Jääkiekko 22-23

[Muukalainen]

Starting a new thread for (European?) ice hockey antics for the new season. Liiga kicked off last night with six games, among the results we scraped past Pelicans. I haven't been following very closely the comings and goings on during the off season, so I've undoubtedly got some catching up to do. There was some news some weeks back that Jari Kurri is no longer involved with Jokerit. Bearing in mind the amount of effort, not to say money, that he's put into the club these past years, I imagine that to be a situation distinctly not to his liking.

I haven't heard differently, so I'm assuming that the season's format. once again, is 15 teams (well, that bit's known) playing 60 games each in runkosarja, then the play offs (to the usual format) start in March.

[Muukalainen]

One month into the season and the league table looks like this:

Ilves    11   7   1   1   2    34- 24   24
Lukko    11   7   0   2   2    30- 15   23
Pelicans 12   6   1   2   3    30- 20   22
Kärpät   10   6   1   1   2    34- 22   21
TPS      11   6   1   0   4    25- 23   20
KooKoo   12   5   2   1   4    31- 28   20
HPK      12   4   4   0   4    32- 30   20
KalPa    11   5   2   0   4    31- 21   19
HIFK     11   4   1   1   5    22- 24   15
Tappara  11   4   1   1   5    25- 30   15
Ässät    12   4   0   1   7    21- 29   13
JYP      11   3   1   1   6    26- 38   12
Jukurit  10   3   1   0   6    27- 30   11
Sport    12   3   0   2   7    21- 35   11
SaiPa    11   1   0   3   7    13- 33    6

The top half is pretty tight; we were where Tappara are now a couple of games ago, but two victories have pushed us half a dozen places up the table. The season so far has been characterised by pretty much any team being capable of beating any other team. Except poor SaiPa. HIFK are starting to get their season together after an abysmal first couple of weeks, though reigning champions Tappara are going in the opposite direction after a strong start.

[Sits]

Thanks Muuks. Are you able to get to any matches (assuming you’d like to)?

[ursus arctos]

I had assumed that Jukerit were a new version of Jokerit, but that was very wrong.

They are a traditional second tier power (seven titles) from Mikkeli in Eastern Finland and feature a very non-jester crest



Wiki (in both Finnish and English) still has Kurri as owning the Helsinki club, though there are likely to be changes in the works in connection with their planned return to the Finnish pyramid next season (they aren't icing a senior team this season).

[Muukalainen]

Thanks Muuks. Are you able to get to any matches (assuming you’d like to)?

I'm afraid that my spectating so far this season has all been done via the TV/internet.

They [Jukurit] are a traditional second tier power (seven titles) from Mikkeli in Eastern Finland and feature a very non-jester crest

Quite. Often or not, they and Sport were the teams to beat in recent years in Mestis, though they've found the going tougher in the top flight.

[jason voorhees]

We were in Prague this past summer, so Hija del Voorhees got to go to ice hokej camp here... - https://www.htcpraha.cz/en/home

We went to the Ice Arena Letnany to get her gear... - shorturl.at/ixHOY

There was a very nice guy who got our gear, and I made a joke about my daughter being a goon (being that she and her friend whom we named "face-puncher" would punch each other in their facemasks waiting in line during drills.)

He informed us he "also" happened to be a "beat-kuh" (Not sure of the Czech spelling, but "beat-kuh" is the phonetic word for "goon" in Czech,) and was so happy to see a girl "humble" enough to admit she was.

He played in the ECHL, and had videos on YouTube of fights there (that I can't currently find.)

His team HC Lecti Letňany is in the 3rd division, known as the 2nd League. HC Lecti Letňany is in first place in the Western Conference of the 2nd League.
https://www.hcletci.cz/match/3555

We'll see if Jagr returns for his 35th season at age 50 for Kladno.

[ad hoc]

As the OP suggests this can be the thread for European hockey in general a quick update from here. After winning the Erste Liga for 3 years in a row (arguably - the 2020 title was shared with Ferencváros after covid shortened the season) Csíkszereda have started this year really poorly. However better news this weekend in the Continental Cup where they've beaten Fradi and Sisak from Croatia to set up a winner takes all* battle with hosts Angers today. Can't see past a win for the French team but who knows. I might even be able to reprise my hilarious "don't look back in Angers" joke from last year in the CL u19 football.

*I say winner takes all but apparently there is a spot in the next round for the better second place team in the two current groups. As both second place teams will finish with 6 points (almost certainly) I have no idea how this will be judged (I fear it will be on goal difference which seems somewhat unfair as the other group had two whipping boys, not one.

[ad hoc]

Apropos of nothing, I note that Asiago are playing in the Austrian league this year. Is the Italian league really so weak that they needed to switch?

[ursus arctos]

Having watched several matches in prior seasons, I would say that it is.

[Muukalainen]

The final round of matches in a gone-on-for-too-long season were played last night, giving us a runkosarja table of:

Tappara   60  33   6   5  16  187-140  116
Ilves     60  32   7   4  17  185-126  114
Lukko     60  28   8   5  19  155-122  105
Pelicans  60  30   4   5  21  166-136  103
KalPa     60  28   5   8  19  169-145  102
HIFK      60  24   8   9  19  155-150   97
Kärpät    60  24   7  10  19  158-143   96
Ässät     60  25   5   6  24  129-150   91
TPS       60  21  10   8  21  141-140   91
KooKoo    60  19  11   5  25  155-167   84
Jukurit   60  24   5   1  30  155-165   83
HPK       60  17   9  14  20  153-162   83
JYP       60  17   9   5  29  159-172   74
Sport     60  16   3   9  32  126-177   63
SaiPa     60   8   7  10  35  124-222   48

A month or so ago Lukko were hot favourites to romp away both with runkosarja and also the Canada Cup. At the time they were something like 10 points clear at the top of the table and with a couple of games in hand. And then they just went to pieces. They'll meet HIFK in the quarter-finals and, on current form, that will be their season finished. For their part, HIFK have improved dramatically after a wretched early season, The other already known quarter-final features Pelicans versus KalPa, which should see the men from Lahti progress to the semi-finals, but they won't get any further.

Prior to the quarter-finals, however, is a mini-tournament featuring the 7th to 10th placed teams. These are best of three and start tomorrow (13.3) with us hosting KooKoo at Raksila and TPS travelling to Pori to face Ässät. The form of all four teams has been so much up and down that any of them could win or lose. The winners, whoever they are, will face the teams from Tampere in the quarter-finals, and there I expect their progress to cease.

The bottom five teams' season finished last night, though you could argue that poor old SaiPa's season was over months ago, so that leaves just the two teams from Tampere. After a ropey start to the season, Tappara have been in mostly consistently good form in recent weeks whereas Ilves have had a more even season. An all Tampere final is a distinct possibility, something that hasn't been true for a very long time, with Tappara coming out on top. HIFK are an outside bet to piss on the Tampere party. Were they to meet Ilves in the semi-final then they could well progress to the final, but it's far more likely that HIFK's opponents in the semi-final will be Tappara, whom they'll struggle to get past.

[ursus arctos]

Tappara also won this season's Champions Hockey League, beating Luleå from the northern coast of Sweden in the final

[Muukalainen]

It's the deciding games in the mini-series tonight and our season is about to come to an inglorious end as, after two periods, we're losing 0-5 at home to KooKoo. Ässät are trailing TPS 0-1 in the other match in Pori. The quarter-finals start tomorrow.

[Muukalainen]

Two final period goals saw Ässät edge past TPS. The less said about our humiliation in Raksila tonight the better,

[Muukalainen]

We're almost at the end of the quarter-finals, and the situation is in terms of games won:

Tappara   4-0  KooKoo
Ilves     3-1  Ässät
Lukko     1-3  HIFK
Pelicans  3-2  KalPa

No great surprises here. Tappara are through to the semi-finals where they will have home advantage. Ilves had an important win in Pori last night which takes them to the threshold of the semis, and Lukko scraped an extra time victory in Helsinki to keep their thin hopes of progressing alive. The final match up has been nip and tuck with five home victories and not much to choose between the two teams.

[Muukalainen]

Who'd be a Lukko fan? Just imagine: you've qualified for the play-offs in third place but your recent form has been terrible. Worse still, your opponents will be HIFK, a team who are finally firing on all cylinders after a distinctly ropey early season. The quarter-finals are best of seven, and after three games you're 3-0 down and facing elimination. In the fourth game, however, you somehow scrape an extra time win and then win the fifth game at home. Going into the sixth game there's hope, and these hopes increase when you take the lead well into the second period. Then you double your lead with a short-handed goal early on in the third period. The clock hasn't quite reached three minutes to go when HIFK, power play and no goalie, reduce the deficit. Still there's hope though. Not for long there ain't, less than 100 seconds later HIFK are level and then extra time sees them dump your team firmly on its arse. HIFK will play Tappara in the semi-finals.

In the other quarter-finals Ilves beat Ässät to progress 4-1 in games to the semi-finals where they will play the winner of Pelicans v KalPa, which will be decided tomorrow (Tuesday) in the final game in Lahti.

[Muukalainen]

Pelicans defeat KallPa in the deciding game to clinch their place in the semis, which are:

Tappara v HIFK
  Ilves v Pelicans

The first legs are on Friday.

[ad hoc]

Just popping on here to note that Gyergyo (Gheorgheni) a small, run down, town from about 60 kms from me yesterday won the Hungary/Romania Erste Liga (coming back from 3 games to 1 down to beat Ferencváros in the deciding match). The reason for its appearance in this thread is that the win was largely built on the back of a core of Finns (indeed the winning goal last night was scored by one of them, Matias Haaranen)

(squad here https://www.eliteprospects.com/team/4121/gyergyoi-hk)

[Muukalainen]

The first semi-final went as expected with Tappara sauntering past HIFK 4-1 in games, but the other semi-final is very tense with Pelicans currently leading Ilves by 3 games to 2. I don't know the situation regarding Pelicans and the championship, but I'd be surprised if they've ever reached a final, let alone won it, The next game in the series is in Lahti tomorrow (Thursday) with the decider, if needed, in Tampere on Saturday.

[Muukalainen]

The other already known quarter-final features Pelicans versus KalPa, which should see the men from Lahti progress to the semi-finals, but they won't get any further.

Hah, what do I know. Pelicans have just beaten Ilves 4-2 in games and progress to the final. Not an all Tampere final, after all.

Hah, what do I know 2. I've just heard from my mate who's presumably at the game that it's their second visit to the final, having won silver in 2012.

[Muukalainen]

To no-one's great surprise, Tappara wrapped up their nth championship last night, defeating Pelicans 4-1 in games. Pelicans at least made a fight of the encounter, hauling back a three goal deficit to equalise but ultimately losing in extra time.

Previously, Ilves beat HIFK for the bronze medal. All in all, a very good year for Tampere.