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Used to be interested as a kid when any hockey on tv was interesting. It was one of the few games that were free on tv during the season. I was also a big fan of the national team at the time, but now I'm more relaxed about international events. So yeah, a needless break in the season mostly. I guess it's useful for the national team's preparation for the WC in the spring, but not that interesting as a fan.
It's a gimmick, but a nice one most of the time. It really is more about how the NTs handle it. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing a younger lineup sent by Russia. If the send the best guys available who are basically disinterested the result is a little bit too obvious.
Jussi
Registered User
Yes, but it depends on the team selected (by Finland) and the tournament. It's still required to see if guys in various European leagues can handle international play (far too many "top scorers" can't) and to fit in guys in case we don't get the necessary guys from the NHL. But it's not quite the same as when the likes of Mika Nieminen, Hentunen-Kapanen-Pärssinen line were tearing it up in these tournaments.
Eye of Ra
Grandmaster General of the International boards
Smirnov2Chistov
Fire Greg Cronin!
Not to sound like a noob, but is this the 'European Hockey Tour' tournament that's in EHM? Is it more of a pre-season tournament?
It's not a gimmic. Players in these tournaments are playing for a roster spot in the World Championchips, and last winter in the Olympics as well. But yeah still, they are not very interesting. I usually catch the last one before the WC's if Sweden has a good team with many NHL'ers, but that's it.
They should ditch them and go for a new concept with more national teams involved. It gets boring watching the same opponent over and over. Without NHL'ers, we've already seen that Germany can compete. And so can Slovakia, Switzerland and Latvia.
Rcknrollkillnmachine
Registered User
Jussi
Registered User
Nope. Hannu Aravirta won it 4 years in a row.
Artorius Horus T
sincerety
And by successful, you mean the worst?.
Kaako Kappo
Kaako Kappo
Artorius Horus T
sincerety
I have mixed feelings of the current format (ever since they slightly changed it), but i still watch every game, nevertheless.
Its a good,quality international tournéé, this season should be quite good one for Finland, because likes of young guns;Heponiemi,Kakko,Kupari,Honka,Lundell,Kokkonen,Laaksonen,Valtonen...seriously knocking on men's international games, then there are new comers likes of Lepaus,Antonen,Pitkänen,Kaski,...just to mention few,
then there are the top KHL&SHL players and veteran players of the Sm-Liiga
few of them have been really good this season.
Its gonna be awesome to see Pulu (Teemu Pulkkinen) show his slapper for team Finland again.
Aaand can't forget that the midas returns for us and gives us chance to forget the short dark age
period of international hockey.
Its a good,quality international tournéé, this season should be quite good one for Finland, because likes of young guns;Heponiemi,Kakko,Kupari,Honka,Lundell,Kokkonen,Laaksonen,Valtonen...seriously knocking on men's international games, then there are new comers likes of Lepaus,Antonen,Pitkänen,Kaski,...just to mention few,
then there are the top KHL&SHL players and veteran players of the Sm-Liiga
few of them have been really good this season.
Its gonna be awesome to see Pulu (Teemu Pulkkinen) show his slapper for team Finland again.
Aaand can't forget that the midas returns for us and gives us chance to forget the short dark age
period of international hockey.
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Rcknrollkillnmachine
Registered User
Oh, I agree with you but I reckon I read somewhere on HF that he was succesful for Leijonat at something. Could be that I misread a quote/article.
Artorius Horus T
sincerety
First Finnish National team coach who has lost to team France (first ever loss),Denmark (first ever loss),Germany at Worlds within year.
2016-2017 EHT: first 9 games, 3 w, 6 l, last tournament (Sweden) 2 w, 1 l
12 games, 5 wins, 7 losses, GD: 28-37, - 9
2017 Worlds: won; Belarus, Slovenia,Norway(OT),Switzerland(OT) | lost: France,Czech RP, Canada
2017-2018 EHT: 3-0 first tournament, 1-2 second tournament, 2-1 third tournament, 3-0 fourth tournament
12 games, 9 wins, 3 losses, GD: 37-25, +12 (wins tournéé)
2018 Olympics: Won; Germany,Norway,South Korea | lost; Sweden,Canada
2018 Worlds: won; South Korea, Latvia, Norway, Canada, USA, lost; Denmark,Germany(OT),Switzerland
ChicagoBullsFan
Registered User
The EHT is a little boring with the same countries every season. Last year's EHT was actually interesting with the inclusion of Canada, Switzerland and Korea. The games obviously also meant a lot more as they were played in preparation for the Olympic tournament.
Agree with this. I would see better system if it was top-8 European countries, each playing each other once during the season home and away. This would mean 14 games. EHT itself brings 12 and there are double match-ups between bigger and smaller countries usually in early April (last season Finland played two home games against Belarus and two away games against Latvia. so there was 16 last year + one exhibition just before the Olympics.
The schedule for Finnish team could be something like this:
November
@ Denmark
Switzerland
Sweden
December
Slovakia
@ Russia
@ Latvia
February
Latvia
Denmark
@ Sweden
April
Czech Republic
@ Switzerland
@ Slovakia
@ Czech Republic
Russia
Well, considering the depth Sweden has in the NHL nowadays extremely few of our EHT players actually have a chance of making it, even fewer possibly none have the opportunity to actually make an impact in the WC. They simply lack the skill, and the coaches are very much aware that most NHL third liners are way, way better than SHL stars. Or even KHL stars. But sure some euro players always make it. But examining it more closely, this spring Sweden only had four players not playing their hockey in the NHL.
One was Elias Pettersson, which is really a rareity, (a player like that on Swedish soil comes along maybe once a decade, despite this he still struggled.) two were goalies and one was a grinder, that had very limited impact.
In summary this all boils down to: NHL teams favoring skill and skating over size, physicality etc. has depleted the european leagues of skill. So at least in the next few years we will see this trend with more and more NHL third/fourth liners being picked over SHL, KHL, FEL, NLA stars. This will be the case for all European teams not just Sweden. It has just happened quicker for Sweden because of the vast amount of NHL talent and the reputation of the SHL. In turn this is making the EHT increasingly meaningless.
No the EHT does not interest me.
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People complained about the last World Cup, branded them gimmick teams and said it was just a dull pre-season tournament even tough all the best players participated.
What is this then? Just a weaker version of the World Championship that is a weaker version of the World Cup. Just a lot of C-level players were the results barely matter.
What is this then? Just a weaker version of the World Championship that is a weaker version of the World Cup. Just a lot of C-level players were the results barely matter.
EHT is OK. Sometimes I watch it if I have the time to kill. You see some prospects sometimes. Overall, not that interesting, though.
World Cup was a failure and the quality of EHT has nothing to do with it. At least the EHT consists of national teams only.
I never said anything about team Sweden. I was talking about the tournament as a whole. For Russia, Czech and Finland there's usually 10 or even more WC roster spots to fight for. And for Sweden it's usually three or four. The EHT doesn't interested me either, but it's still not a gimmick which was my point. Just because these players doesn't draw our interest doesn't make it a gimmick. The ECHL isn't a gimmic. Allsvenskan isn't a gimmick. Division 5 soccer isn't a gimmick. That's not what the word means. The all star game is a gimmick.
