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So I know a guy playing hockey in Europe and it is funny because I have a pretty good Friend in Finland now.

Basically my question is, SM-liiga in Finland and Deutsche Eishockey Liga which is in... Sweden? Are these what you could call the top-tier hockey leagues.

Here we go

The Deutsche Eishockey Liga (German Ice Hockey League, shortname DEL) is a German professional ice hockey league, which currently has the highest number of American and Canadian players outside of North America. It was formed as a replacement for the Ice hockey Bundesliga and is now known as DEL - Die 1. Bundesliga. Unlike the old Bundesliga, the DEL is not under the administration of the German Ice Hockey Federation.

So my question is, are these popular leagues do people know the players or what. Or is it just a local thing.

'Ho-key'? What's...


Oh yeah, that's the one that's a bit like football but with a stick, isn't it?

Tacobake wrote:So I know a guy playing hockey in Europe and it is funny because I have a pretty good Friend in Finland now.

Basically my question is, SM-liiga in Finland and Deutsche Eishockey Liga which is in... Sweden? Are these what you could call the top-tier hockey leagues.

Here we go

The Deutsche Eishockey Liga (German Ice Hockey League, shortname DEL) is a German professional ice hockey league, which currently has the highest number of American and Canadian players outside of North America. It was formed as a replacement for the Ice hockey Bundesliga and is now known as DEL - Die 1. Bundesliga. Unlike the old Bundesliga, the DEL is not under the administration of the German Ice Hockey Federation.

So my question is, are these popular leagues do people know the players or what. Or is it just a local thing.

Other sports in Germany are more popular by a long shot. Football, Handball, as well as motorsports (Formula 1 and the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft) are probably the most popular. Basketball and Hockey are around (obviously), but in my eyes the popularity doesnt extend beyond the cities playing. Thats why you dont find a lot of it on TV either. I havent seen a live german hockey league game at all. Maybe Im just not looking hard enough though. International/world championships, however, you will find.

I dont know any Hockey or Basketball players

Hockey is the world's greatest sport... its only a matter of time before people realize that.

chaos0xomega wrote:Hockey is the world's greatest sport... its only a matter of time before people realize that.

Well Canada and Russia seem to understand that.

GO MONSTERS!

I love hockey. The proper version I mean, not the ice version. Ice rinks aren't that readily available to schools as astro fields. I don't know anything about the leagues through, just that its better than football (the proper one, not the rugby wannabe one)

They should invent a form of hockey involving rockets, ninja-star like hockey pucks, and an 80% casualty rate- gladiator style.

Hockey is played by middle class school girls here. I understand that others do it on ice in order to make it more manly.

Cheesecat wrote:

chaos0xomega wrote:Hockey is the world's greatest sport... its only a matter of time before people realize that.

Well Canada and Russia seem to understand that.

He said 'people'. Everyone knows that Canadians and Russians are socialist, and as such, are not real people.

I don't know about over the channel, but here Ice Hockey has a small following but is very much lower down the sports food chain.

I know that Europe pretty much acts as the consolation prize for Ice Hockey players (and Basketball and American Football - don't think I've ever seen anyone playing baseball here) who can't make it in the American and Canadian leagues.

wait, there are other sports besides rugby and ultimate frisbee?

Tacobake wrote:So I know a guy playing hockey in Europe and it is funny because I have a pretty good Friend in Finland now.

Basically my question is, SM-liiga in Finland and Deutsche Eishockey Liga which is in... Sweden? Are these what you could call the top-tier hockey leagues.

Here we go

The Deutsche Eishockey Liga (German Ice Hockey League, shortname DEL) is a German professional ice hockey league, which currently has the highest number of American and Canadian players outside of North America. It was formed as a replacement for the Ice hockey Bundesliga and is now known as DEL - Die 1. Bundesliga. Unlike the old Bundesliga, the DEL is not under the administration of the German Ice Hockey Federation.

So my question is, are these popular leagues do people know the players or what. Or is it just a local thing.

DEL = Germany. ( you know, were participating in olympic ice hockey, last time the americans didn't win against us.. )

Locally we had a 2nd league club at my home town, now down to 3rd or 4th league ( thanks to financially problems ).
Our local clubs may have 1+X non-european players. To have 1-2 canadians isn't rare. I've seen some of them on Team-photos of the local club but cannot remember
their names.

Do you mean ice hockey? People play field hocky in the UK, and in Ireland we play a game that's a bit hockey-esque, called hurling. Not sure if they play ice hockey in scandinavia though.

They do. The Swedish Elite League is considered to be one of the best in Europe, and is composed of 12 teams. Finland has the SM-liiga. Don't know about Norway or Denmark however.

Tacobake wrote:So I know a guy playing hockey in Europe and it is funny because I have a pretty good Friend in Finland now.

Basically my question is, SM-liiga in Finland and Deutsche Eishockey Liga which is in... Sweden? Are these what you could call the top-tier hockey leagues.

Here we go

The European hockey league with most $ currently is the Russian KHL, so it's probably the top league here, although Elitserien in Sweden and SM-liiga in Finland are decent too. Hockey is naturally played elsewhere on the continent, but it's not as prominent due to majority of Europe being crazy over football/soccer.

George Spiggott wrote:Hockey is played by middle class school girls here. I understand that others do it on ice in order to make it more manly.

Oh my GOD that was a terrible movie. So bad so I wasted a post just to mention that