Ice Hockey 2007/2008 season

[ursus arctos]

Ice Hockey 2007/2008 season

I'm quite surprised that you didn't pick a Swede . . .

[Guest]

Ice Hockey 2007/2008 season

Oh I will have to google them.

[Guest]

Ice Hockey 2007/2008 season

ursus arctos wrote:

Did anyone watch the final? Did the Canadians choke in the third period, or were the Russians just better?

I am a newcomer to this board, so this will be a rather late comment. I did watch the final and I have to say that the Russians were magnificent from the 2nd period onwards after being ridiculously nervous in the 1st 20. They methodically (yet furiously) cranked up the pressure until the Canadians broke and what a few minuted for Kovalchuk! A truly wonderful victory.

[ad hoc]

Ice Hockey 2007/2008 season

Can someone in the know tell me about the relative strength of some of the non-NHL US leagues?

My home town teams have both been active in the transfer market and have just acquired a couple of blokes who have previously been active in the ECHL, the AHL, and the UHL.

For example this bloke who seemingly went from team to team in those leagues two or three times a season (and who was born here)

[ad hoc]

Ice Hockey 2007/2008 season

Meanwhile, for next season they have decided to go with some kind of Hungarian-Romanian league, the details of which are still a bit sketchy to me. There are 10 teams, 6 from Hungary, 4 from Romania, and the league will run until February, when there will be playoffs and finals and so on between the top four. That's clear enough, but then what happens after that is still vague - the Hungarian league will then go on from that point without the Romanian teams, but with the addition of the first squad of Alba Volan (who will play in Austria as last year). I have no idea whether there'll be any form of Romanian league, what happens to the Romanian clubs that don't play in this HunRom league, and exactly how the Hungarian championship will be organised (as this combo league will count towards it).

I have the feeling that nobody else really knows either.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Ice Hockey 2007/2008 season

The AHL (American Hockey League) is the strongest of the three leagues. It's one step down from the NHL and most, if not all, of its clubs have an affiliation with the NHL ie: they're where younger players and back-ups play. The East Coast Hockey League and the United Hockey League (now the International Hockey League) are more localised. The ECHL is self-explanatory the, IHL teams are centred round the Great Lakes. In a football context, they're division 3–4, while the AHL is division 2.

[Reed John]

Ice Hockey 2007/2008 season

Actually, the ECHL is no longer the East Coast Hockey League, but branded simply as the ECHL (like how AARP no longer wants to be called the American Association of Retired People) because it has a whole Western conference with teams in Alaska, Idaho, Phoenix, Utah, Victoria, Stockton, Ontario (CA, I think), Las Vegas, Fresno and Bakersfield. The eastern confernce also has some teams that aren't quite so Eastern, like Cincinnati and Toledo.

The ECHL bills itself as the top "AA" league, but unlike in baseball, very few players that have played at the AA level ever make it to the NHL.

In addition to the new IHL (formerly the UHL) there's also the Central Hockey League, which has a bunch of teams in the south central states plus one in Youngstown, Ohio. I think the UHL and CHL are a bit below the ECHL, but it doesn't really matter.

The AHL used to have more Canadian-based teams and was almost exclusively in the Northeast. At the time, it was a direct competitor with the old International League (which, ironically, had only US-based teams). But then the IHL over-extended itself and went under. Many of the more successful IHL teams merged into the AHL and some reemerged in lesser leagues like the ECHL and the CHL.

Then there is the whole world of junior hockey which a lot of Americans think is the same as minor league hockey, but junior players are more or less amateur and younger -15-18, usually, and never older than 21.

In Canada, there are the three Major Junior leagues that make up the CHL, the QMJHL, the OHL and the WHL. Most NHL players come from there. In the US, the top junior league is the USHL. Despite it's national-sounding name, all of the teams are in the prarie states. The difference between the USHL and Canadian junior is that USHL players maintain college eligibility and the whole point of the USHL is to showcase top players so they can get a scholarship and play college hockey and then, maybe, get drafed. Most of the players for the top college programs in the midwest, and west like Minnesota or North Dakota, as well as a lot of players for the eastern schools played in the USHL for a year or two between high school and college.