EHM The Blue Line

I'm going to see Saint John Sea Dogs first two of the playoffs against the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles tomorrow and Saturday night. Then on Sunday night I am going to the final game of the University Cup...hopefully it will be UNB vs St.FX.

Not getting much news about the Q, I was shocked to see how dominant the Sea Dogs were this year. I thought that Mississauga was a big favourite to win the Memorial Cup, but Saint John is probably more so. 7 regulation losses in a 68 games season. 10 losses overall!! I haven't seen domination like that in Junior hockey since the London Knights in the lockout year.

They got a great season but I always thought that QJMHL is more weak than the OHL and WHL. Our game seem to be always a little step back from the other leagues, that's the impression I got. We'll see about that, the Memorial Cup have always nice surprises.

grits207 wrote:I'm going to see Saint John Sea Dogs first two of the playoffs against the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles tomorrow and Saturday night. Then on Sunday night I am going to the final game of the University Cup...hopefully it will be UNB vs St.FX.

Awesome. Good ol' fashion beat down by the seadogs. I taught a couple of guys on that team while doing a teaching internship and they were great kids. I just graduated from UNB and have gone to countless games (though the finals tickets were a little steep for me; couldn't justify $140 for CIS hockey when I pay $3 at the gate in the regular season and AUS playoffs). But the result was nice, another odd numbered year CIS Championship for UNB (2007,2009,2011)!

Last week I bought 2 upper level center ice seats for the Jets vs. Penguins game on Feb. 11th 2012. I'm psyched!! I'm hoping by then, Crosby will be back and the Pens won't have any other major injuries at that time.

I was out watching SM-liiga game between Espoo Blues and Tappara last friday. I'd do it more often if I'd live closer! What a game!

We had a group of four, where two were non-hockey fans (girls) and the guy was not fan of either team. So I was the only one who was a fan of a team on the ice. My sister came along out of curiosity. She's never been a hockey fan, never watched a game, and doesn't even know the rules that well.

She had fun.

I usually get out to see anywhere from a half-dozen to a dozen Rimouski Oceanic games each season. When I first moved here, I was a bit more into the team and the games probably because I taught some of the players (Michael Frolik, David Skokan, Philippe Cornet, etc.) who have since moved on, obviously.

These days, it's more about teaching the game to my 3 year-old son. The latest game we saw was last Saturday against Baie-Comeau. One of the fastest-paced games I've seen in recent years with several odd-man rushes and a lot of aggression.

Unfortunately, I haven't seen an NHL game in almost 12 years. That was a thrilling OT victory for the Leafs against the LA Kings. Good ol' Steve Thomas scored the winner.

I'm hoping the Quebec Nordiques return in some capacity since it's only a 3-hour drive down the road from here.

Last game i saw was the preseason game with the Leafs vs Flyers at the Air Canada Center. But favourite game was the Leafs vs Red Wings when My Leafs won 5-1

Last games I saw were the Rangers v Kings and Rangers v Ducks games in Stockholm. They were the first games I'd been to for a year (the last one being Boston v UK Select Team in Belfast).

Apparently the league my local team (Invicta Dynamos) plays in (the ENIHL South) is now a lot more competitive. Previously, Invicta would win virtually every game and score 10+ goals. I hear that now there are some better teams in the league and Invicta don't have it quite so easy any more. I must check them out again soon (they're only 10 minutes drive from me).

I'm hoping to go to one or two of Manchester Phoenix's road games when they're in the London vicinity this season - depending upon how easy it is to get there and back.

I don't know if anybody ever saw a game Montreal vs Ottawa in Ottawa, but it's so funny! Even if it's Ottawa home, the crowd goes wild for Montreal because Quebec is the other side of the river. Also the tickets so less expensive in Ottawa then in MTL.

So my last game I saw was a game Montreal vs Ottawa and Montreal won something like 7-1 . I saw like 10 shirts for Ottawa that night, everybody was there for Montreal!

Go habs go!

Today (19th of November) I went to see my first hockey game in North America: Sarnia Sting at Saginaw Spirit. The game was alright, although it was practically over in 20 minutes (5-1 after the 1st period). The final score was 6-3 to the visitors. The amount of shots at goal surprised me, Saginaw shooting 45 times whilst Sarnia shot 30 times. The level of play is not far behind SM-liiga. I'm going to watch a couple other OHL games, and of course, I will go to see the Red Wings at least once.

Cool! Are you in North America on holiday?

About two years ago I saw an AHL exhibition game in Scotland (Toronto Marlies v Hamilton Bulldogs) - I wonder how the AHL compares to the Euro leagues such and Finland, Sweden and Germany (I've never seen any European teams play other than British teams).

Yesterday I was in MTL for the game against NYR. Wasn't expecting the Habs to win with the streak of the Rags but as eveybody should know....the Habs are good against good team and sucks vs bad team. Finally a great 4-0 wins and I was surprise how well the defense played yesterday. Eric Cole was on fire and it's impressive to watch him play.

No, I've been here since 27th of August and I will return somewhere in the early June.

Surahammar - Falun
Division 1C here in Sweden. I was taking photos for Surahammars (Tommy Salo-town) homepage but what a rubbish game by them, just brutal. The most exciting thing was a real fight, not that common here.

I haven't really seen anything too special... I've never seen a no-hitter, or even a cycle, let alone a milestone like a 500th home run, 300th win, etc. I saw Cal Ripken Jr.'s 2000th consecutive game and Kirby Puckett's last Major League game (unknown at the time of course)... that's all.

Any milestones you've seen? In person, not on TV, radio or online.

Think I was at Hal Gill's 1000 NHL game or was it just the celebration of it, can't quite remember.

I went to see Manchester Phoenix v Slough Jets yesterday night. I think it was the first game I've seen them play since they moved to the English Premier League. Actually, it's been a few years since I've seen them IIRC.

It's wasn't a fantastic game but it wasn't dull either. It finished 4-2 to Phoenix (the fourth goal was an empty netter).

I was at the EIHL playoff semi finals today. The Cardiff v Belfast game was fantastic. Cardiff were 3-1 up but Belfast scored two with five mins to go and then with 1 min to go. The game went to OT and a shootout with Cardiff winning. The second game wasn't so exciting - Nottingham beat Hull 10-3.

I'll be off to the final tomorrow too.

On Sunday afternoon I was at Game 2 of the OHL Eastern Conference Final between the Niagara IceDogs and Ottawa 67's. I actually thought the IceDogs outplayed the 67's most of the game, but a combination of an excellent performance by Ottawa goaltender Petr Mrazek, and Mark Visentin crapping the bed and giving up 6 goals on 19 shots before being pulled halfway through the game, led to a 7-4 Ottawa victory.

Sadly the annual trip my brother and I take to see North American teams won't be taking place this year. Partly because there don't seem to be any North American teams visiting this year (neither for exhibition games nor for NHL Europe) and partly because we'll both be busy with our studies. This is only the second time in the past 6 years that we haven't been able to go anywhere.

On the plus side, the UK National Ice Hockey League starts this weekend. The league has been renamed this season - it was formerly called the English National League (it is two leagues below the EIHL). I've been to see my local team, the Invicta Dynamos, a few of times over the years, but I find it quite dull because they would win nearly every game by huge margins (eg 10-0). However, the balance of power has shifted and there are now four or five solid teams in the league. I'm going to go to the first few games of the season to see if it is any more fun to watch - the first game being this Sunday.

I went with my brother last Sunday to watch a training game between the Dynamos and their affiliate, the Invicta Mustangs. Although it was just a training game, it was still nice to watch a game after the post season break. I do like that "ice rink" smell that you get at the smaller rinks!!

I'm gonna try to catch some U20 junior team games for the local team here, Färjestad. Junior games are free in Sweden.
Too bad they play in the large arena here. Having 200 visitors in a 7000 seat arena really takes the atmosphere away

I cannot imagine what sort of atmosphere that must be like. I guess kind of like going to watch a game in a library!

Invicta games aren't all that great either. Normally the arena is about 1/3 or 1/2 full. Having said that, the fans really get stuck into the game - last season, some of the fans ended up brawling with the away team (Cardiff NIHL Devils)!! The rink is too small for any real benches and so the teams each have a space between the arena seating where make-shift benches have been placed. The penalty "boxes" are just some red seats amongst the arena seats - so there's no segregation between the players and spectators. I'll try to take some photos this weekend.

I managed to go to HC Kladno - HC Sparta Prague last night. It was fantastic atmoshere there, sold out audience and fans cheering for both teams. Kladno's 1st line Tlusty-Plekanec-Jagr is terrific. All arenas where Kladno is scheduled to play are sold out by now. I really enjoyed it since it was maybe my last chance to see Jagr in action.

We were right behind penalty boxes.


The same arena is home of KHL team Lev Praha so don't be surprised by KHL logos on ice.

I watched Sm-league opening game between rivalries Kalpa-Jyp at Kuopio. Jyp won 3-0