Tuesday, May 8, 2007

interesting developments...

i was doing a little light reading last night and came across this article. it starts out by blandly describing how there will be some NHL exhibition games in europe next year (*yawn*... the maple leafs did a mini-tour of sweden and finland in 2003 exhibition play) and finishes with this little gem:

"Some believe this is the first step in what would be a long process that could lead to having European teams one day compete for the Stanley Cup. Last month, [IIHF President Rene] Fasel proposed a Champions League format that would pit the top club teams in Europe against each other in a tournament similar to soccer's Champions League."

hunh ??? .....uhhhhh..... SORRY ?????

having watched intra-league play in both the swedish eliteserien and the czech extraliga in 2004, i can safely say it's exciting hockey. and, honestly, i actually really like the idea of a season-long international champions-league-type elimination tournament in hockey (like... i REALLY like it), but c'mon... not for the stanley cup.

seriously.

3 comments:

HG said...

You tell 'em, sista.

My word verification agrees: noooh

Anonymous said...

I don't know. I haven't put much thought into this, so I reserve the right to change my mind. But I think if this is done right, it has to be for the Stanley Cup. Imagine an NHL team wins the Stanley Cup, then loses to HC Davos or whatever for the Victoria Cup or whatever they decide to call it. What becomes the most important trophy, then? The spirit of the cup is that it goes to the best team, period.

walkinvisible said...

hg: love the word ver. it's so opinionated...

d: i disagree completely. if you think about pro football (soccer) there are many different trophies. in england, for example, there is the premiership title, the FA cup, the champions league and... one more i think (uefa ?? i forget..). the idea is to win them all... in my opinion, if there WAS a champions league type situation, there would be a new trophy awarded --your "victoria cup."

and davos ? no way... ;) GOOOO Södertälje !!!!! ;)