EHM The Blue Line

Interesting article on KHL here from Gregg Drinnan, a well known WHL writer for decades.. Gregg's focus has always been the WHL, but he has so many contacts outside the WHL from people who have played, coached, been agents and all kinds of other off ice people. He relies alot on Mirtle in this article, but it is a very interesting read.

batdad wrote:Interesting article on KHL here from Gregg Drinnan, a well known WHL writer for decades.. Gregg's focus has always been the WHL, but he has so many contacts outside the WHL from people who have played, coached, been agents and all kinds of other off ice people. He relies alot on Mirtle in this article, but it is a very interesting read.

HC Slovan Bratislava's coach Petri Matikainen told the Finnish media last week that he hasn't even gotten his first salary yet (been almost 4 months now).

batdad wrote:Interesting article on KHL here from Gregg Drinnan, a well known WHL writer for decades.. Gregg's focus has always been the WHL, but he has so many contacts outside the WHL from people who have played, coached, been agents and all kinds of other off ice people. He relies alot on Mirtle in this article, but it is a very interesting read.

Bah, too many people are anxious for the KHL to fold but it won't happen, and even if it happens, it's not that they will stop playing hockey in Russia...

Heh. Never said a comment one way or another on my part. It won't fold for sure, but it does appear to have some realistic financial issues that need to be addressed.

batdad wrote:Heh. Never said a comment one way or another on my part. It won't fold for sure, but it does appear to have some realistic financial issues that need to be addressed.

The western press is just trolling as usual. The KHL will be fine and will go through this moment even stronger, because most likely some weak franchises will be cut

Alessandro wrote:

batdad wrote:Heh. Never said a comment one way or another on my part. It won't fold for sure, but it does appear to have some realistic financial issues that need to be addressed.

The western press is just trolling as usual. The KHL will be fine and will go through this moment even stronger, because most likely some weak franchises will be cut

Where do you see the trolls? I haven't seen anyone saying the league is gonna fold or anything like that.
Drinnan quotes Mirtle who quotes YLE who has talked to the players, so there is truth to them not getting paid.
The russian ruble is not strong right now and that causes trouble for the teams

You don't have to get all polarised yourself evertime someone critizes Russia or the KHL

I never heard anything about that here either.

Manimal wrote:

Alessandro wrote:

batdad wrote:Heh. Never said a comment one way or another on my part. It won't fold for sure, but it does appear to have some realistic financial issues that need to be addressed.

The western press is just trolling as usual. The KHL will be fine and will go through this moment even stronger, because most likely some weak franchises will be cut

Where do you see the trolls? I haven't seen anyone saying the league is gonna fold or anything like that.
Drinnan quotes Mirtle who quotes YLE who has talked to the players, so there is truth to them not getting paid.
The russian ruble is not strong right now and that causes trouble for the teams

You don't have to get all polarised yourself evertime someone critizes Russia or the KHL

Ok I pushed the gas a bit.
YLE is who? The ones who said that Martikainen isn't getting paid? But he's coach of Slovan BRATISLAVA and they are paid in Euro, so, no rubles, nor Russia here. Just read the comments here and there, you'll find a lot of people who thinks/wants the KHL to fold, it won't happen even if this isn't the best period for Russia.

Yes. Exactly. There is one guy coaching a team who has been quoted as saying he has not been paid since start of season. There are quotes out there from Russian KHL reps that the salary cap is going to drop next year and that the junior league may be dropped completely, or severely distorted.

In no way was what Gregg Drinnan or Mirtle wrote a political commentary or a slag on Russia, which is what you feel anytime someone not from Russia posts something critical of Russian hockey. I actually hope the KHL goes well, because i am smart enough to know that any STRONG hockey league, ANYWHERE in the world is only good for the game as a whole.

I could care less about any political hatred of russia from the West for whatever reason, and none of the people writing about this are saying bad things.

PLus...lots of Euro reporters have stuff out there about the KHL that say this is happening. It is just a fact that it is, not a political commentary. Some state why it may be happening.

It is not like the NHL or any western hockey league does not have financial issues somewhere. They do. For some of the same reasons KHL clubs have some issues.

Just reporting the facts is not slagging. Reporting quotes from players and coaches that say they are not getting paid...not sure how that is slagging or trolling anything to do with the KHL.

Please stop taking posts and articles about the KHL so personally. You are a smart guy alessandro, and this just makes you look silly.

Alessandro wrote:YLE is who?

YLE is Finland's biggest and oldest TV/News channel (radio before TV existed).

Read more on wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yle

batdad wrote:Yes. Exactly. There is one guy coaching a team who has been quoted as saying he has not been paid since start of season. There are quotes out there from Russian KHL reps that the salary cap is going to drop next year and that the junior league may be dropped completely, or severely distorted.

In no way was what Gregg Drinnan or Mirtle wrote a political commentary or a slag on Russia, which is what you feel anytime someone not from Russia posts something critical of Russian hockey. I actually hope the KHL goes well, because i am smart enough to know that any STRONG hockey league, ANYWHERE in the world is only good for the game as a whole.

I could care less about any political hatred of russia from the West for whatever reason, and none of the people writing about this are saying bad things.

PLus...lots of Euro reporters have stuff out there about the KHL that say this is happening. It is just a fact that it is, not a political commentary. Some state why it may be happening.

It is not like the NHL or any western hockey league does not have financial issues somewhere. They do. For some of the same reasons KHL clubs have some issues.

Just reporting the facts is not slagging. Reporting quotes from players and coaches that say they are not getting paid...not sure how that is slagging or trolling anything to do with the KHL.

Please stop taking posts and articles about the KHL so personally. You are a smart guy alessandro, and this just makes you look silly.

Ok, while you have some good points in this post (and as you seen yourself I pushed the brake ), have a look here and tell me if this article is balanced: http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/12/22 ... -collapse/

Without even looking i know it won't be. The National Post is a horrible paper. People here hate it because it reeks of one sided in writing in every aspect of what is considered news. The only paper that is a western national tag that is worse would be the one they put in front of hotel doors in the USA.

I will read it but know it won't be strong. Don't let that rag Color your opinion of all western media. Many are capable (more so in Canada I believe ) of presenting some form of balance.

7-1 win and Jokerit are through the first round in KHL playoffs!

Man what a game between Ilves and HIFK in the Liiga playoffs. They played for over six full 20 min periods as the game ended record-breakingly late at 134 minutes. This is what I call spring.

Yay! Today the Djurgårdens IF, my favourite team, won the Swedish Junior title!
All-in-all a good year for the organization. The men's team managed to stay in the SHL despite having a very low budget, the women's team got promoted to the highest league after going undefeated, the under-16 team won gold and the under-18 team made the quarter-finals.

Let's hope next season is another good one!

HDD Sij Acroni Jesenice are the new Slovenian champions More than 3200 spectators came for the fourth game in final series and Jesenice beat Olimpija Ljubljana 2:1 to clinch the championship 3-1 in best-of-five series. This is the first title for HDD Jesenice (who played in Austrian second tier INL), which was founded in August 2014, after HK Jesenice declared bancruptcy in 2012 after being around for 64 years.

It's a proud moment for any Jesenice fan, since it was unclear before last august, if hockey would even survive here...

if someone is interested red bull salzburg won the EBEL with a 4 0 sweep versus vienna capitals

HC Davos breaks theirs trophy after winning NLA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... 6-C4iFg1ZI

Today the DEL Season 2014 /2015 is history.

New DEL Champion is Adler Mannheim. Very earned this season.

In Sweden, we today had a team win the championship for the first time ever. The Växjö Lakers!

Manimal wrote:In Sweden, we today had a team win the championship for the first time ever. The Växjö Lakers!

Wow! They won!? Awesome. Must be a great party they're having today! Nice to see such a new team in the league win the title. And of course grats to my 5 Finns who plays there too.

I heard a days ago someone criticizing Janne Pesonen (Skellefteå) for not delivering in playoff. And now Finland probably want's him to World Championships.

I'm in my glory as an editor right now HaHa with time off in the summer, I get to do a lot of editing!
I have a few available screens in my editing room, and in addition to lots of music (recently, early 70s Genesis!), I also like to watch sports and documentaries/history "in the background" as I edit (a lot of youtube); I run the sound through the old garage band's mixing board & amplified speakers, it's great!

Sometimes with the sporting (hockey) events, I'll have non-English commentary on because that's what's available (such as to watch IIHF events from the 1960s/1970s/1980s)...I have no idea what's being said, but I can always rewind/watch key missed moments (like goals) because volume/excitement is universal!

I've also watched many more recent/current IIHF games on youtube, and the Daily KHL Updates..and last night I discovered some recent Swedish/Swiss/Finnish Elite League games on youtube! https://www.youtube.com/user/MrSeesar/videos

I'm subscribed to that YouTube channel too! I enjoy watching the occasional NLA game - the quality of the hockey is extremely high.

As mentioned above, I like to use youtube to have hockey games on "in the background" as I edit

I'm looking for complete games from the KHL, and I've found and I'm enjoying these from the 2011-12 season https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 51E742534E

Does anyone know of any other complete KHL games (from more recent seasons) on youtube? I'm not looking for highlights, just complete games

Sad period for hockey in my hometown. The Phénix de Reims won't participate in french division 1 (the second tier, below the Ligue Magnus) next season, as the club was put in bankruptcy this week. It already happened back in 2002 when Reims was sacred Ligue Magnus Champion, and was relegated in division 3 due to financial reasons the very same season. This time, the club simply no longer exists, despite having a strong fanbase.

This was a long saga as the club wasn't able to play in Reims this year, as the ice rink was destroyed to be renewed. They constructed a temporary ice rink for next season, located at 500 meters from where I live. This ice rink will finally not be used, what a shame.

Since the soccer club came back in 1st league, the subventions from the city were drastically put low for the other sports. Now our hockey club died a second time since 2002. It's quite concerning about the development of hockey in the country, as many clubs are going to know the same fate due to financial reasons.