ICE HOCKEY: CHAMPIONS HOCKEY LEAGUE Faces off

Pic from : Champions Hockey league.com

This week marks a new era of European hockey with the start of the inaugural Champions Hockey League tournament and it should be noted that at the time of typing this blog that a few games after already started prior to this being posted.

The new club tournament will see 44 clubs across Europe vying for the title of ‘Kings of Europe’ as this new competition will see 12 different leagues around the continent entering the CHL (Champions Hockey League). Teams hailing from the main hockey nations of Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Switzerland and Sweden, will see those main forces in the competition be favourites.

There is also Six Wildcards places too in the tournament, that sees the minor hockey leagues in Europe in Italy, UK, Norway, France, Denmark and Slovakia all given a chance to take part in the CHL.

This new competition isn`t a completely new idea as It saw a very similar thing happen in the mid 90`, where the defunct European Hockey League (EHL) that took place between 1997-2000 and saw the UK bloody a few high profile noses with the then Superleague entry the Manchester Storm being put forward to represent the United Kingdom in the tournament back then.

The first year didn`t work out well for some sides including Manchester with set times, in when they played and saw it affect attendances with games played at 5:30 in the evening, much like the Europa League in football a few year ago.

The following year saw times amended for teams and saw bigger crowds due to it and sadly from a European hockey aspect, the tournament never really caught on fire and so was scrapped by the bosses in Europe after 2000.

The Champions Hockey League, has  seen the IIHF agree rights with 13 countries over television deals in which the games will be shown live or recorded live in some of the countries to be contesting the CHL. Media outlets like LAOLA1.tv (Austria), MTV (Finland), Sport1 (Germany), SVT (Sweden), SlovakSport.TV (Slovakia & Czech Republic), Teleclub (Switzerland) and Premier Sports (GB & Ireland) all having official deals with the hockey governing body to show the action. 

They have also worked with the United States to showcase what they hope will be the best of European hockey with ONE World Sports picking up the contract over the pond for North American viewers.

You will also be wondering, that with all these European sides and the power houses of International Ice hockey like Sweden, Finland and Czech Republic in this event where are the Russian sides?, Sadly the IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation) couldn`t agree on a deal to get the sides from the Russian based Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) included in this new competition.

The KHL bosses showed a lack of interest in joining the brand new venture, with the KHL being regarded in many hockey circles as the second best league in the world, with the North American NHL (National Hockey League) still the top dog in ice hockey standards.

In Finland, one team of note that is excluded from the list of teams not playing in the CHL and also not taking part in the Finnish SM-Liiga from now on is that of Jokerit.  Jokerit the Helsinki based hockey team, have took up an offer to break away from the Finnish league and will now ply their trade from this season onwards, playing in the lucrative KHL much to the disgruntlement of the bosses in their homeland of Finland.

The European Trophy that has been contested over the years, as now gone this new face lift and come out as this new club tournament and heralds a new dawn of European Champions League ice Hockey, that will see 44 teams split up into eleven groups of four, with each team playing the other home and away in their respective groups.

Some countries have teams ranging from eight entrants in the field off 44, to some having just the one. The teams taking part are done in a slightly confusing three tier Licensing system, where sides holding a “A License” are the Founder members of the tournament and

Teams with a ‘B License’ are those that fall into a category of six ways.

-National Champion

-Regular Season Winner

-Runner-up, Regular season

-Play-off finalist

-Best placed semi-final loser

-Worst placed semi-final loser.

  

Those with a C license are basically Wildcards with one entry from the remaining leagues around Europe that are taking part in the competition.

Austria has Red Bull Salzburg, Vienna Capitals and the current league champions from the Austrian Hockey League in the Bolzano-Bozen Foxes from Italy seeing them have three in the competition, while Liberec, Pardubice, Vitkovice Steel and Sparta Prague sees the Czech founder sides while PSG Zlin take up the extra place as they all challenge from the Czech Extraliga.

Finland have eight representatives in the CHL with HIFK,  JYP,  KalPa,  Karpat,  Tappara and TPS Turku being founder members of the new CHL with Lukko Rauma and SaiPa given entry too. 

Sweden`s hockey league the Elitserien has eight spots with Frolunda, Farjestad, HV71, Linkoping, Lulea, Djurgarden and Skelleftea AIK being the founder member`s alongside the Vaxjo Lakers as the extra side included.

Germany have four founder member`s in Adler Mannheim, Eisbaren Berlin, Krefeld Pinguine and the current DEL champions in ERC Ingolstadt, while having the inclusion of the Hamburg Freezers and runners-up for the second straight season in the playoff grand final in Kolner Haie.

Switzerland`s National League A founder teams sees SC Bern, HC Fribourg-Gotteron, ZSC Lions and EV Zug with the Kolten Flyers and HC Geneve-Servette being the Swiss entrants.

Teams with a 'C Licence' are Norway`s Stavanger Oilers and Valerenga Ishockey, with HC Kosice from the Slovakian league taking part. 

Vojens based SonderjyskE Ishockey from Denmark and Diables Rouges de Briancon are the French Ligue Magnus entry.

For the established For the UK, it sees the Runners-up in the Elite League last year the Nottingham Panthers take up the challenge for Great Britain as Nottingham got handed the spot by the league, after the Belfast Giants who won the Elite league crown last season had to step aside, due to the Northern Ireland outfit not able to guarantee ice time at their home venue The Odyssey Arena.

The Lace city side will of course be excited by the forthcoming challenge of this competition, with  Fans, players and the league alike hoping to see the Panthers restore who pride and hopefully put British hockey back on the map through this tournament.

However they are under no illusions of the task they face and know the group they have been drawn in is one of, if not the toughest group in the tournament. Nottingham are ranked dead last in the seeding so no pressure on them from anyone else, but themselves as they`ll want to perform to their best.

The Panthers will face the trio of Finnish side Lukko Rauma of the SM-Liiga in their opening encounter and will face equally sterner opposition, with games against the side that topped the German DEL for a majority of it last term in the Hamburg Freezers and to round off the group, sees Swedish side Lulea Bears Hockey club coming back to face British opposition once again in a European competition.

 The Opening game of the CHL tournament will take place Thursday evening, where the Czech Extraliga side Vitkovice Ostrava will kick off the 2014-15 competition in Group H as they face off against the surprise package in the German DEL playoffs last year in German champions, ERC Ingolstadt.