Asia League Ice Hockey 2014-15

[Ivan94]

2014-2015 Participating Teams:

Oji Eagles (Tomakomai/Japan)
Nippon Paper Cranes (Kushiro/Japan)
H.C.Tochigi Nikko IceBucks (Nikko/Japan)
Tohoku Free Blades (Hachinohe/Japan)
Anyang Halla Ice Hockey Club (Anyang/Korea)
High1 Ice Hockey Team (Chuncheon, Goyang/Korea)
Sang Mu Ice Hockey Team (Seoul/Korea)
China Dragon (Shanghai/China)
Sakhalin (YuzhonoSakhalinsk/Russia)

http://www.alhockey.com/news/2014/07/news20140709-01.html

Click to read more...

 

[BladesofSTEELwFIRE]

Cool. Do they have any TV coverage there at all? Does the media report on them?

I thought I read a few years ago that the AIHL only had 4 teams so it's nice to see more and even a Russian team. That team must be in the Asian part of Russia.

 

[Ivan94]

Cool. Do they have any TV coverage there at all? Does the media report on them?

I thought I read a few years ago that the AIHL only had 4 teams so it's nice to see more and even a Russian team. That team must be in the Asian part of Russia.

Asia League has for over 10 years always at least 7-8 teams. I think you mix it up with the Hongkong league.

Sakhalin is the island above Japan.

 

[BladesofSTEELwFIRE]

I was watching videos of the Japanese national team. They are quite good. If they can just get over the hump and jump a few teams they can make the IIHF Worlds. I know that's easier said than done.

 

[Urbanskog]

I was watching videos of the Japanese national team. They are quite good. If they can just get over the hump and jump a few teams they can make the IIHF Worlds. I know that's easier said than done.

They had all the chances this year but blundered it.

 

[BladesofSTEELwFIRE]

They had all the chances this year but blundered it.

Wow! Japan beat Slovenia and Ukraine! They tied Austria in points but I assume Austria was promoted to the main tournament because they had better goal differential. If Japan simply won that shootout against Hungary they would be in the 2015 Worlds! At least this bodes well for the future.

 

[JoeCool16]

Asia League has for over 10 years always at least 7-8 teams. I think you mix it up with the Hongkong league.

Sakhalin is the island above Japan.

There's a rule on how many internationals you can have in the league per team, isn't there? I wonder if Sakhalin will be able to draw as many as they like from Russia? Not sure what difference it would make because that'd still be a large step down from the KHL, but it'd be interesting to see a primarily-Russian team in the Asian league.

 

[Ryker]

There's a rule on how many internationals you can have in the league per team, isn't there? I wonder if Sakhalin will be able to draw as many as they like from Russia? Not sure what difference it would make because that'd still be a large step down from the KHL, but it'd be interesting to see a primarily-Russian team in the Asian league.

Why wouldn't they be able to draw as many as they like from Russia if they're a Russian team? I assume that's what they'll do instead of relying on more expensive foreign players. And there's plenty of lower Russian leagues, so I'm not sure why you brought KHL up. It's not like it's KHL or nothing.

 

[JoeCool16]

Why wouldn't they be able to draw as many as they like from Russia if they're a Russian team? I assume that's what they'll do instead of relying on more expensive foreign players. And there's plenty of lower Russian leagues, so I'm not sure why you brought KHL up. It's not like it's KHL or nothing.

I've never heard of any lower Russian leagues, so I have no idea what a player playing in one would be equivalent to. ECHL? DEL? The Asian league? I'm just curious what a team of Russian players would be like competitively in the Asian league.

 

[Ryker]

I've never heard of any lower Russian leagues, so I have no idea what a player playing in one would be equivalent to. ECHL? DEL? The Asian league?

So what did you think up to now? That the KHL is the only Russian league in existence? Seriously?

I don't know what the level of play is in the lower leagues, though I'd say VHL is definitely below DEL. But DEL is a good league, and you can't realistically expect second-tier leagues in any country to be better. As for the ECHL comparison, it's hard to say, but I'd probably rank it close to it. I'm not sure which is better, to be honest. As for the lower ones, it's anyone's guess. You can't really make comparisons there anymore.

I'm just curious what a team of Russian players would be like competitively in the Asian league.

Well, obviously it depends on who the Russian players are. I mean, that's a completely vacuous question.

 

[JoeCool16]

So what did you think up to now? That the KHL is the only Russian league in existence? Seriously?

No, but you hear of leagues like DEL, SHL, KHL, etc etc because you hear of former NHLers or busts thought to perhaps be NHLers one day going to those leagues. For instance, I know of Netherlands' hockey league because Dale Weise played their in the lockout, and lots of former NHLers play in the Swiss league, like Richard Park. They act as a sort of marker, where I can say "OK, NHLers who get around 10pts a season in the NHL get 35 pts a season in the Swiss-A league, and that's good enough for 3rd best on their team, so the level of hockey is about equal to 'X'."

I've never seen any former NHLers or busts, like Patrick White, playing in the Russian minor league, so I don't have any frame to compare the play in the league to. I was just curious where the level of play was for Russian minor leaguers.

 

[Siamese Dream]

The VHL is about equal to ECHL if not better

 

[Milos Krasic]

No, but you hear of leagues like DEL, SHL, KHL, etc etc because you hear of former NHLers or busts thought to perhaps be NHLers one day going to those leagues. For instance, I know of Netherlands' hockey league because Dale Weise played their in the lockout, and lots of former NHLers play in the Swiss league, like Richard Park. They act as a sort of marker, where I can say "OK, NHLers who get around 10pts a season in the NHL get 35 pts a season in the Swiss-A league, and that's good enough for 3rd best on their team, so the level of hockey is about equal to 'X'."

I've never seen any former NHLers or busts, like Patrick White, playing in the Russian minor league, so I don't have any frame to compare the play in the league to. I was just curious where the level of play was for Russian minor leaguers.

The VHL is a low scoring league. Former Ottawa draft pick Ruslan Bashkirov led the league in points with 46 in 48 games.

Also for point of reference, former NHLer Oleg Kvasha played 4 games in the VHL this season, scoring 5 points. In his KHL time for 2013-14 he played 44 games and had 10 points.

 

[offkilter]

Sakhalin isn't the first Russian team to play in the AIHL. Before them was the Golden Amur out of Khabarovsk. Amur's only season saw them swept from the first round of the playoffs by the Kokudo Bunnies who won the championship that year.

 

[BladesofSTEELwFIRE]

Sakhalin isn't the first Russian team to play in the AIHL. Before them was the Golden Amur out of Khabarovsk. Amur's only season saw them swept from the first round of the playoffs by the Kokudo Bunnies who won the championship that year.

You know if mostly Asian Russians were on that team? I assume it wasn't a team of European Russians and it will likely be the same way with this new team.

 

[offkilter]

You know if mostly Asian Russians were on that team? I assume it wasn't a team of European Russians and it will likely be the same way with this new team.

Here's the game day sheet from the opening night in September against Kokudo.

http://www.alhockey.com/sheet/3/game/ogs1.html

Most of the players were Russians of Euro decent. I wouldn't be surprised if Sakhalin wasn't much different since back in 49-53 the Soviet government depopulated the island of its Japanese and ainu people to Hokkaido and repopulated it with their own people.

 

[BladesofSTEELwFIRE]

Here's the game day sheet from the opening night in September against Kokudo.

http://www.alhockey.com/sheet/3/game/ogs1.html

Most of the players were Russians of Euro decent. I wouldn't be surprised if Sakhalin wasn't much different since back in 49-53 the Soviet government depopulated the island of its Japanese and ainu people to Hokkaido and repopulated it with their own people.

If it's mostly Euro Russians wouldn't they annihilate the other teams in the Asia league?

 

[SoundAndFury]

If it's mostly Euro Russians wouldn't they annihilate the other teams in the Asia league?

It depends on what kind of budget they will have. It's not about what "kind of Russians" are on the roster. Those "Euro-Russians" will still probably be just a third-tier players.

 

[ozo]

How would one even define "Asian Russians"? Asian sounding last name? Born on the east from Ural mountains? Tatars or Bashkirs?

All of them are regular Russians in my eyes and the team wasn't even really put together or anything as it basically is Amur second team which also took part in semi-pro Russian third league: roster of Golden Amur

 

[BladesofSTEELwFIRE]

It depends on what kind of budget they will have. It's not about what "kind of Russians" are on the roster. Those "Euro-Russians" will still probably be just a third-tier players.

True because if they were top tier they'd play in the KHL or NHL.

 

[Shadowthrone]

I'll be in Japan for 3 weeks from the end of october to mid november this year.
If logistics will work out I'll definitely will be trying to see a Nikko Ice Bucks game

 

[JoeCool16]

I'll be in Japan for 3 weeks from the end of october to mid november this year.
If logistics will work out I'll definitely will be trying to see a Nikko Ice Bucks game

If you do, take pictures! It'd be interesting to hear what the crowd is like at a ALIH game. It isn't hard to find videos of the games, but I wonder how many come out and what the atmosphere resembles.

 

[BladesofSTEELwFIRE]

I'll be in Japan for 3 weeks from the end of october to mid november this year.
If logistics will work out I'll definitely will be trying to see a Nikko Ice Bucks game

Please take video as well. These days everyone has a camera phone so it would be nice to see what the atmosphere is at a AIHL game.

 

[steap]

You know if mostly Asian Russians were on that team? I assume it wasn't a team of European Russians and it will likely be the same way with this new team.

The team was based on Amur-2 (junior team of Amur Khabarovsk) which was playin in Russian Premier League ("Первая Лига"). Here is the roster: http://www.eliteprospects.com/team.php?team=2749&year0=2005

I've never seen any former NHLers or busts, like Patrick White, playing in the Russian minor league, so I don't have any frame to compare the play in the league to. I was just curious where the level of play was for Russian minor leaguers.

Alexander Syomin playing for his hometown team few games Sokol Krasnoyarsk (which is playing in VHL) during lock-out.

 

[Based Anime Fan]

Please take video as well. These days everyone has a camera phone so it would be nice to see what the atmosphere is at a AIHL game.

Relatively quite. I caught a Cranes game when I was in Japan and was easily their loudest guy there.

The players aren't that bad, and it's getting better. I give it a few years and you may see players start getting to the AHL from that league.