EHM The Blue Line

What is everybody's fav team in your home league, and how is it doing this season? Who are your favourite players?

My team is Espoo Blues. They had a bad start to the season, half way thru they are finally waking up a bit, and are close to the playoff line, even if they lost to SaiPa today , but yesterday they beat Tappara 2-4, which is a good team. Markku Hurme - back from the injury list - was hot with 2+1 points.

My Blues all stars:

Experienced center
Markku Hurme --> http://www.blues.fi/imageBank_img.php?id=563

Young and talented
Lauri Tukonen --> http://www.blues.fi/imageBank_img.php?id=562

With the Golden Helmet (the team leader in points)
Ladislav Kohn --> http://www.blues.fi/imageBank_img.php?id=561

Totally underrated in NHL EHM
Donald MacLean --> http://www.blues.fi/imageBank_img.php?id=558

Best +/- for team defenders
Tero Määttä --> http://www.blues.fi/imageBank_img.php?id=551

Goal Scoring Defender
Arto Laatikainen --> http://www.blues.fi/imageBank_img.php?id=535

The team website is www.blues.fi but it's in Finnish, so not much use to most ppl in this forum. But, those of you, who have real player, or alternative software, check out this link for all Blues home game goals of the season. ---> http://www.blues.fi/index2.php?m=2&s=3 ("katso" = "play clip")

Live coverage of Finnish SM-Liiga games --> http://www.sm-liiga.fi/tulospalvelu.asp?

Any one keen to introduce their team and league?

Manchester Storm

The team closed down in 2000 (iirc) due to a lack of money, fans and disagreements with the owners of their arena.

Manchester Phoenix "replaced" them but I never really got into following them. I think they might have shut down now as well.

Actually Archibald they closed down in 2002 and the phoenix are taking a season out while they sort out the new rink getting built.

Anyways my team is the Sheffield Steelers we're currently 3rd in the Elite Ice Hockey League behind the Cardiff Devils and the Coventry Blaze

Favourite player has to be Mike Peron.The noisest (but fun) player of the team

Luleå Hockey ofcourse. Favourite player at the moment is Jaroslav Obsut. One of the greatest defenceman to ever play the swedish league in my opinion.
We started this seasin great and were at the third place after 10 games with players such as Holmström, Renberg, Wallin and Justin Williams.
Then we dipped really bad and were fighting against relegation at a moment in december. Now with Malmö and Brynäs heading for relegation we are fighting with Södertälje, HV71 and Mora fot the playoff.


We actually met Manchester Storm in the EHL back in 1997 and well, won qith quite large numbers. I remember though that the Storm had one crazy canadien player named Rubachuck who whopped our fighter Sergei Bautins ass in one game.

We suck in Belgium .
Most ppl never saw a hockey match, not even on TV (they never broadcast a match on TV).

Belgium sucks at most sports...

Octavian wrote:We suck in Belgium .
Most ppl never saw a hockey match, not even on TV (they never broadcast a match on TV).

Belgium sucks at most sports...

But you have a decent soccer team?

Yes, Anderlecht but they still aren't top like German, Spanish or English teams.

I was thinking about the national soccer team.

Are you kidding? They lost 4-0 from Egypt... not the greatest nation. Well the national coach is a moron.

Montreal Canadiens from the NHL
but for some euro team out there, I'd say, Turku or Modo (where Forsberg play)

I´m sorry to say but MoDo is the most overestimated team in the world and they are not even producing any decent juniors anymore.

I support the Coventry Blaze-
Top Goalscorer-Adam Calder-Great playere but has a bit of a short fuse
Goalie-Jody Lehman-Right on foprm now and a real money goalie
Top Player-Neal Martin-This guy can skate, no more needs to be said he is the best player in the EIHL at the moment
Enforcer-Andre Payette-Good fighter, can play a bit too

Ah... that I didn't know. I just go by name/reputation since I can't watch any games ...sadly.

My team is New York Rangers and you all know that they has not play so great the last 10 years. But when the NHL start agian, the Rangers will go to the playoffs!

In Sweden I support Hammarby IF in every sport.

A little something my team did recently;
http://www.coventryblaze.co.uk/news/dis ... newsId=342
8)

I know taht in Eastside there is no promotion and relegation between the elite league and the league below it in Finland. I heard that there may be a possibility of this changing. Can you tell me about it tasku?

has there ever been promotion and releagtion between the elite league and teh one below it. Also I know that there is teh 3 leagues in eastside can you tell me how many more leagues there are below that.

i haven't yet played teh Finnish league. At the moment im nearly finished the league stage of the Russian league with kazan and i'm top buy it is very close.
I'm trying to try different leagues in eastside so hopefully I can play teh finnish soon.
Any recommendation for what league and team to play with.What are the limits on imports in each of the finnish leagues?

Is teh winners of the league the top team in teh table or teh team that wins the playoffs. Just wondering because in the UK winning the actual league stage is considerred bigger than the playoffs. just wondering if tehy are considered teh sam ecompetion or seperate like in the uk.
Finally can you tell how the european places work for teh Finnish teams. I presume the champions get into teh champions cup (super 6) , I don't think any finnish teams play in teh continetal cup but correct me if im wrong. I remember they had some in the EuroHockeyLeague when it existed3 mayeb I think. It was a brilliant competition really is a shame its gone now.

Anyway thanks in advance for any replies

know taht in Eastside there is no promotion and relegation between the elite league and the league below it in Finland. I heard that there may be a possibility of this changing. Can you tell me about it tasku?

There's no promotion and relegation between them and it's not about to change. SM-Liiga is a separate corporation if you will, like NHL and it desides who gets in and who's dropped out. Pelicans of Lahti has been struggling to stay in the league and they might soon be dropped to "Mestis" (or the National if you don't have the league names fixed). In order for a Mestis team to get up in to SM-Liiga, they need to have solid finances, competitive team and a good ice hall. The league considers every year if it is to promote a team from Mestis.

has there ever been promotion and releagtion between the elite league and teh one below it. Also I know that there is teh 3 leagues in eastside can you tell me how many more leagues there are below that.

It's not so long ago that there was promotion and relegation between these leagues, but they changed it because it was hurting the teams finances. I think it's better like this.

How many leagues there are? Hmm... In the game there's Mestis, and Suomi Sarja (not "Sarja League", as falsely stated on TBL downloads section ) and after that there are 1. division, 2. division, 3. division and so on. They are basically semi-pro or amateur teams, but they have a chance to win promotion all the way to Mestis, which is considered the first pro level league and enjoys some national interest, getting TV broadcasts on a national cable sports channel.

Any recommendation for what league and team to play with.What are the limits on imports in each of the finnish leagues?

I don't know what you're looking for in your games. If it's challenge you're looking for, I'd start from Suomi-Sarja and try to fight my way to Mestis, but that's as far as you can get py promotion. If you want pro hockey then play SM-Liiga (Elite).

Also in SM you can find challenge or an easy team with loads of money. The richest would most definately be Jokerit of Helsinki. They have capacity of 13,000 + at their home venue and many enthusiastic fans. TPS Turku, Kärpät Oulu or HIFK Helsinki are the next biggest teams with loads of money and big halls.

An interesting challenge might be playing HPK Hämeenlinna. They have a very good team, but low budget and small hall. It's a small town team (about 50,000 residents) but their work with juniors has so far kept them on the top year after year.

Is teh winners of the league the top team in teh table or teh team that wins the playoffs.

The winner is the one who wins the playoffs. It's a huge event, and you can't get your face off the TV if you win the playoffs.

Regular Season winner gets home advantage for the playoffs and some cash (haven't seen the cash in the game though), and ofcourse make their fans happy. :clapping:

inally can you tell how the european places work for teh Finnish teams. I presume the champions get into teh champions cup (super 6) , I don't think any finnish teams play in teh continetal cup but correct me if im wrong. I remember they had some in the EuroHockeyLeague when it existed3 mayeb I think. It was a brilliant competition really is a shame its gone now.

I haven't seen any other cups than the Champions Cup, where Kärpät played this year and came second after... umm... that Russian team.

It really is a shame they put down EHL.

And at one part you asked about the rules on foreign players if I remember correctly? It's 5 players per team.

PS. If you're looking for a fight for promotion, try Swedish league, I'm not sure but I think they have a full promotion / relegation league all the way at the top. Swedes correct me if I'm wrong!

My fingers hurt from typing...

Edit: It seems HPK isn't such a small team on EHM afterall. IRL they have one of the smallest budgets in the league, but in the game that is not represented correctly.

Which reminds me I've once read on SI Forums that team budgets are somewhat "random" in the game due to lack of information received from the teams for the game. But HPK's ice hall is still a small one (about 5,000 seats).

Tasku wrote:Which reminds me I've once read on SI Forums that team budgets are somewhat "random" in the game due to lack of information received from the teams for the game.

Yeah I asked a question about budgets and they said that part from info gathered through the press they arer just normally random (something to do with reputation I think)

Do you know if it's different every time you play a new game, or is it locked, so that the teams always have the same budget?

(I remember seeing Finnish team player budgets on the nations biggest hockey magazine, so I wonder how could they have missed that for the game?)

I don't think theyre fixed as I once had a small figure for a team and then had a much larger figure (this may have come from a data update I downloaded)

Back to this thread!

I'm guessing playoffs are on the way, in just about every league by now, yes? Any predictions, who's going to win your countries title this year? Is your own fan team still "in the game", or has it dropped out / didn't make the playoffs?

I'm sad to report, Blues didn't make the playoffs! Or even the "Pity Playoffs" - as we call them. Another underachieving season from the Blues (maybe it's the name, something more cheerful could work?) Pity Playoffs in Finland are played between places 7-10 in the regular season. They play best of three, to see which two teams gets to play in the bigger playoffs. See www.sm-liiga.fi , and you'll understand what I'm talking about.

Anyhows, I'm rooting for Lukko to win SM-Liiga this season, because it's the smallest team still in the competition. HPK would be my next favourite.

How about the rest of you, and your leagues?

Give me links, so I can follow them to fight the overwhelming boredom.

Tasku, signing out!

Tasku, you asked how it is in Sweden with relegations and promotion. Here's the answer: Our eliteleague, that is called Elitserien, got 12 teams and those who got the 11 and 12 place in the league has to qualify to stay in Elitserien. In the league that is below Elitserien is called Allsvenskan, where we got one North serie and one South, I'm not sure how many teams it is every serie but the top 4 teams go to a stage where the 2 top placed teams goes to the qualification to Elitserien, but there's going to be 2 more teams and which taht's going to be is decided in a play off. In the qualification stage the teams that got the 2 top places is qualified to Elitserien.

Thanks for the answer Joe.

Let me see if I understood you correctly. There's North and South Division, and the top two of both divisions play against each other to see, who gets in the qualification round. After that, those two play against the two last ones of Elitserien to se which two play in the Elites next year?

No, 4 teams goes to a qulificationleague (where it is 8 teams) where they play against each other 2 times, and the two top placed teams go straight to the second qualification stage where the two teams that placed last in Elitserien has got to and then there's going to be 2 more teams. The 4 teams that came in 3,4,5 and 6 place will meet each other in a play off in best of 3. Those teams who win the matches goes to the second qualification stage. So there's 6 teams that is fighting for the two places in Elitserien. It's hard to explain.

Ah, I think I got it.

Sounds kinda like here in Finland, they keep changing the rules, looking for the "most exciting" way to play it, and every year there's new rules to it.