ladies and gents let me give you the Helsinki Wild

so it appears we are opening in Finland vs Carolina next year, which sucks mass amounts of horse gonads.

http://www.startribune.com/blogs/79545012.html

Blah!

Canucks are also a candidate. I don't like it one bit. Why have my team start the season off with any sort of disadvantage? This is unneccessary.

Blackhawks started there and they seem to be good but then again they do have a stacked team as fuck.

Canucks went to Japan quite a few years ago. Everyone else should have a chance first....

cehnehdeh wrote:

Canucks went to Japan quite a few years ago. Everyone else should have a chance first....

Is that where Ohlund mastered the art of using chopsticks?

Hmm, I don't like this because it robs the home fans of a regular season game. For what purpose? Stroking the IIHF's or Rene Fasel's ego? Anyone want to bet you don't see any appropriate price reduction in your season tickets over this? They'll probably make it up by adding a few more "Premium" games so they can get the same amount of dough hosting one less regular season home game.

I read that this would rob the canes of a home game, could be wrong. Is this even confirmed for sure yet?

KillerCarlson wrote:

Hmm, I don't like this because it robs the home fans of a regular season game. For what purpose? Stroking the IIHF's or Rene Fasel's ego? Anyone want to bet you don't see any appropriate price reduction in your season tickets over this? They'll probably make it up by adding a few more "Premium" games so they can get the same amount of dough hosting one less regular season home game.

That sounds pathetic....so pathetic that they will probably do it.

If it counts as a home game for the Canes.. eh... why not!? I mean how many more Fins can we fit on this team? Now if it counts as one of our home games...

I'm fucking swedish... so is my wife... play more fucking ABBA!!

timotheuzi wrote:

I read that this would rob the canes of a home game, could be wrong. Is this even confirmed for sure yet?

When teams start over seas, they do an equivalent of a home and home, thus each team involved loses a home game.

I think if you are going to do it, do it for all teams. Then you don't handicap these teams that have to play them.

I have never understood the motivation behind opening over-seas. Most fans are here. We aren't going to book travel to Helsinki to go watch the Wild.

sqare wrote:

I have never understood the motivation behind opening over-seas. Most fans are here. We aren't going to book travel to Helsinki to go watch the Wild.

I actually understand WHY they do it... so that people can see their "home nation" talent actually play in front of them. And when you figure you have the KHL on that side of the world, you are going to need to do some thing to try and bring in those top european players (or I should say, keep them wanting to come here besides the lure of being in the "NHL" and winning the Stanley Cup.)

I think they should schedule each team to play at least 1 game in europe every year and have it played in different venues/cities. That would be 32 games and 1 trip for each team (and try to schedule it to be the only game that week for that team so the players can enjoy the trip and not be rushed to get there, practice, play the game, then leave just as quickly so they can be back to get ready for a west/east coast trip.)

Your logic is flawed:

Quote :

you are going to need to do some thing to try and bring in those top european players

The top European players already *want* to play here.

Most teams will draft swedes, finns, or even russians. Hedman and MPS come to mind as the top European players from the last draft.

The NHL already drafts the best European players and the rest would not be considered NHL quality.

Teams are not a "National" team. The Wild have three Finns, three Czechs, one Swede and a mixture of mostly canadian and one american. The Canes have three Finns as well, one Swede and the rest are north american.

Yes, I understand that "it's cool" for the big name Finns to play at home. I disagree with the "It's Cool" aspect and would rather see them at home.

Remember the large Finnish delegation at a Wild game last season?

M. Koivu is the best Fin player in the world, Zetterberg/Lidstrom are the best Sweedes, Ovie is the best Russian. The Stanly cup is the biggest prize in hockey, so i agree with Sqare the best players play here, this is about expanding the popularity of NHL in Europe and trying to eventually get an NHL league in Europe.

It's more than that. Heard a very enlightening segment yesterday about how last year, overseas nhl.com hits were HUGE and the shop.nhl.com profited very nicely from oversea sales as well.

Money will always be the motivator.

It worked out for the Blues this year sweeping Detroit... that's about all they've done well this year.

sqare wrote:

Your logic is flawed:

Quote :

you are going to need to do some thing to try and bring in those top european players

The top European players already *want* to play here.

Most teams will draft swedes, finns, or even russians. Hedman and MPS come to mind as the top European players from the last draft.

The NHL already drafts the best European players and the rest would not be considered NHL quality.

Teams are not a "National" team. The Wild have three Finns, three Czechs, one Swede and a mixture of mostly canadian and one american. The Canes have three Finns as well, one Swede and the rest are north american.

Yes, I understand that "it's cool" for the big name Finns to play at home. I disagree with the "It's Cool" aspect and would rather see them at home.

Remember the large Finnish delegation at a Wild game last season?

you left out the part where I said "or keep them wanting to come here." I know they currently ARE here already... but if they (the NHL) isn't careful, we could start to lose those players to the KHL if the KHL is playing in their backyard and they are paying them.

Granted, I have only talked to one fringe NHLer about it, but his assessment is that most of the guys would rather play in the AHL than go over to the KHL. Unless you are from the former Eastern Block countries or it's your last option, North American hockey is where it's at.

*shrugs*

I'm not going to disagree about players feeling like that TODAY, but what about tomorrow? Remember when the "AFL" was considered a inferior football league?