You can't take the game from us

Although you've tried hard!

Hockey is a game of passion. Brotherly love and hate. Of curses, swearwords and great plays. Six men with bats, knives on feet and armor go out on the ice hitting each other in battle for the small rubber band. How can we not love it? Well.. when the top league isn't being played, that's how. Give us our game back guys. Think we deserve it.

And it looks like we're going in that way. NHLPA has taken a vote and its a loud "YES". So these guys are going to court to file a dispute against the league. This will be fun.

Whats going on with the game we love?

What Ovi, Stammer, PK and everyone round the world has been asking the same question. And these guys replied - Hockey is ours. The game is on, regardless of what few billionaire owners say about it. And another multi - billion company just found a way to use it to generate revenue. Because NHL doesn't want to generate it, better not to make any money than to give away some of it.

NHL is cancelled until mid January

And fans are outraged. Hell, we want our guys to play, stop bitching about peanuts. NHL cancelled the games, NHLPA player's vote ended with a loud "YES" and we're going to court now. Man the fuck up and get the game where it belongs. Back on ice.

Meanwhile in Europe

There's hockey. Russia is busy voting on their ALL STAR game rosters, many other leagues are shuffling NHL lockout players, washed up AHL players and just trying to bring fans on the rink to spend a dime or two. Support your local hockey club guys! Or local rich guy owning your club.

EBEL league in Austria is particularly funny this week. Actually, not the whole league, but one special part ran by mr. Pierre "I turn the" Page.  What do guys like: Alex Auld, Tobias Enström, David Clarkson, Derrick Brassard, Derek Dorsett have in common with Johnny Boychuk, Mike Duco, Rob Schremp and Mark Cullen?

They were all teammates at one point in Salzburg in last couple of weeks. Yeah, all these guys passed through Salzburg in last two months or so.

Derick Brassard in days of glory for Red Bull Salzburg

Aaron Portzline via twitter: Derick Brassard left his Austrian team without their permission, agent Allan Walsh had this to say: ”Derick Brassard is the 5th NHL player to sign with Red Bull this season and the 5th player to leave within 3 weeks of arrival. Talk to Tobias Enstrom, David Clarkson, Derek Dorsett or any of Red Bull’s current players. There is no more unprofessional organization in all of Europe. The club is misrepresenting the facts in an attempt to justify to their fans and media why NHL players keep leaving.”

Wow. Guys with unlimited money managed to turn away PRO players from it? No idea, no tactics, no hope for future as they are sitting on a 9th place and train to Playoffs is going further and further away. 

And then there is... Switzerland! (and Austria and Croatia)

Congrats to Sam Gagner of EC KAC (Austria) on his first invitation to play for Team Canada in Spengler Cup next week! He'll be joining John Tavares, Carlo Coloaiacovo and many others who are yet to be named. 

Sam Gagner in KAC doing a "victory chicken dance" native to a farm he plays at

Sam Gagner ‏@89SGagner

Very excited to get the invite to play for @HockeyCanada in the Spengler Cup. Always a tremendous honour to play for your country.#Canada

His new line mate in KAC is Tom Zanoski who ran away from a bad bad coach in Zagreb and went to big league rivals in the most uprising story of the last week. No one outside Zagreb cares about it so we'll leave it at that.

Francois Bouchard in Zagreb, decent on ice, 82kg, rly?

Zagreb went on and tried to sign Bouchard. They couldn't get the actual NHL hockey player so they signed his baby brother Francois Bouchard. Frankie got to town couple days ago and then hopped on buy, went to Czech hooker town of Znojmo and scored a nice goal after a pass of a face off draw. Not bad kid. Now get your cousin PA over here and we can talk some more. Right? Okay thanks.

And don't forget to check out whats Dustin Jeffrey been doing when he's not playing hockey for Penguins.

Michal Handzus, epic hair guy

Stupid Dornbirn also went in line to break Zagreb's record of biggest defeat in season (11:2 against EV VSV Villach). These chaps sitting on 11th (out of 12) place managed to lose by 12:3 in Salzburg. By a team marginally better then theirs and around thousand times more costly.

Good job guys scoring three goals on these boys.

We're on pretty soon again, hopefully some guys (shoutout to Ned Lukacevic and Mike Handzus) will finish up their interviews. Will you guys? Thanks!

p.s. Ned go work out and get out of that slump. We need you back on scoring track buddy!

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

Men who wear pink

Men who wear pink!

Athletes, sports functionaries and fans often actively support good causes. October is usually reserved for support and fight against breast cancer. Therefor pink was the color of choice and a weapon against the dreaded illness. 

Giroux and Briere in pink

Claude Giroux and Danny Briere decided to go along with their team's effort and after getting pink Warrior gloves, they donned pink jerseys of their Lockout team Eisbaren Berlin. Pink Bears, sounds... nice. 

Good job guys! 

Another team that supported this cause were Zagreb Bears, Croatian national champions playing in EBEL league. 

KHL Medvescak Zagreb's laces against breast cancer (Photo: Igor Šoban)

Pregame warmup in pink (Photo: Igor Šoban)

Bears decided to support the cause by changing all the laces during October into pink ones. And boy do those look cool. 

And now, something completely different! 

Niclas Backstrom is another player that moved overseas and joined a KHL team during NHL lockout. 20 or so years after Cold War ended, Backstrom moves from Washington to Moscow and joins his former / current / future teammate Ovechkin in UHC Dynamo Moscow. 2006. first round draft pick decided to spice up the lockout talks by taking a jersey with #99 to play with in KHL. 

We all know #99 is retired NHL-wide in honor of the Great One, Wayne Gretzky. Backstrom is certainly a great player, but does he deserve this jersey? Time will tell. Is it a great public relations pull? Certainly.

Nicklas Backstrom made his KHL debut Monday wearing jersey No. 99 for Dynamo Moscow. (Photo: @plysenkov)

Lost boys found... in Czech republic!

On Sunday we reported Simmonds and Stewart driving somewhere towards Czech and into sunset after they decided to ditch Eispiraten Crimmitschau. The crazy boys decided to continue their Euro Trip playing for White Tigers of Liberec in Czech Extraliga. 

The Pirates from Crimmistchau didn't wait too long for their substitutions. On monday they signed a promising and hard working player Ned Lukacevic for a tryout period and then today they bombed us by signing Toronto Maple Leaf forward Clarke MacArthur for a month. Not bad. 

Clarke MacArthur of Maple Leafs throwing hands in the air like he believes

Hopefully MacArthur, just like Sam Gagner, will help his team in securing a playoff spot. If lucky they might even play in them. For the first time. In like.. thousand years. 

Game night tonight!

From Winnipeg to Salzburg for Toby!

EBEL has two games going on tonight, HDD Telemach Olimpija (with Mursak) welcomes a really bad team with Andy Nodl, HC Innsbruck. KHL Medveščak Zagreb (with Dustin Jeffrey of Pittsburgh Penguins) are hosts to Hungarian team Sapa Fehervar AV19 tonight at 19:15 (GMT +1) LIVE. 

In meantime, EC Red Bull Salzbrug decided to throw even more money around. After signing Austrian  goalie Bernd Brückler (@brucks30), who will wear #26 and probably push former NHL goalie Alex Auld out of the crease. 

With relatively bad Auld in goal getting a better substitution, Red Bull decided to sign Tobias Enström. Maybe they'll finally manage to get some fans to their games now. Probably wont, but who cares, they're Red Bull. 

Go Jets go! I mean, go Bears go!