Is it time yet?

Around this time of year in many of the leagues serious contenders for playoffs are profiled. First third is already down, most teams know their ups and downs and first changes are being made. Weakest links and all that business.

EC KAC is a team with tradition, history and passionate fans. They do lean towards the right a bit too much, but as long as there is beer and food there is no problem in Klagenfurt. However... the title keeps eluding their grasps for a few years now despite big names and players coming to play in Corinthian club. Four seasons without the title makes KAC a place with lot of pressure both on players and management. Last year's "shock" therapy with removing Manny Viveiros from the head coach bench has proven to be a "minor improvement" and then managed to get to the finals for the second year in a row just to get demolished by EHC Black Wings Linz. Now they tried to shock the team back on track again.

Andy Chiodo (EC KAC) doing a crazy dance in front of Adam Miller (Medveščak)

On Sunday KAC lost to Vienna with 1:0, and then a change happened. Weber took some time off to be with his wife, and Manny Viveiros managed to hustle his way back on the bench. 11 injured players and a new import Andrew Cogliano. Cogliano is friend of an NHL Lockout player on a stint in Klagenfurt, Sam Gagner. While KAC is steering towards utter fail, signing of Gagner and Cogliano isn't helping. Two "good" players have between them a total of zero pro seasons when they played in playoffs. Is time for them to try the taste of it finally? Only time and Bettman will tell.

Sam Gagner chewing his moutpiece while Bears own his a$$ (photo: Igor Šoban)

Sam Gagner fires a shot from a blue line. 

Sam Gagner appeared (sorry for the pun) in 11 games so far for EC KAC and got 14 points on his sheet. Not bad though, but he's also +- 1. KAC is still looking for a home win in November, and Head coach change wont help with it. On the road they're terrible, five losses in a row.

Sammy said he's all alone there and he needs a friend from americas. So the management went to ask Cogliano whether he's bored over there. Lucky for them he came over and in one game added a single assists so far. Oh boy. So good.

Another Bull in Salzburg - Johnny Boychuk

Red Bull Salzburg on the other hand is slightly worse than Klagenfurt. With 20 points in 23 games RBS is firmly holding 10th place. Bernd Bruckler is injured, terrible Alex Auld holds one win for the team, while Gračnar, a terrific young goalie is out for next one to two weeks. Clarkson and Enstrom left the team few weeks ago, while the Bulls added Johnny Boychuck to the roster.

PAN Arena Ice Fever (photo: Igor Šoban)

After suffering a defeat in front of 15.200 fans in Arena Zagreb, with brave youngster Gračnar between the pipes, Bulls had no choice but to have Auld in goal on Tuesday. NHL veteran goalie had a stunning 83% SVS% and they managed to lose against their arch nemesis Szekesfehervar devils with 4:5.

Also check out this gnarly interview that an NHL player gave. He did lose but still, that's one poor loser. You can hear everything under the dub that Croatian commentator did live. Good job Tyler Myers, you're a complete twat.

Are NHL players really worth it regardless of teams they play in? Vanek certainly wasn't. Ever since he left Graz 99ers are on the roll, last five games they won clearly. VSV is slowly dropping and now they're third with 4 points behind leaders, while Andreas Nodl is not to be mentioned ever again. Clearly one of the best additions to the league currently is Jan Muršak in Olimpija who in 18 games has sky high 33 points (12 goals).

Medveščak just finished their first series of Arena games with two wins and one loss in 5 days. Rougly 40 000 fans saw Medveščak playing against Olimpija, Salzburg and Klagenfurt and quite few NHL players: Sam Gagner, Tyler Myers, Alex Auld, Dustin Jeffrey and Jan Muršak. A game on Sunday, 18th of November, had a special meaning to all Croatians, as it was the day when 21 years ago Vukovar fell. In honor of that heroic city there was a minute of silence for all victims of the war horrors. And it was quite the picture.

18.11.2012. PAN Arena Ice Fever KHL Medveščak Zagreb - EC KAC 4:1 (photo: Mirko Janković)

Three home games in a row meant that its time for Bears to hit the road. First stop was again a game against Klagenfurt, just this time Red-White had Cogliano to back up their battered roster. It wasn't enough once again regardless of 3 point game by Sammy Gagner.

Dustin Jeffrey (Pittsburgh Penguins) scores a decisive penalty shot for the victory.

Yeah, no chance for Andy Chiodo there...

Last week I also met some guys, so shutout to Barbara Kavčič, Matej Grošelj from Ljubljana and Hannes Biederman from Vienna. You all owe me beers now. Officially. Only Rok Županc gets a free pass but he's EBYSL Team Manager now. Lucky guy!

Hopefully next update will be soon, so spread the love, we're back!

P.S. Simmonds and Stewart broke up and Stewart ran back to East Germany to cry manly tears. Simmonds decided not to return to Germany, had a family issue and returned to Toronto area. Hopefully guys will get back together in NA or somewhere else if Lockout lasts. I would hate to miss all this love and energy.

P.P.S. A friend of mine, Ned Lukacevic also left Crimmitschau but went to Slovakia and Banska Bystrica. So far in 4 games Neddie has 2 goals and 4 assist. Not bad buddy, by Xmas I want atleast 2ppg or we're not going to Adriatic this summer.

Ned Lukacevic and Dennis Bozic with a friend

Five by five

Five by five!

Two game days have passed since last post in EBEL league, numerous games were played in other leagues. 

Nope, never again going to look at Detroit the same

None were played in "best pro league". NHL even cancelled their schedule for November. 

Even Obama commented on the lockout, he wasn't too happy about it and made a point in telling both to NHL and NHLPA that they're here because of the fans. And that they should find a way to work it out as soon as possible. American guy telling NHL how to make it work. 

Atleast they didn't have him play a hockey game and score a GWG just like Putin did some time ago.

Someone told NHL players there here to play hockey...

so they came this weekend to EBEL and did some work (chart below is blatantly stolen from a poster on a Medvescak fan and supporters group on FB). 

Olimpija Ljubljana: Jan Mursak - 10/21 (2,10)

Medvescak Zagreb: Dustin Jeffrey - 6/9 (1,50)

Orli Znojmo: Bryan Bickell - 6/9 (1,50)

HC Innsbruck: Andreas NÖDL - 8/11 (1,37)

Graz 99ers: Thomas Vanek - 8/10 (1,25)

Villacher SV: Michael Grabner - 7/8 (1,14)

Klagenfurter AC: Sam Gagner - 4/4 (1,00)

Vienna Capitals: Corey Potter - 7/2 (0,28)

EC Salzburg: Tobias Enström - 2/1 (0,50)

Klagenfurter AC: Tyler Myers 4/1 (0,25)

Obviously some players upped their performance, some just started to play but thats quite a nice number of NHLers playing in the league so far. Andy Noodles managed to score a couple of goals this weekend. I'm assuming he got acclimatized to nice Alpine air.

Andreas Nödl's happy face

Or he just forgot what they mage him to in Carolina and started playing some hockey. He even managed to help his team win a second game of the season. Yay Noodles! Good job buddy!

Auld got outmatched by a rookie 18 year old goalie Luka Gračnar 

Salzburg sacked another player. After letting go of Nick Ross they decided to part ways with Ryan Kinasewich, an East coaster with brief AHL stints. Apparently they've parted friendly, but there are always rumorus. Anyways, Salzburg recently brought up three new guys. After signing a NHL goalie this summer, Alex Auld of Senators who had 3,73 GAA and only .885 SVS% they decided to bring another Austrian powerhouse back home. 

Bernd Brückler returns home from KHL team Sibir to a star team EC Red Bull Salzburg. 

Berndy's angry face inside a mask. He wears #26 these days

After Bernd came back home (he's still hated not liked by OEHV, Austrian federation, though why it remains a mistery) RBS decided to hire more NHL lockout players. First it came on Tobias Enström to sign and manage the defense of the team. Just two days later they brought a Devil to the game, David Clarkson came to play and is supposedly here to stay regardless of lockout issues ending or not. Still wasn't enough to win games. 

Sammy Gagner upped his game with two goals against Salzburg and is coming into shape. Wonder if he'll be fit for playoffs or he'll watch them again on TV?

Medveščak is on fire so far. 

Six games, six victories in a row and two home back to back games coming up should be enough to tie in a franchise record and possibly set a new one. Current record is 7 games in a row and Raymond's team set it up last year starting with a win in Graz. New one can be set up by a win in Graz again, in a last game before IIHF break, on 4th of November. Vanek, boys are ready for payback.

Out of these few victories in a row, last 4 were won with 5 goals scored each game. 5:0 against Innsbruck (on road), 5:2 against Sapa Fehervar AV19, 5:1 against Linz (on road, reigning champions) and last night 5:1 against EC VSV from Villach who were current leaders. 

The Bears haven't lost a home game since outdoor games in Pula were played, almost two months ago. 

Arena Ice Fever Pula MMXII from medvescakzagreb on Vimeo.

Team is on fire now, each game a different line stands up and goes "crazy". Yesterday it was time for a 4th line start the show with a SH1 goal that was set up by Kostović, a player with over 400 NLA games. A few minutes later hi tallied his second goal of the season which proved to be a GWG goal as well. Dustin Jeffrey (Pittsburgh Penguins) a player Carslberg Croatia, and their brand PAN, helped bring over is slowly getting more and more points, so far he's on 1.6ppg and 9 points out of 6 games played.

Dario Kostović scoring a GWG goal against EC VSV (Photo: Igor Šoban)

Whats next, we'll see tomorrow, the team is hot now, but coming 4th of November up to three players will need to be let go. Too many points and rosters are getting fixed. Who will stay, who will go is a big question that everyone is asking. Only time will tell...

Anyone wondered where Stewart and Simmonds are?

Stewart and Simmonds in an "on ice bromance" in Czech Republic

Well we found them! After driving off into sunset and ditching the team in Crimmitschau, and setting it up for their Leaf believer buddy Clarke MacArthur, Simmonds and Stewart drove to Czech republic to have some good time. Later that night someone steered them towards Liberec where they got signed. Looks like the boys were having time for only two games until the racist slur started. 

Click on link to watch Czech fans yelling "Opice, opice" meaning "monkeys, monkeys" after a scram on the ice involving Simmonds. That's not nice. Shame on you bad Czech hockey fans!

We just hope that Simmonds and Steweart will hop on soon to a new destination in Europe as this is a perfect time for them to see the world. And play some hockey while fooling around. Oh you bad boys!

BTNL jerseys and a young RB Crashed ice champ in Netherlands

Plus - can't let this slide by. Another wave of qualifications for Red Bull Crashed Ice has passed. And imagine what, my friend's best workout place in Canada got sported by this young athlete. Good job Dan, apparently the quality of your work spreads far and beyond! Check out this great video done by Beyond the next level team!

Tomorrow is an another game day in EBEL league, so expect another update on the league pretty soon. And pretend you like it, means a world to me. Until then, best regards and keep your sticks on the ice, head up and feet moving.

K.