We have hockey here

and you don't. Say thanks to Bettman

NHL got cancelled until 30th of December. Is it the last milestone until cancellation of the whole season? Could be, previous were October games, then Winter Classic, then All Star game, and is this the last step before NHLPA and NHL refuse to kiss and make up?

Please do, or we're going to have many more players come overseas and face the cultural shock when they do come. 

There and back again

There are few traditional migrations of players between Europe and North America. One happens with young talent that goes from Europe to try in various junior leagues all over NA and in case of older boys to collegiate hockey, where mostly they stick to studying and play some hockey until their talent gets recognized or more often, until they finish school and return home. 

The other "natural" migration is of talented hockey players moving to top European leagues in search of their dream, and seasoned vets and players to less prominent leagues and clubs looking for jobs. "Kids" often find it strange when they come over from big hockey towns with newer facilities, different ownership status and different lifestyle to a more traditional, sedentary way of life.

Most of these countries have lots of "history" as they put it, and lots of, behind the scenes work, issues players just don't understand at first glance. From mostly English (or French) speaking countries, players venture to Swedish, Finnish, German, Czech, Slovakian, in some cases Italian and in best of those to English (UK) and French speaking countries. Lots of languages, players from all over world and from dozens of different cultural styles often meet. And then you start talking about hockey. If they're lucky they land in a place where there are a few NA players already or at least a coach to help them sort it out. 

Crimmitschau ice hall - open to the side and woods on the right

Now, imagine to land in a small city (eg. Crimmitschau - signed Simmonds, Stewart and MacArthur), some 250 km south of Berlin on border with Czech republic. Folks are mostly German with some Czech mixed in between, players are almost all German, with few imports from East. And you're a Canadian guy that doesn't speak German. Your coach knows some words but that's it. And in between facility is 3 parts closed and one part open towards the woods. And You haven't played outdoors since you were a kid. 

Its kind of hard to get there and into the game isn't it? Now instead of German town put in a Czech city, a Hungarian metalworking town, or any other place. If you're lucky you end up in bigger cities or, in places where many people know your language. Otherwise you adapt, start learning the local language or in some, you just don't bother.

Wayne Simmonds in Europe during NHL lockout

Now imagine that with all those cultural and language barriers you head into a bunch of provocative and drunk fans that start throwing racial slurs. Wayne Simmonds is a hell of a player and he felt that. Lots of ink has been spilled over chants calling him a monkey in Czech republic so I wont cover it all again. It was just a really ugly game, that shed some really bad light on European hockey and its great and loud fans. Hope it won't happen ever again. Good luck back home practicing with great guys at "Beyond the next level" facility in Toronto by @DeejBTNL 

Players that head into bigger cities like Vienna, Berlin, great organisations like Red Bull Salzburg (just added Boychuck, Dorsett, Mike Duco etc.), Milano get it easy as they can feel the spirit of Europe just by poking their heads out. 

Dustin Jeffrey (Medvescak Zagreb) - photo by Igor Šoban

Dustin Jeffrey (Pittsburgh Penguins) went to Venice on his first day off, then went to Budapest. All in a driving distance from Zagreb, Croatia, where he currently plays and makes fans love him with his every move  day in and out. He will get to visit one of the great cities of the world, Dubrovnik, and many more just by having an NHL lockout. 

Many others, including guys in Swiss, Germany and other countries like Briere, Giroux, Tavares, Ty Seguin and many more have great time playing abroad. Of course they mostly play for pocket money and insurance, but they do what they love. They play hockey. They give their best each day, each practice and aren't spared on the ice. 

Sam Gagner happily chewing on a mouthpiece. He's the one
 in white red jersey. #97 in case you missed it. (P: Igor Šoban)

EBEL league has its stars too. Sam Gagner just can't believe how beautiful the Austria (and 4 other countries he plays in while on the roster for EC KAC).  

@grabs40

Beautiful Austria“@89SGagner: On the way to Innsbruck earlier today #scenery pic.twitter.com/UN6ND0zX”

And then he proceeded to demolish Innsbruck with a few goals justl like his teammates Alex Cogilano and Tyler Myers (currently on IR list with a knee injury but expected to be on roster by weekend). Or was it an ankle injury? I'm sure someone cares about it, but its not me. 

Free summer with additional free fall?

And it looks like the NHL season is in indeed a free fall. Another batch of games up to Dec. 30th have been cancelled. Xmas is right on the corner and owners (and players according to HRR) are going to lose bunch of money by not selling games and merch during the games. All that TV coverage, and overall hockey related revenue is basically as good as gone. 

Season 2004. - 2005. is likely going to be repeated, and no one is going to profit from that. Well mostly no one, Europe will love it. Some guys will come over, enjoy the opportunity, possibly for the first time ever in their schedule driven life to enjoy hockey and play abroad. From midget, to AAA to collegiate/pro hockey most of them never had a "free" summer followed by a free fall/winter. Without having to worry about getting through the camps, being sent up/down or traded on a whim of the owners and coaches, players have a chance to do what they're best. Enjoy hockey without a capitalistic driven North American society. 

Enjoy it while you can, soon you'll be flying franchise jets, living a fake dream and enjoying bloated contracts that block negotiations more firmly than any other points Bettman and Fehr are trying to battle around. 

Embrace the LOCKOUT, see the World, play hockey. 

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.

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!