.

Congrats, Blues! Now go win against those Northerners!!

Nah.. Kärpät gonna win "the Son" again.. and next year too.
But anyway congratulations for Blues.. their very first final place.

First game was a win for Kärpät, but Blues came at them heavy in the third period. What I like about the Blues this season is that not once have they given up. They beat Jokerit in the semi-finals after being down 3-1 in wins, and then overturning the series 4-3 in the end.

A lesser team would've given up and settled for the bronze medal game.

And another thing to note is that Blues has so far lost all their first games of the series, yet been able to come out as the winners.

Go Espoo, Go Espoo, Gooooo!

Blues ftw!


Karpat ruined this final series from me. Just cant stand the team. So arrogant.

So Slovan Bratislava won Slovnaft Extraliga (Slovakian League).

Yay.

Uhm, I don't give a big darn that's right...they beat Kosice in 7 games. I was carrying my girlfriend at the bus station and when I was going home I saw a lot of people on square watching plasma and celebrating.

Yay. My city won! Yay!

Looks alot like those evil Kärpät will once again take the title. They won last game against Espoo, in Espoo 4-0, and now have the title in their grasp tomorrow at Oulu, now leading the series 3-1.

Not looking good for the rest of the world, who're hoping for someone to kick their butt for once!

Ah, well... nonetheless, a good season for Espoo. Best one in Espoo Blues history, ever! First medal ever, first time in the finals, ever!

GO ESPOO, YAY!

Jokerit - Pittsburgh exhibition game tickets sold out in 28 minutes...

Ville Leino has signed with Detroit.

It'll be interesting to see how he gets by. He's been a superstar in Finland!

Finnish SM-liiga regular season will start on thursday, this week!

It's going to be an interesting season. Teams are more equally balanced than last season, and all teams have boosted their player budgets. Current numbers are almost double to those in EHM 2007 for many teams. Kärpät and Jokerit are spending nearly 3 000 000 euros, while the weakest teams: Kalpa, SaiPa and Ässät, are well over one million euros per year on their player budgets. The average for SM-liiga team's player budget this season is 2 000 000 euros.

The number of games has been increased from 56 to 58 games per team. Another significant change from last season is in the amount of foreign players allowed to each team, which is now set to only three players per team.


Here's the TOP 50 list of players for all positions for the upcoming season, as projected by Jääkiekkolehti ("Ice Hockey Magazine"):

1. Jarkko Immonen - JYP - Center
2. Sami Kapanen - KalPa - Winger
3. Ben Eaves - Blues - Center
4. Aki Berg - TPS - Defender
5. Jori Lehterä - Tappara - Center
6. Tom Koivisto - Jokerit - Defender
7. Jari Viuhkola - Kärpät - Center
8. Bernd Brückler - Blues - Goalie
9. Tuomas Pihlman - JYP - Winger
10. Petri Vehanen - Lukko - Goalie
11. Jani Rita - Jokerit - Winger
12. Ryan Keller - Blues - Winger
13. Tuomas Tarkki - Kärpät - Goalie
14. Ilkka Heikkinen - HIFK - Defender
15. Steve Kariya - HPK - Winger
16. Matias Loppi - HIFK - Center
17. Mikko Jokela - Jokerit - Defender
18. Marko Anttila - Ilves - Winger
19. Toni Koivisto - Kärpät - Winger
20. Juuso Riksman - Jokerit - Goalie
21. Jarkko A. Immonen - SaiPa - Center
22. Juha-Pekka Haataja - Lukko - Winger
23. Ville Nieminen - Tappara - Winger
24. Joey Tenute - Jokerit - Center
25. Martti Järventie - Kärpät - Defender
26. Kimmo Kuhta - HIFK - Winger
27. Jukka Laamanen - HPK - Defender
28. Hannu Toivonen - Ilves - Goalie
29. Juhamatti Aaltonen - Kärpät - Winger
30. Erkki Rajamäki - Blues - Winger
31. Marko Kauppinen - Jokerit - Defender
32. Kim Hirschovits - HIFK - Center
33. Stefan Öhman - Blues - Center
34. Ilkka Mikkola - Kärpät - Defender
35. Ville Viitaluoma - HPK - Center
36. Antti Laaksonen - Lukko - Winger
37. Janne Lahti - Jokerit - Winger
38. Jonas Enlund - Tappara - Winger
39. Pekka Saarenheimo - Lukko - Center
40. Lennart Petrell - HIFK - Winger
41. Jesse Saarinen - Pelicans - Winger
42. Sinuhe Wallinheimo - JYP - Goalie
43. Kalle Sahlstedt - KalPa - Center
44. Janne Ojanen - Tappara - Center
45. Mikko Mäenpää - HPK - Defender
46. Shayne Toporowski - SaiPa - Winger
47. Marko Jantunen - Pelicans - Winger
48. Kristian Kuusela - Kärpät - Winger
49. Marko Kivenmäki - Ässät - Winger
50. Dale Clarke - Blues - Defender

TOP 50 players by team:
Jokerit, Kärpät: 7
Blues: 6
HIFK: 5
HPK, Lukko, Tappara: 4
JYP: 3
Pelicans, Ilves, KalPa, SaiPa: 2
TPS, Ässät: 1

Jääkiekkolehti projection for regular season final standings:

Standing at 1-3: Blues, Jokerit, JYP
Standing at 4-6: HIFK, Kärpät, Pelicans
Standing at 7-10: HPK, Ilves, Lukko, Tappara
Standing at 11-14: Kalpa, SaiPa, TPS, Ässät


CAN'T WAIT!!!

Wow, Aki Berg is still around...?

Ben Eaves? Wow this league must suck!

Berg is the messiah of Turku.

I laugh at that list.

batdad wrote:Ben Eaves? Wow this league must suck!

Anything Batdad says, ever, should just be ignored.

There. Ignoring him as we speak.

Nitiplunkisieve

Heh Batdad

So, the top Finnish league is really on the up at the moment? Is there any reason for that?