EHM The Blue Line

Though this concerns only few of the board users, i thought it might be a good idea to put up a thread about it in here anyways. On august 2006, there will be a tournament, consisting of teams from Finlands and Swedens elite leagues. I'm not sure how many teams from each league will participate, but i think pretty much every team will take part in this tournament.

This tournament has been on planning for several years by teams such as Djurgårdens IF, Frölunda HC, Färjestads BK, Helsingin IFK, Oulun Kärpät, Linköpings HC, Tampereen Tappara and Turun Palloseura. This is a big step for both nations in every way, and ofcourse with the rivalry between finland and sweden it sure is going to be interresting to see how this thing turns out. Even though its allmost 9 months away, im already waiting for the tournament!

Only announcement i can find is in finnish, but i'll try to look some other press releases.


*A correction already, teams only listed above will participate in the tournament.

That sounds really interesting Thanks for sharing with us

Cool so it is the ice hockey version of the royal league?

I remember we discussed here on teh forums the possibility in theory of that maybe they were listening. Looks to be a good cup and good way of gaging how the 2 leagues compare with each other.

This is probably a really stupid question...but here goes...

Don't you find the advertisments covering the players really distracting?

Probably not, because its the norm over there, but still...

Wish we actually got TV coverage of the leagues over there, but you know, if its not american, it apparently doesn't exist. At least thats how it feels living over on the other side of the pond.

Do you get much NHL coverage, and if so, is there a noticable distiction between talent levels? Or is it just a diferent style. Like comparing Serie A to EPL?

If you're asking about Finland, then I can answer those...

You only get NHL if you buy the Canal+ channels, if you have that you get about 5-6 NHL games per week, some Finnish Elite League games and some Elitserien games aswell.

On top of that, if you have digibox, you get Finnish Elite League games, if not, you don't get any hockey basically. Which is pretty ridiculous considering that hockey's the #1 sport in Finland, yet both Formula 1 & football (soccer for yanks) are shown in public non-pay channels.

As for the advertisements, I've never cared much about them being there or not, but if those mean lower price on the tickets to see a game or higher player budget then I'm all for it.

From what I've seen, the talent level in FEL is roughly the same as it is in Elitserien, just slightly different game styles are preferred on those. As for the skill lever of those vs. NHL, I'd go even as far as saying that a top team from FEL or Elitserien could easily compete against the weaker NHL teams. Both leagues are definitely of higher standard than AHL is.

Borlag wrote:You only get NHL if you buy the Canal+ channels, if you have that you get about 5-6 NHL games per week, some Finnish Elite League games and some Elitserien games aswell.

I love the Canal+ hockey commercials they were showing on TV just before the season started. That table tennis cracks me up every time I see it

And old thread, but maybe some of you remember this anyway. Now, the tournament itself is getting closer, and tickets are probably on sale in sweden aswel. I'm going to watch atleast one game vs. the swedish teams, djurgorden or linköping playing my home team HIFK. What about you, anyone here going to see those games?

I would, but you know... airfare is a bit pricey these days

Invent teleport and off you go.

Now theres an idea

So I've travelled here (Oulu) from Gothenburg, Sweden and I am going to the Kärpät-Frölunda Nordic Trophy game on Thursday.

Frööööluuuuundaaaaa