Asia League Ice Hockey
 

Anyone know of this league? It's a 7 team Korea/Japan/China league, 2 teams in Korea, 1 team in China, and the rest in Japan. I went to a game once in Korea, definitely maybe single A level hockey but it's all good.

http://www.alhockey.com/

Here's some vids to get anyone started, for you budding Asia League Ice Hockey fans..

Anyang Halla Fight Song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii3e2GluJ-4

highlights:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqLSs...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6sTm...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWIdw...eature=related

+ follow the links on the right..

this league has zero presence in the Korean sports scene. I had to argue and prove to Korean people (Korean sports fans!) through internet links that this league actually exists. They televised the opening game for last season and they cut the telecast off early 3rd period for pre game coverage of pro Korean baseball (Korean baseball plays 6 days a week).

Good times.

I noticed there was discussion on this league before looking through the back pages. I'm a n00b sorry about that. This thread can be deleted if you want.

here is some more info...

http://forums.internationalhockey.ne...splay.php?f=80

I'm moving to Korea next month and I'm excited to check out some games. I think it's pretty interesting that they have some former NHL picks playing over there now.

Yeah, Alex Bourret plays in that league! :laugh:

Anyang Halla team is in Anyang City connected to the Seoul Subway, you need to get off the train station and take a cab or bus to the stadium. The rink is right next to the stadium where Anyang's pro basketball team plays.

Despite the insanely low profile for hockey in Korea, outside and inside the stadium there really is a tiny bit of hockey culture, aura. People walk around in Halla jerseys and North American people come to the games where NHL jerseys.

A great time.

Cool, I'm not going to be very close to Seoul but it seems pretty easy to get around the country via train and bus.

Do you have any idea how accessible the players are? I'm going over to teach english but I'm actually a journalism major and I was hoping I could write some stories about the league and the players.

the players aren't celebs at all, you can probably just talk to them leaving the rink. Or just give the office a call or you could just set up some interviews.

Write some stories and put them up here lol

Where in Korea are you going to be? There's another team in Chunchun, Gangwon province. But that team is lower profile. Saw their games on SBS sports when they broadcast.

Also, two top Korean universities Yonsei and Korea have hockey teams that play each other every year. It's even lower in skill level than the pro league, but it is hockey.

I'm ethnic Korean so I've been back and forth to Korea many times, I do remember this full blown hockey equipment shop in Gangnam when I visited many years ago. I think it was Jim Paek's store. And I'm pretty sure it's shut down now.

I'm going to be placed in Yeongju, a pretty small town but apparently it isn't too much of a pain to get to Seoul, I have no idea if it would be possible to get to Chunchun by train or bus, maybe you would have a better idea?

I figured the players would be fairly accessible and I don't think it'll be too tough for me to get to know some of them, especially the Canadian ones.

Tennessee's own Jon Awe plays for Anyang Halla . Jon grew up in Memphis and played for the Texas Tornado, then got a scholarship to Northeastern. Played ECHL for Gwinnett and won the hardest slapshot contest in the all-star game. Got a couple of AHL looks ( most games were with Houston ). Went over to play for Anyang Halla and won a championship last year.

A friend of mine plays in the Asia League, on a team with Bourret. His name is Tim Smith, he tied the league record in scoring last year... There a few ex-nhl guys / AHL guys. Smith crushed the dub (96 points), played and lead the ECHL in scoring one year (on a line with Burrows) which finally got him a chance in the AHL (which was the same year as the lock out, so his job got taken by NHL players and he was reduced to fourth line minutes) never got a contract extension the season after even though he destroyed the ECHL/WHL.

Burrows says high praises of him, even mentioned him on an article on nhl.com http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=5...vid=nhl-search

here's his player page on elite prospects : http://eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=24113


Super good guy, it's a shame he never a got a shot in the bigs.

Anybody still follow this?

Ki Sung Kim played 3 games in the CHL this season. he didn't have any points, but i guess that's still pretty cool.

Will there be some NHL-players in Asia League now when it's a lockout? Since many European leagues wont allow them. Could be good for hockey in east Asia.

Oh yeah, i heard Crosby will be heading right away :sarcasm: :laugh::laugh:

Of course i didn't mean players like Crosby, which i think most people would understand... But why wouldn't some play there? There is already now many canadian players there. During the last lockout players went to the british league, the asia league cant be that much worse, after all it's a pro league.

Because theres better options firstly-AHL secondly all the european top leagues KHL,SEL,FEL,Czech-ekstraliga,DEL if you cant find there you can play in allsvenskan or mestis or some austrian league or something.

Oh, some NHL'ers (3rd/4th liners) for sure would rather like to have some time in Japan or South Korea than playing Mestis hockey, believe me.

I heard a rumor that Luke Schenn and Blake Comeau might be trying to play for Anyang Halla. The problem is that they only want to play until January but the league/teams don't like that.

if i were the GM of Anyang Halla or any other ALIH team i'd take NHL-calibur players for a week if that's all they wanted to play. I'd imagine that'd be huge for ratings/interest and how often does this kind of opportunity come around?

I remember when Anaheim & Vancouver played back to back games in Tokyo after the Olympics. I remember the attendance was pretty good. I was thinking the sport would pick up after that.

It's a dam shame the nhl isn't taking the market seriously.

The potential for hockey in east asia is massive.

Worst than not trying for stronger ties in asia, the nhl is allowing other sports such as basketball to become even stronger.

In the modern world the most international sports will dominate.

Moe Mantha could win a scoring title in the AHL with Gretzky like numbers! :laugh: