Euro Hockey Tour 2004-5

[DanCan]

Euro Hockey Tour 2004-5[/COLOR]

The Euro Hockey Tour comprises four tournaments: Pojistovna Cup (formerly Pragabanka Cup or Zlin Tournament) in the Czech Republic, Karjala Cup in Finland, Baltika Cup (formerly Izvestia) in Russia and Swedish Hockey Games in Sweden.
The 4 tournaments add up to the overall standings. Some of the individual tournaments used to allow other teams (in all cases, but one (Slovakia) Team Canada was invited) into the schedule, but these games did not count in the overall EHT standings. In 2003-4 only the four EHT teams were allowed. Also in this season, the tournament ended with playoff games between #1 and #2, and between #3 and #4 in the overall standings.

The winner count as the unofficial European Champion. In addition, the winner claims the biggest money prize. Last year, the winner (Finland) claimed 50,000 euro (the runners up, Sweden claimed 30,000 euro, while Russia (#3) and Czech Republic (#4) claimed 25,000 and 15,000 euro respectively).

The tournament does not have a high standing compared with other major international tournaments (World Cup, OGs and WC's). The reason is that European players from the North American leagues do not participate. In addition, the teams use the tournaments to prepare for the World Championships (and Olympics), allowing less experienced players ice time for their national teams.

Next season, the Ceska Pojistovna Cup collides with the World Cup. In March 2004, the participating countries therefore decided to cancel the Ceska cup in 2004/5. The schedule for the three remaining tournaments are:

Karjala Tournament in Helsinki November 11-14 2004.
Baltica Brewery Cup in Moscow December 16-19 2004.
Sweden Hockey Games in Stockholm February 10-13 2005.

The finals and bronze medal games will be played April 15 and 17 2005.

Historics[/b]

The European Hockey Tour started in the 1997/98 season. All individual tournaments are older than that. The Ceska Pojistovna Cup - formerly Pragobanka Cup (and later Zlin Cup)-started in 1994. Karjala Cup started in 1996 and is the youngest tournament. The Swedish Hockey Games (a.k.a. Globen Cup) started in 1991, while the Baltika Brewery Cup descents from the famous Izvestia Cup (inaugurated in 1967).

So far, Finland has arguably been the most successful team in the tournament, claiming no less than 5 times (all in a row).

Past Winners of EHT
1997-1998: Czech Republic
1998-1999: Sweden
1999-2000: Finland
2000-2001: Finland
2001-2002: Finland
2002-2003: Finland
2003-2004: Finland

I will leave for you to discuss the reasons for Finland's succes (e.g. is the SM Liiga the toughest in Europe? - start another thread!), but I would like to point out three statistical facts:

The first one is home ice advantage. Finland has won the Karjala Cup 6 out of 7 times. No other team has been so succesful at home ice (see table). In total, Finland has won 12 individual tournaments while Russia and Czech Republic have only won 4 each

WINS OF INDIVIDUAL TOURNAMENTS

	Ceska	Karjala	[Baltika	SHG
Finland	3	6	2	1
Sweden	1	1	1	4
Czech Republic...	2	0	2	0
Russia	1	0	2	1

The second reason is simply number of wins. Finland has won more than half its games (if we include OT) - 42 out of 72 games - far more than any other team.

ALL TIME TABLE

	W...	Wot...	T...	Lot...	L...	GF:GA...	P
1. Finland	35	7	7	4	19	190-159	111
2. Czech Republic	27	4	8	7	26	200-174	87
3. Russia	22	8	7	5	30	156-191	85
4. Sweden	23	3	8	6	32	164-186	77

The third factor is teams-vs-teams statistics. While the all-time statistics have been pretty even for most pair compariations, Finland sticks out by having excellent statitistics vs Sweden and Russia. Could that be the key?

TEAMS-VS-TEAMS

	W...	T...	L...	OT*
Finland vs Sweden	19	2	8	2
Finland vs Russia	14	2	5	5
Finland vs Czech Rep...	11	1	11	4
Czech Rep vs Sweden	9	4	8	7
Czech Rep vs Russia	9	3	10	8
Russia vs Sweden	10	1	10	5

BIGGEST WINS: TEAM vs TEAM

Finland vs Sweden: 8-1 (Pragobanka, 1997); 0-4 (SHG 2004)
Finland vs Russia: 5-0 (Karjala, 2002); 3-6 (Ceska 2003)/1-4 (SHG 2004)
Finland vs Czech R: 5-1 (Karjala, 2003); 2-7 (SHG 2001 and Zlin Cup 2002)
Czech R vs Sweden: 5-2 (Pragobanka, 1997); 0-4 (SHG 2004)
Czech R vs Russia: 7-1 (Baltika 1997); 4-8 (Playoffs 2004)
Russia vs Sweden: 4-1 (Karjala 1998)/3-0 (Baltika 2002); 0-5 (SHG 2004)


Sources: Eurohockey.net, hockeyarchives.fr, swehockey.se, and own sources.

[Graham]

I don't know why this tournament isn't given a higher profile. I actually think it is probably the highest quality tournament in the world, even over the Olympics or World Cup.

The reason is that teams with NHL players aren't given as much time to gel as a team. You might get a month long training camp before the World Cup, but the nucleus of the teams in the EHT play 5 tournaments a year (if you consider that the core will play in the World Championships together).

I went to Stockholm last year to watch the Sweden Hockey Games. Russia v Sweden was easily the best game of hockey I have watched live. Russia v Czech was a great game, too. The only downside was that Finland turned up with a very young team since they had already won the group stage of the EHT.

My wedding next year will stop me going this season. But I plan on making at least one of these tournaments a season.

Graham.

[Laho]

The EHT is one of my favorite attention-grabbers in the world of hockey, simply because it introduces us skilled players who might go unnoticed by the grand audience for a long time. It's practically a showcase of those skilled, yet hard-working players who fill up the needed gaps between the stars in teams gathered for big-scale tournaments.

Also, it's simply nice to see how the Europeans play in this NHL-centered hockey world. Good hockey.

And what's the secret behind the late major success of Finns? It's simply the fact we do have the best player material on this side of the pool. Not just the SM-Liiga, but for example the Swedish Elitserien and the Swiss league are boosting very high count and profile of Finnish players - many of them who truly are NHL material. The rest of the elite countries do have more skilled stars, let's admit that... but when we go one skill level below, the wide variety of players the Finns can throw in the rink are outstretching the other European elites. And this - de facto - is also the tale behind the only World Champion title we've ever won.

There is a sighting for the profile rise of EHT in the horizon however, yet vague one. And this is the Torino Olympics. If the talks about NHLers not participating then, the 2006 Olympic hockey will practically be one more EHT-class tournament, with two 2nd-class player NA teams thrown in, plus some non-elite nations. (Don't take this belittling, though, because at least Canada is still a force to be reckoned with even with their B-team thrown in the rink.) But I admit, when I listen to these talks and I think about Olympic Hockey with no NHL stars and think about teams that are going to roam... I'm drooling.

[Graham]

Incidentally, does anyone know of somewhere that sells DVDs of these games? I asked the Swedish Federation after the Sweden Hockey Games, but never got an answer...

Also, how difficult are tickets to get at the Czech, Finnish and Russian rounds?

Graham.

[pihinalle]

There seem to be plenty of empty seats every time.

[Graham]

Excellent. Now just need to work out the gaps in my calendar. Have got two free flights with SAS that I need to use up soon...

Graham.