European Champions Cup

Here in Europe, the European Champions Cup has just been played, and Russia won. The team from Sweden, Frölunda, lost both their matches and the press here was filled with reports of how people were angry at them for not trying harder. They were picked by many to win.

The tournament itself is not really taken seriously, it does not have the importance of the World Cup nor the Champions Cup in football (soccer). The Swedish team flew in late with a lot of junior players and other teams were not impressed. The Finland team's coach surprisingly critized the Swedish team and felt they were unprepared. Maybe so, but they played all their stars and you can understand why people don't really care that much; it doesn't count in the standings, is not shown on television and nobody follows it!

This is probably because the International Ice Hockey Federation is a joke. They are very bureaucratic and do not properly promote the tournament. Plus there are so many international tournaments already.

Still, both the Swedes and the Finns want to play against each other more often, and have the results count in their respective leagues. I think this is a good idea since the leagues are fairly close in quality, the travel times are not significantly more and we would get to see some finish players here in Gothenburg. Lets hope this works out.