how are the 'buying the league' crowd on THF reacting.
They just laughed at the Sestito signing because he's ****, and they're ripping Coventry for begging for donations last season and have now gone and signed an NHL'er
I often wonder in the likes of Canadians abroad how the work visa thing works.
I know that if I spend more than 180 consecutive days outside the country sunning in Florida I lose my provincial medi-care.
For s guy like the player coach in Fife who has been with the team for 15 years does the team fly him home every so often to maintain his universal health care in Canada?
Or maybe the rules are different in Manitoba but I doubt it.
Heard Drew Miller just signed in the Elite Hockey league.
Statement came out saying theres not as much roster space for players in Europe, especially for 3rd and 4th line NHLers.
Miller took the next step and went to England, even if its not a top flight league it is still a great experience and thats awesome. Would love to see games over there
Yep they're doing pretty good in the EPL, damn them
As for a merger I'd be all for a cup competition, something straight draw, like the FA cup perhaps, maybe reverse seed it for competitiveness sake.
I've not seen an EPL game before so I don't have any first hand experience, but from what I've been told the pace is a little slower. Is that right?
My preference would be playoffs. EPL and EIHL playoff champs meet for a playoff championship, that way the EIHL's joke of a competition would go away.
Alternatively, top 4 from each league get seeded and play it out that way. EPL 1 vs EIHL 4 like I assume you meant.
I've not seen an EPL game before so I don't have any first hand experience, but from what I've been told the pace is a little slower. Is that right?
My preference would be playoffs. EPL and EIHL playoff champs meet for a playoff championship, that way the EIHL's joke of a competition would go away.
Alternatively, top 4 from each league get seeded and play it out that way. EPL 1 vs EIHL 4 like I assume you meant.
No, the difference is too big. A cup competition would only work if the EIHL teams played with the same number of imports as the EPL teams and then called up guys from their ENL teams to replace the lost players.
......then called up guys from their ENL teams to replace the lost players.
Which wouldn't really work as very few EIHL teams have their own ENL (isn't it NIHL these days?) teams.
Even if some arrangement could be sorted for all EIHL teams to make the playing field more 'level' such an arrangements would actually work far more in the EPL teams favour rather than even things up, after all EIHL teams don't regularly train with half a squad of NIHL players.
As an aside, would you say the current arrangements in soccer are unfair with regards the FA and League cup? Should Manchester United be forced to play their reserves if they get drawn against a Championship/League One team?
I'm all for an inter-league cup competition but only if its 'teams as they come'. Surely the potential to 'giant kill' a fully manned squad is better than a dubious victory against an artificially weakened team?
Which wouldn't really work as very few EIHL teams have their own ENL (isn't it NIHL these days?) teams.
Even if some arrangement could be sorted for all EIHL teams to make the playing field more 'level' such an arrangements would actually work far more in the EPL teams favour rather than even things up, after all EIHL teams don't regularly train with half a squad of NIHL players.
As an aside, would you say the current arrangements in soccer are unfair with regards the FA and League cup? Should Manchester United be forced to play their reserves if they get drawn against a Championship/League One team?
I'm all for an inter-league cup competition but only if its 'teams as they come'. Surely the potential to 'giant kill' a fully manned squad is better than a dubious victory against an artificially weakened team?
They all do except Braehead.
Can't compare it to football, the game just isn't the same.
Nottingham Panthers don't have an NIHL, neither does Belfast and, strictly speaking, neither do Steelers. Nottingham Lions have an on/off relationship with Panthers and I very much doubt, given how seriously they take their own hockey, they'd be up for having their team stripped during the season to make up the numbers with the Panthers. Also, whilst Spartans are sponsored by Steelers, their organisation relationship is far more linked to Steeldogs who most defiantly don't get on very well with Steelers.
Of course you can compare soccer to ice hockey in respect to an inter-league trophy (a'la FA or League Cup, and yes, I'm well aware the games aren't the same!). EIHL teams, by virtue of the high amounts of imports, will generally play higher quality hockey. Premiership soccer teams, by virtue of the better (usually 'import') players they have, will generally play higher quality soccer. Now compare and contrast to EPL/NIHL and Championship/League One teams. Through various inherent restrictions (import caps in hockey, lower income in soccer) the quality is generally lower. Of course non-Premiership teams still manage to do ok in the soccer cups, indeed it is the one-off nature of these 'top flight vs lower league team' match ups that often account for lower league teams 'playing up'. To use the phrase many soccer commentators use "its their (lower league team) cup final".
As an aside, think of the extra income a crossover cup like this could generate for EPL teams. I know many Panthers fans who would love to visit rinks that we don't normally see and Panthers fans often travel in large numbers for 'big' games.
If I can just interject, Belfast have both SNL and U18 teams this year.
But not an NIHL (or as it was originally stated, ENL) team.
Whether EIHL teams have feeder teams or not, the concept of dropping imports and then bringing up some third tier players to replace them, in order to make things 'fair', is still completely flawed. EPL teams play and practice as those teams all season, a scratch team of EIHL imports, Brits and whatever fillers can be grabbed from a third tier team would likely be disadvantaged by lack of playing experience, something that anyone who plays any level of hockey themselves should understand.
There is also the fact that EIHL teams don't have the restriction on non-EU imports that the EPL has, which means that to 'level things up' with EPL teams the three teams I mentioned in my last post would (as things currently stand) have to bring in two (in the case of Nottingham) or three (in the case of Belfast and Sheffield) imports specifically for those games. Now whilst it could be argued that if such a restriction were known about before the season started then teams would recruit to suit, the relative rarity of EU-passport holding players in the EIHL (of the 201 players in the EIHL 92 are from NA, 93 are from GB and a mere 16 are EU-passport holders) is for a reason, the generally more physical 'NA-style' hockey played in the EIHL means that players experienced in such hockey are recruited, which invariably rules out many Euros.. Are EIHL teams really likely to build their teams around the requirements of a inter-league cup rather than the normal league and intra-league cup competitions? Very unlikely, which if considered along with the proposed 'NIHL players make up the numbers' idea would completely devalue the competition. Of course if such a competition did go ahead under the proposed conditions I'm sure the THFs masses and the 'EIHL is the Devil' types that abound would relish the chance to put one over teams that are EIHL in name alone, it would be a slightly empty victory though.
As I said, to take it back to the quite apt comparison to soccer's FA and League Cups (where teams that are 'better' for various reasons often get drawn against 'lesser' teams but victory for the former is never a foregone conclusion), the draw of such an inter-league competitions is the potential to giant kill, the injection of cash visits from top flight teams often brings and the chance to see other teams you rarely see (untainted by daft restrictions) playing.
Last edited by howeaboutthat: 10-10-2012 at 03:37 AM.
Nottingham Panthers don't have an NIHL, neither does Belfast and, strictly speaking, neither do Steelers. Nottingham Lions have an on/off relationship with Panthers and I very much doubt, given how seriously they take their own hockey, they'd be up for having their team stripped during the season to make up the numbers with the Panthers. Also, whilst Spartans are sponsored by Steelers, their organisation relationship is far more linked to Steeldogs who most defiantly don't get on very well with Steelers.
Of course you can compare soccer to ice hockey in respect to an inter-league trophy (a'la FA or League Cup, and yes, I'm well aware the games aren't the same!). EIHL teams, by virtue of the high amounts of imports, will generally play higher quality hockey. Premiership soccer teams, by virtue of the better (usually 'import') players they have, will generally play higher quality soccer. Now compare and contrast to EPL/NIHL and Championship/League One teams. Through various inherent restrictions (import caps in hockey, lower income in soccer) the quality is generally lower. Of course non-Premiership teams still manage to do ok in the soccer cups, indeed it is the one-off nature of these 'top flight vs lower league team' match ups that often account for lower league teams 'playing up'. To use the phrase many soccer commentators use "its their (lower league team) cup final".
As an aside, think of the extra income a crossover cup like this could generate for EPL teams. I know many Panthers fans who would love to visit rinks that we don't normally see and Panthers fans often travel in large numbers for 'big' games.
Belfast do have an affiliate team, they play in the SNL. You are right, it would not go down well, which is why this cup competition won't work because that's the only way to make it fair. Plus, these games would be pointless having anyway because if EIHL play at full strength people aren't going to show up to watch a game that's going to only end one way, and they won't show up to watch an inferior product if they have to play with less imports. It's a lose-lose situation.
No, you can't compare hockey to football. The difference between good teams and bad teams isn't as big in football as it is in hockey. How often do you see a 10-0 score in the FA cup? This is also because the nature of the game is completely different, football is a slow game played on a massive pitch so its a lot harder for a far superior team to rack up big scores. In hockey last season alone, I witnessed two 20+ goal drubbings in ENL1 league games. EPL fans may go on about how great their league is but believe me, the difference between EIHL and EPL is massive.
Whilst there is a fair gulf between the quality of EPL and EIHL teams we're not talking about a long, drawn out series of games, we're talking one-off, perhaps double-legged draws. Teams in many sports can and do up their game for such occasions and it is far from unusual to see 'lesser' teams triumph over ;better' teams.
You seem to hold a very strong opinion on this so I can't see that'd I'm ever likely to convince you otherwise, no matter what examples I give, so I'm afraid we'll have to agree to disagree and I'll leave it as that.
About the only thing you have said that I agree with is that ultimately this competition wouldn't work but perhaps our reasoning behind it differs. My doubts are based on the petty politics that are still rampant in British ice hockey, especially those grudges held by certain EPL owners.
Last edited by howeaboutthat: 10-10-2012 at 06:15 AM.
I will re-iterate, Belfast Giants playing someone like say Romford Raiders is in no way comparable to Manchester United playing Swindon Town.
Where do Romford Raiders come into this? The only mention you made of NIHL teams being involved was as sacrificial lambs to make up the numbers in EIHL teams. Weren't we purely talking about an EIHL (with NIHL fillers) vs EPL cup?
Quote:
Originally Posted by 99 Problems
No, the difference is too big. A cup competition would only work if the EIHL teams played with the same number of imports as the EPL teams and then called up guys from their ENL teams to replace the lost players.
I've no doubt you'll retort by using 'Belfast Giants vs Telford Tigers' or some such but why not 'Edinburgh Capitals/Hull Stingrays vs Guildford Flames/Manchester Phoenix'? I'm pretty sure they'd be fairly good games.
I don't know what I'd do. Buy a McGuinn Steelers jersey I guess lol.
