Why the European Trophy is something like the NHL of Europe and even better?
Do you remember a pre-season game where your team plays and most of the hardcore fans are on vacation or swimming in a nearby lake?
Well, then you definitely did not visit a European Trophy game. With an average of 4533 fans per game and a definition of “pre-season”, the tournament creates better visitor numbers than an average 6th placed team playing another 7th average team in the regular season. Bratislava leads the visitor numbers this year, showing that the city lives with hockey even if the temperatures outside remind us of Brazilian football on the Copacabana.
Imagine now for 10 seconds we cancel the word “trophy” and substitute it with the word “league” in the description. What do you get? A league that is sponsored by top companies is supported by the biggest and most prosperous companies wanting to be visible in all of Europe. Now insert all the elements, best teams from Finland, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Remember, The NHL has teams “only” from the US and Canada, the KHL has teams from “only” Russia, Latvia, Belarus, Czech Republic and Slovakia with Slovan Bratislava joining this year. Anyhow you turn the equation, the European Trophy as a league would have 7 countries represented, that’s more than KHL (the best league in Europe and better than the NHL the best league in the world!
The question remains money, while the NHL lives by long traditions, long-term sponsorships and team franchises that produce more or equally than the salary cap, it’s no surprise that it’s the best league. The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), is heavily sponsored by large oil giants, it only combines 1 of the elements that make a league successful (money). Now back to the European League, you have derbies (Sweden vs. Finland, Austria vs. Germany, Slovakia vs. Czech Republic and Switzerland vs. Austria or Germany you have so a small world cup game every weekend!
So is the European Trophy/League better than the NHL or KHL? You can judge yourself on one of the Final games played in Bratislava!
Roland Ondrus
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| P | Tím | Z | B |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | CSKA Moskva | 38 | 81 |
| 2. | Jokerit Helsinki | 38 | 68 |
| 3. | Lokomotiv Jaroslavľ | 40 | 77 |
| 4. | Torpedo Nižnij Novgorod | 39 | 67 |
| 5. | HC Soči | 39 | 65 |
| 6. | Dynamo Moskva | 39 | 65 |
| 7. | SKA Petrohrad | 38 | 62 |
| 8. | Dinamo Minsk | 38 | 56 |
| 9. | Medveščak Záhreb | 40 | 56 |
| 10. | HC SLOVAN Bratislava | 40 | 55 |
| 11. | Spartak Moskva | 39 | 50 |
| 12. | Viťaz Podolsk | 39 | 46 |
| 13. | Dinamo Riga | 37 | 46 |
| 14. | Severstaľ Čerepovec | 38 | 40 |
| # | Hráč | Z | B |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Barker Cam | 36 | 27 |
| 2. | Kaspar Lukas | 38 | 24 |
| 3. | Ticar Rok | 37 | 19 |
| 4. | Jeglic Ziga | 40 | 18 |
| 5. | Bartovic Milan | 40 | 15 |
| 6. | Nagy Ladislav | 34 | 14 |
| 7. | Stastny Andrej | 31 | 13 |
| 8. | Surovy Tomas | 40 | 12 |
| 9. | Viedensky Marek | 40 | 12 |
| 10. | Nedorost Vaclav | 34 | 11 |
