TPS Turku is not Ajax – and when you win you have to be happy
Gothenburg.
How can 12,044 people go to watch Frölunda vs. Luleå in an insignificant round of 33 in the SHL, but only 4,162 can commit to a Hockey League semi-final?
Well, because the tournament lacks two basic things that are essential in ice hockey.
feelings and meaning.
What is the meaning of life?
I don’t know for sure, but I think it’s more about making yourself and the people you care about happy.
This should also be the meaning of the Champions Hockey League, but the tournament, which has been played in its current format since the 2014/15 season, rarely gets there.
Before that it was called the European Champions Cup, and before that the European Cup, or “Europakoppen” as we Swedes say.
CSKA Moscow won the European Cup in ice hockey most often, 22 out of 24 years before the collapse of the Soviet Union, then the Swedish champions Djurgården and Malmö made an impact.
It wasn’t particularly significant at the time either, for I rarely hear any of these clubs’ fans talk tearfully about memories of the caravans in town and the three-day celebration afterwards, but perhaps the weight of the European Cup match could have been greater. In the IIHF and all club groups and club associations they have been reasonably consistent.
TBS Turku is not Real Madrid
Today’s tournament is completely devoid of history and this, of course, plays a role when drawing people into the folds.
When the CHL was founded, it was also decided that some clubs would be guaranteed a place in the tournament, which, of course, caused and continues to cause outrage among serious ice hockey fans.
The fact that the best Russian teams never managed from the very beginning (we hope now that no one wants to join them) also played a role, as there were too many teams that did not meet the criteria, but also the fact that the curiosity of the Swedish fans seemed to be not Almost present in the “new” teams, curiosity dies suddenly when it comes to the Danish and Irish teams and, excuse me, to some extent also the Finnish hockey and poké teams.
TBS Turku and Stavanger, and probably never will be, exactly the same as Real Madrid and Ajax.
This year’s tournament winners collect five million in prize money, good money of course but it doesn’t make much difference for a team at the top of the SHL would send any happy athletic director shopping away at the center I know quite a few cheering supporters with good financials The same way they celebrate the SM title.
If you win, you should be happy
We can talk about a saturated market too, that 52 games of the regular season and the subsequent ones that follow are enough for many, but above all, CHL ice hockey lacks two things that cannot be replaced by any anthems, “scorer” jerseys or meetings with Grenoble.
feelings and meaning.
If you win an ice hockey match, players, captains, and supporters should be happy as players, and when you lose an ice hockey match, heads should hang like freezing rain, and somewhere the CHL should be worried.
Feelings often creep in about whether what is at stake, if something is at stake, actually means anything.
I still go to “Borgen” and am amazed at my step, ice hockey on classic grounds, and also between the teams that gathered here for one of SM’s most legendary finals ever.
Frölunda v Luleå in the spring of 1996 has gone down in history as one of the toughest and most emotional endings in living memory, there was so much pressure in Frölundaborg that the enrichment works in Svappavaara seemed like a screeching bicycle tire by comparison, people stood crammed like herrings for hours and those who needed To urinate go to the toilet where they are standing.
It wasn’t quite the same on Tuesday night, though, with 4,162 — including 40-45 away fans — a decent number by CHL standards.
It didn’t take a few seconds before I shuddered where I was sitting, when a bandy player from IFK Kungälv flew across the ice in a frenzy, I thought it would be easy now to find a corner for tomorrow’s newspaper but then I realized that only Ryan Lash was wearing a jacket.” Scorer” in red and blue.
Moments later, Andreas Borgmann made it 1-0 to Frölunda after he dribbled the ball “outside him”, with a kind of backhand fist, from his own area, through the midfield, rounded all the Luleå players in the attacking area and picked the ball up into a small gap which he spotted at Matthews Ward. , who had to stand when Lulea rested his number one goalkeeper, Joel Lasenante.
A true 80’s goal you rarely see these days.
There was still a fairly decent atmosphere in “Borgen”, but I felt with my whole body that I was constantly questioning the importance of this match, and it didn’t say that when the kind Frölunda club manager Christian Lechthaler, who was sitting right behind me, began to pull Some rags about old footballer Lars Gunnar Karlstrand.
Nobody was on pins and needles, if I say so, and I find it hard to see the same thing happen in the SM semi-finals.
German judges had a normal weight
The photographer in white pajamas strutting across the ice didn’t excite me either, and a few seemed engaged in voting for man of the match via some weird Facebook page.
As an ice hockey game it was a fun event CHL ice hockey is often a little more open, a little more relaxed, a little less anxious than a regular ice hockey series it actually felt a bit like Allsvenskan ice hockey at times and that’s a bit ironic .
Ice hockey has to retreat to the Champions League to really feel welcome.
It still heated up a little in the end, mainly because ice-hockey-playing Brendan Schinemmen snarled, with little bandit pinches before he ran and hid behind an umpire.
Konstantin Komarek and Anthony Greco stood and shouted at each other in every booth and Roger Runeberg was furious at the German referees but calmed down when they noticed with clear German gestures that this was now enough.
They really did have a natural poise and self-esteem that many Swedish judges lack.
Lulea turned the game into a lead, and Frland equalized late on, finishing 2-2 at the end, which matches in the Champions Hockey League can apparently do.
Back in Lulea in a week, the winner could play in the final and maybe win something no one seems to care or attach any prestige to.
What a fishy person.