I thought I'd start a new thread for all European hockey leagues and/or posters' experiences.
This weekend I went to
British Elite League finals weekend in Nottingham. I'm not sure what I expected but I was blown away by the whole thing.
The playoffs are one game knockouts. The two semi-finals are held on Saturday and the final (and third place game) on Sunday. The four teams that made it this far were the Sheffield Steelers, Belfast Giants, Fife Flyers and Braehead Clan.
All teams were well represented by fans who made the trip plus numerous local Nottingham Panthers fans whose team didn't make it to the semis. The arena was probably about the size of an AHL arena and was nearly a sell-out. Just about everyone in there was wearing a hockey jersey and the crowd was really loud, there was lots of chanting like at a soccer game but the atmosphere was really family friendly. I was really impressed. It was probably more energised and noisy than the NHL season opener I attended in Helsinki a few years ago. The arena was quite nice too, and me and my friends had a catered private box that pretty well matched what you get in the Saddledome. Most of the fans were really quite knowledgeable.
The level of play was pretty good as well. Obviously not NHL level but still pretty crisp passing, skill plays, speed, hitting. The eventual winners, Sheffield, had plenty of familiar names on it including former Flames pick Gord Baldwin, but also Steven Goertzen, Drew Fata, Nate DiCasmirro, Dustin Kohn, and Stefan Meyer. Lots of British players on all teams though many of whom looked on par with these former draft picks.
All in all, it was a great time and I came away really impressed and will definitely be going back next year. I really hope they can bring NHL games back to London like they do for other European cities because there are some really serious hockey fans here. I already knew that having had gone to a couple Guildford Flames games in the lower league previously but I'd not been to an Elite league game. I remember Theo Fleury wrote about it in his autobiography from his time playing in Belfast but it was great to see it first hand.
Anyway just thought I'd share and start a new European hockey thread while I'm at it!
European hockey leagues thread
