CHL competition

[greeny]

out of interest does anybody know if the club gains financially from this competion ,,,prize money. or is it more that it raises the clubs profile through being seen more by wider audiences and maybe some finance to come through crowds watching the games. player wise i know its not a bad thing in that it puts them into a bigger shop window

[smbmetal]

My memory isn't as good these days, but I seem to remember when we first entered the CHL, Tony said it cost us money to play in it.

The competition has matured a little since then and even has slightly different rules, for anyone that doesn't already know, if you take a 2 min penalty you have to sit the entire 2 minutes. Similarly if you score short-handed your player is released from the box.

I personally cannot wait for the CHL. It's a rare chance to see competitive games against the Europe's elite teams, instead of playing Nottingham for the 560th time. I'd like to think we can potentially lure over higher caliber players to improve an already excellent EIHL side.

You'll get people moan about potential injuries and that Europe isn't our bread and butter etc, for me it helps put Steelers on the map and is only a positive for the club. I'm sure Fox will be looking forward to coming up against high level coaches. It will continue to improve Fox as a coach too, which is another benefit for us domestically.

I'd be surprised if there's any financial gain for playing in the CHL though, as we're very unlikely to be in the later rounds.

Be great if there was.

[ginger]

CHL is worth it (imo) for the exposure it brings to the league and teams, especially if they perform admirably as Belfast did this year. That got Besko his call up to Team Canada for the Spengler Cup, so now have an example where for a player, it's elevated their profile and put them on people's radar. It's also bulk of games prior to regular season, so doesn't cause issues of squeezing in rescheduled games.

Conti is great if you win it, but with a heavy domestic schedule, it really can cause issues (see us previously and Cardiff this year). Probably not worth it overall. There's plenty of Cardiff fans who gave it to us for declining the place who now wish they'd done the same.

[SHUSteeler]

My memory isn't as good these days, but I seem to remember when we first entered the CHL, Tony said it cost us money to play in it.

The competition has matured a little since then and even has slightly different rules, for anyone that doesn't already know, if you take a 2 min penalty you have to sit the entire 2 minutes. Similarly if you score short-handed your player is released from the box.

I personally cannot wait for the CHL. It's a rare chance to see competitive games against the Europe's elite teams, instead of playing Nottingham for the 560th time. I'd like to think we can potentially lure over higher caliber players to improve an already excellent EIHL side.

You'll get people moan about potential injuries and that Europe isn't our bread and butter etc, for me it helps put Steelers on the map and is only a positive for the club. I'm sure Fox will be looking forward to coming up against high level coaches. It will continue to improve Fox as a coach too, which is another benefit for us domestically.

I'd be surprised if there's any financial gain for playing in the CHL though, as we're very unlikely to be in the later rounds.

Be great if there was.

I feel exactly the same as this. Plus, hoping to visit some random town in Austria or a cheeky weekend in Finland.

[Doom]

You'll get people moan about potential injuries and that Europe isn't our bread and butter etc, for me it helps put Steelers on the map and is only a positive for the club. I'm sure Fox will be looking forward to coming up against high level coaches. It will continue to improve Fox as a coach too, which is another benefit for us domestically.

I've always fallen into this category because I've seen European competition scupper more of our seasons than I care to remember.

Like it or not, the domestic competition, particularly the league campaign, is our bread and butter. Drop off the pace in the league early on and it will undoubtedly hit attendances, which will impact on revenue and possible future recruitment.

I think one of the problems we've had in the past is that our smaller benches have struggled against significantly more talented players and when you're chasing the puck for 60 minutes fatigue is more likely to set in. As we know,. with fatigue comes bad decision making which sometimes leads to injuries.

I still wonder if one of the reasons for Paul Thompson's disastrous final season was our pre-season schedule. We were trying to integrate a lot of new forwards into our squad who spent most of the game on the back foot against superior opposition which left them low on confidence going into the season, not to mention the injuries we picked up chasing shadows.

Having said all the above, I don't have an issue with us competing in the CHL. It's a prestigious competition which is completed fairly early in the season, we have much greater squad depth now meaning less likelihood of injuries caused by fatigue and hopefully we won't be having to integrate too many new players into our squad.

I certainly wouldn't want to compete in the other European Competition, but the CHL gets a thumbs up from me.

Regards

Doom

[greeny]

My main worry is because of the season being so long, does the more games prior to domestic starting catch up fatigue wise further down the line

[smbmetal]

Great to see the club wanting to take it seriously.

https://www.sheffieldsteelers.co.uk/ste ... icipation/

I can't wait!!!!!

[Firefox1001]

The game dates can be found here - https://www.championshockeyleague.com/e ... -published.

The draw takes place on 22nd May.

[Brian]

My main worry is because of the season being so long, does the more games prior to domestic starting catch up fatigue wise further down the line

Yes , Belfast did well in the CHL but then picked up injuries which cost them in the league. Personally I want to win another UK grand slam rather than enter a competition we cannot possibly win with its travel, tiredness and possible injury elements. Some of these European teams are on another planet skill-wise and I don't think its great for your confidence if you get thrashed early on in the season. Added to that it takes away money we could use for better players or easier travel .

I can understand that its exciting for the Steelers fans who go to these games but they are a minority and I ask whether the downsides are worth the ups. Just my personal opinion of course.

[smbmetal]

My main worry is because of the season being so long, does the more games prior to domestic starting catch up fatigue wise further down the line

Yes , Belfast did well in the CHL but then picked up injuries which cost them in the league. Personally I want to win another UK grand slam rather than enter a competition we cannot possibly win with its travel, tiredness and possible injury elements. Some of these European teams are on another planet skill-wise and I don't think its great for your confidence if you get thrashed early on in the season. Added to that it takes away money we could use for better players or easier travel .

I can understand that its exciting for the Steelers fans who go to these games but they are a minority and I ask whether the downsides are worth the ups. Just my personal opinion of course.

Certainly a very valid opinion there Brian.

I have an alternative viewpoint in that we could potentially attract even better players to help us win more domestic trophies that without CHL participation these players could choose another club.

Injuries are part of the game, in fact if Olson was it? Didn’t get injured in a regular run of the mill pre-season game at ice Sheffield we may not have seen Greenfield’s talents and that wasn’t even a highly competitive game. I do accept the fact that playing higher quality opposition does increase the chance of injuries. It’s only 6 games though, hardly a gruelling schedule.

I’ve said it already, I can’t wait as it’s a chance to see high quality opposition instead of watching another drab game against Nottingham for the 500th time. Would be interesting to see if it’s only a minority of fans that want to see us in the CHL. Perhaps a straw poll here @Jayboy would give an indication here? Doubt Fife or a Dundee think they’re going to ever win the league, but it doesn’t stop them playing in the EIHL does it?

I’m sure one season we won the league after starting on fire having played in the CHL. It’s a great pre/early season chance to get up to speed quicker than your domestic opposition.

Finally, it’s great to be a big fish in a small pond. I like to play in the big pond though sometimes