Quote:
Originally Posted by T@T
AHL blows away the Finnish league for talent, I personally don't think the Finnish league is any better than the Swiss nowadays.
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When there are fresh hockey results from a recent tournament, you really should check your personal opinions against facts.
45 teams competed for 16 spots in the CHL playoffs, among them 8 Finnish teams and 6 Swiss teams. 16 teams made the playoffs.
7 Finns
4 Swedes,
2 Austrians,
2 Swiss,
1 Czech.
(Really you could argue that the sheer number of Finnish teams in the top 16 puts that league on par with the Swedish league.)
Both Swiss teams were btw beaten by Finnish teams in the playoffs.
Or to put it another way:
The Finnish teams participating combined for a goal differential of +56.
The Swiss teams combined for a goal differential of -8.
Or to put it another way: out of 8 Finnish teams participating, only 1 Finnish team ended up below any Swiss team, while 4 Finnish teams did better than all Swiss teams.
Austrians btw combined for +20 in CHL and generally did really well. The eventual champion Luleå needed a shootout win to beat Red Bull Salzburg in the first round of the playoffs. Austria has strengthened their league with the top teams from Italian, Hungarian and Slovenian leagues, and added a solid Czech team. I know they dont' have much of a reputation, but right now there doesn't seem to be much rank the Swiss league above the Austrian league. Will be interesting to see how that goes in the future.
(Also note that the Finnish league has recently lost one of it's top teams to KHL. And the Austrian league has been improved by a top C)