Denmark: Danish League 2015-16

[Justinov]

So with the teams getting their roster more and more to completion - Unibet Stars (Gentofte) as the exception - it's getting possible to compare roster strengths.

With SønderjydskE very impressive win over Salzburg it certainly looks like yet another year with them as heavy favourites.
Like last year they might concentrate fully on the Champions Hockey League and lose some matches early in the season and then end steamrolling in the later part.

Herning can equal SønderjydskE in terms of goaltending and defense, but looks weaker on the forward side.

After these two teams it's looks fairly equal all around. Both Herlev and Rungsted's roster seems very upgraded strength wise compared to last year.
Depending on Gentofte's roster at completion it doesn't look like any team will be a prügelknabe.

As always it will be uncertain, which imports will make a huge impact and who will be busts.

Rødovre is the team (as usually) with the fewest foreigners (3), whereas Aalborg - probably because of their financial troubles last year - is down at 4 so far.

So with SønderjydskE and Herning as boring picks yet traditional favourites for being the finalist pair, it does look to me that Gentofte and Aalborg could be the two teams not making the playoffs.
Yet rosters are not complete. I have Rungsted as the surprising dark horse this year!

So what are your predictions, folks?

Click to read more...

 

[Valdemar]

Even though it is pretty silly to predict anything so early in the season let me also play along.

SønderjydskE must be a clear favorite to get to the final again this season: They got the best core of danish players, they have signed with good imports, they have the best economy of all teams in the league and last (but maybe of most importance) they have excellent management.

Esbjerg should be a top 4 team, it depends of course of their imports, but I believe goal tending will be stronger and they have maintained most of their danish core.

Frederikshavn should also be a top 4 team. They have made many changes in their roster, and lost a lot of good players, but their signings looks interesting (not least George Sørensen).

Herning is traditionally a top 4 team, but at the moment their roster doesn't impress me. Mario Simioni could be a difference maker though.

Like Justinov, I have been impressed by Rungsted. Actually I believe they could be a top 4 contender. They got a good danish core and still have room for a couple of imports if needed. Right now they seems like the strongest team from Sjælland (East-Denmark).

Odense will probably play a smaller part in the tournament this season. There are a lot of unrest on the team, the captain has been fired and they have lost a lot of good players and only gained few to replace them.

Herlev seems a lot stronger (on paper) than last year and should qualify to the playoffs with ease.

Rødovre is Rødovre. Even though they normally have fewest imports of all they always manage to put up a good fight, and they will probably do the same this year.

After a year with financial troubles, Aalborg will have the maybe youngest and weakest roster of all teams this season. It will be an uphill battle for them most likely.

Gentofte will depend heavily on their imports this season. Their contingent of danish players on the roster are far from impressive, but they have some interesting imports that may surprise.

 

[Vandalay Industries]

So with the teams getting their roster more and more to completion - Unibet Stars (Gentofte) as the exception - it's getting possible to compare roster strengths.

Actually Gentofte is one of the teams closest to completion. If they sign Jeff Terminesi they are complete at 8 foreign players and they have their entire Danish contingent set as well.

Just because Eliteprospect is not completely updated on this (due to the fact that Gentofte has a very inactive website) it doesn't make it so. They have almost everything set.

 

[Justinov]

Actually Gentofte is one of the teams closest to completion. If they sign Jeff Terminesi they are complete at 8 foreign players and they have their entire Danish contingent set as well.

Just because Eliteprospect is not completely updated on this (due to the fact that Gentofte has a very inactive website) it doesn't make it so. They have almost everything set.

OK I stand corrected (I did check eliteprospects). Thanks for the info.

 

[Justinov]

Even though it is pretty silly to predict anything so early in the season let me also play along.

SønderjydskE must be a clear favorite to get to the final again this season: They got the best core of danish players, they have signed with good imports, they have the best economy of all teams in the league and last (but maybe of most importance) they have excellent management.

Esbjerg should be a top 4 team, it depends of course of their imports, but I believe goal tending will be stronger and they have maintained most of their danish core.

Frederikshavn should also be a top 4 team. They have made many changes in their roster, and lost a lot of good players, but their signings looks interesting (not least George Sørensen).

Herning is traditionally a top 4 team, but at the moment their roster doesn't impress me. Mario Simioni could be a difference maker though.

Like Justinov, I have been impressed by Rungsted. Actually I believe they could be a top 4 contender. They got a good danish core and still have room for a couple of imports if needed. Right now they seems like the strongest team from Sjælland (East-Denmark).

Odense will probably play a smaller part in the tournament this season. There are a lot of unrest on the team, the captain has been fired and they have lost a lot of good players and only gained few to replace them.

Herlev seems a lot stronger (on paper) than last year and should qualify to the playoffs with ease.

Rødovre is Rødovre. Even though they normally have fewest imports of all they always manage to put up a good fight, and they will probably do the same this year.

After a year with financial troubles, Aalborg will have the maybe youngest and weakest roster of all teams this season. It will be an uphill battle for them most likely.

Gentofte will depend heavily on their imports this season. Their contingent of danish players on the roster are far from impressive, but they have some interesting imports that may surprise.

Well I know it's a bit silly, but it the fun of guessing early one, before we know more.
Then we can go back and see who had the best guesses.
With regards to Herning - as you see as quite unimpressive Valdemar - you must think of their forwards, because both goaltending and defense looks quite good in my eyes. It would be a huge surprise if a club with that tradition doesn't make the final 4 at least.

So if I had to guess know on a top 4 it would be SønderjydskE, Herning, Esbjerg and Rungsted.
Sorry Frederikshavn.......

 

[Justinov]

The Danish Cup is underway with first round:

Hvidovre - Herlev: 1-6 [No chance for the Division-1 team]
Gentofte - Odense: 2-4 [With shots 29-32 it sounds like a tight game]
Rødovre - Aalborg: 1-3 [A minor surprise giving the youth of the Aalborg roster, Rødovre had 39-20 in shots, yet still lost]
Amager - Rungsted: 0-6 [No chance for the Division-1 team]

Second round will be played best-of-two:
Frederikshavn - Herning
Sønderjydske - Esbjerg
Odense - Herlev
Rungsted - Aalborg

Bottom two draws must consider themselves lucky as the top two pairings are pretty tough.

 

[Justinov]

First matches of round 2:

Frederikshavn - Herning: 3-0 [An indication that the Herning attack is a bit toothless this year?]
SønderjydskE - Esbjerg: 1-4 [Expected Champions Hockey League "hangover" from SønderjydskE]
Odense - Herlev: 6-3 [Goals galore]
Rungsted - Aalborg: 0-1 [Again a surprising win for Aalborg].

 

[Justinov]

Second match of the 2nd round (Quarterfinals):

Herning - Frederikshavn: 3-1 [Frederikshavn wins with 4-3 in goals]

Esbjerg - SønderjydskE: 3-1 [Esbjerg wins both matches, 7-2 in goals !!]

Herlev - Odense: 3-5 [Another goal galore. Odense wins both matches, with 11-6 in goals]

Aalborg - Rungsted: 3-1 [Aalborg wins both matches - 4-1 in goals and progresses to the semis].

So a bit surprising result with these four teams - Esbjerg, Frederikshavn, Aalborg and Odense - ready for the semis. From the match-results Esbjerg should be the favourite!

 

[Justinov]

So the Danish league is on:
First Round:

Gentofte - Rødovre: 0-4 [Shots 28-35]
Gentofte with their core based on foreign imports versus Rødovre with a traditional homegrown core ended with a clear Rødovre win.
2 goals by star Jannik Karvinen.

SønderjydskE - Herlev: 1-0 [Shots 31-10].
The big favourites pounded Herlev, but only secured a narrow win.
4188 spectators for the opening match in a town with officially 7666 people......

Odense - Rungsted: 7-2 [Shots 33-36]
In spite of the impressive roster on paper, Rungsted seems to have problems translating it to actual results.
Sean Wiles, Rasmus Bjerrrum and Dale Mitchell each with 2 goals for Odense.

Aalborg - Frederikshavn: 4-6 [Shots 22-29].
Aalborg seemed to continue their good results lately and was leading 4-1 into the 3rd period, where they collaped.
3 goals by Aalborg's Nicolai Meyer and 3 goals by Frederikshavn's Colin Vock.

Esbjerg - Herning: 3-2 SO [Shots 38-32].
Two of the favourite teams after SønderjydskE in a close battle. Mathias Mølgaard 2 goals for Herning.

 

[Justinov]

Second-third round:

Frederikshavn - Aalborg: 3-1 [Shots 30-18, again Aalborg loses a lead to Frederikshavn]

Gentofte - Odense: 3-5 [Shots 36-29, Odense with their second win, 3 goals for Dale Mitchell]

Esbjerg - Herlev: 8-0 [Shots 37-11, Colossal rout of Herlev, Brock Nixon 2G 1A]

Rungsted - SønderjydskE: 1-6 [Shots 28-36, Rungsted lets way to many goals in, 2 goals Kim Lykkeskov].

Herning - Frederikshavn: 0-3 [Shots 32-30, shutout for George Sørensen & 2G 1A Robin Bergman]

Aalborg - Rødovre: 2-6 [Shots 27-29, Nikolai Meyer two goals for Aalborg, Rasmus Astrup 3 assists]

So Frederikshavn have started with 3 wins!
Also Rødovre and Odense is off to surprisingly good starts.
Rungsted and Herlev must be really disappointed with big upgrades on paper, but being hammered in the matches so far.
Aalborg has lost their 3 first matches, but Nikolai Meyer has been on a point frenzy (one man army) for that team with 5G 2A in these three matches.

 

[Justinov]

Round 3-4:

Rødovre - Herning: 2-0 [Shots 25-21]
Rødovre keeps winning and have shown very tight defense (12-2 goal differential).
Herning has an offensive crisis. After 3 matches they have only scored 2 goals! (2-8 in goal differential)

Herlev - Rungsted: 0-5 [Shots 21-36, Erik Hjalmarsson 2G].
If it goes bad offensively for Herning, it's even worse for Herlev (as their defense also performs badly). After three matches they have 0-14 in goal differential.
Rungsted finally stops the leaks in their defense. (8-13 goal differential).

Esbjerg - Frederikshavn: 2-1 OT [Shots 50-31]
Esbjerg winning their second OT/SO looking very strong with 13-3 goal differential.
Frederikshavn also with a great start and George Sørensen playing very strongly in goal to keep numbers down (13-7 goal differential).

Odense - Aalborg: 5-2 [Shots 39-31, Simon Grønvaldt 2G]
Odense with a great start scoring left and right (goal differential 17-7)
Aalborg loses its 4th game. Amazingly they have still scored 9 goals (goal differential 9-20) and Nikolai Meyer is 5G 4A, so in ALL Aalborg's goals (two assists from this game)

Sønderjydske - Gentofte: 7-4 [Shots 31-20, Gentofte blows a 4-2 lead. Thomas Spelling 3G 1A, Scott Campbell 2G 1A, Kim Lykkeskov 2G for SønderjydskE and Roberts Jekimovs 2G 1A for Gentofte].
SønderjydskE let in too many goals for a team of this quality (still lacks a top goalie, like last season), but still have 14-5 in goal differential (so this was an off-day for them?).
Gentofte finally starting scoring, so all their new imports are beginning to find each other. Defense still shaky though with 7-16 in goal differential.

 

[QuietContrarian]

this Herlev team has no business in this league... such a massive dissapointment, yet again!

on the other hand, Jonas Røndbjerg was a beast!

his puckhandling, poise, skating and ability to hold the puck and enter the zone is already very mature.
he needs time in NA jr.

 

[Justinov]

this Herlev team has no business in this league... such a massive dissapointment, yet again!

on the other hand, Jonas Røndbjerg was a beast!

his puckhandling, poise, skating and ability to hold the puck and enter the zone is already very mature.
he needs time in NA jr.

So you went in to see the match? Dedication is when you follow a crap team
Sounds fantastic if Jonas Røndbjerg is already developing into a lead player for Rungsted at his age.
So you would rather having him going to North America junior league ASAP, or play this season out among men in Rungsted?!

But what is wrong with Herlev ??
Last year their imports was a disappointment and now they have started catastrophic (again). What is it with Herlev in your opinion?

Is it a lack of a core (like Rødovre) and to many new players shuffled in each year.
Herlev can't produce enough youth players of quality themselves to have a solid core.

Though it has to be said that 3 d-men are injured, so that could be a factor for the defense.
But offensively they have 4 imports and also Mikkel Ankjær and Dallas Maxwell, that should be at least solid Danish players, and yet no goals.
[Sonny Hertzberg should also be a real upgrade for PP - but nothing there either].

 

[Justinov]

Round 4-5:

Aalborg - SønderjydskE: 3-5 [Shots 28-29, all 6 last goals were on the PP !]
Aalborg looses again when playing well. Got from 0-2 back to 3-3 yet still loses. Meyer only had 1A this game, so Aalborg did produced 2 goals "without" him.
SønderjydskE wins, but again letts in to many goals against inferior (on paper) opponents

Gentofte - Herlev: 6-0 [Shots 40-33, Roberts Jekimovs 2G]
The catastrophy continues for Herlev now 0-20 in goal differentials in 4 games.
Gentofte get their first win and Jekimovs seem to be a great import (as expected from an ex-liiga player)

Rungsted - Esbjerg: 2-1 [Shots 32-38]
Huge win for Rungsted. Perhaps on the right track after a pretty shaky start.

Frederikshavn-Rødovre: 3-2 OT [Shots 33-19]
Rødovre blows 2-0 lead and gets their first loss.
Frederikshavn had their second game in a row going into OT. Debut for Christian Larsen in goal for Frederikshavn.

Herning - Odense: 4-1 [Shots 25-26, Jordan George 2G 1A, Jerred Smithson 1G 2A]
Finally Herning starts scoring again.
Odense gets their first loss.

 

[QuietContrarian]

So you went in to see the match? Dedication is when you follow a crap team
Sounds fantastic if Jonas Røndbjerg is already developing into a lead player for Rungsted at his age.
So you would rather having him going to North America junior league ASAP, or play this season out among men in Rungsted?!

But what is wrong with Herlev ??
Last year their imports was a disappointment and now they have started catastrophic (again). What is it with Herlev in your opinion?

Is it a lack of a core (like Rødovre) and to many new players shuffled in each year.
Herlev can't produce enough youth players of quality themselves to have a solid core.

Though it has to be said that 3 d-men are injured, so that could be a factor for the defense.
But offensively they have 4 imports and also Mikkel Ankjær and Dallas Maxwell, that should be at least solid Danish players, and yet no goals.
[Sonny Hertzberg should also be a real upgrade for PP - but nothing there either].

have followed them since I came here, and it has only gone one way and that is down.

I think he should play it out here and then move on!

tbh I dont know what it is, but I do think alot about it, must be the mentality in Herlev, the lack of a practice rink and the lack of propper yputh coaches.

 

[Justinov]

have followed them since I came here, and it has only gone one way and that is down.

I think he should play it out here and then move on!

tbh I dont know what it is, but I do think alot about it, must be the mentality in Herlev, the lack of a practice rink and the lack of proper youth coaches.

These factors are pretty important, but at the last U16 Herlev did have 4 guys on the roster, so it might be improving (only Rungsted and Rødovre had more, and Rungsted doesn't have a practice rink - yet - either).
However that alone doesn't explain the abysmal performance of the A-squad so far.
It's like they fail to acquire imports who can make an impact?!

EDIT: Still weird as Herlev did secure two imports from other Danish clubs.
1) Muhonen did really great for Gentofte last year
2) Victor Backman was good for Herning, especially in the playoffs.
Possible imports flops? Don't know about the two slovaks and Peltonen in goal (Bozic is injured as well as Saxrud Danielsen) - since I havent seen any games - but something must be lacking!

The number of homegrown players on the Herlev roster is quite small - what I meant with no core in the club, so constant shuffling of players year after year.

From their current roster, they only have 4 home grown players :
D-men: Kristian Frederik Bruun & Andreas Gath.
Forwards. Simon Rasmussen & Anton Ørsted Petersen

 

[Justinov]

Round 5-6:

Odense - Frederikshavn: 3-6 [Shots 23-29, Adam Miller 2G 1A & Robin Bergman 2G 1A, both from Frederikshavn]
Frederikshavn is really impressive so far!

Herning - SønderjydskE: 2-3 SO [Shots 20-24]
Herning struggling in the table, though getting a point from SønderjydskE is still acceptable!

Rungsted - Gentofte: 0-3 [35-20, Artem Iossafov 3A]
Rungsted disappointing again, but what a win from Gentofte. Shutout with 35 shots towards goal.

Herlev - Aalborg: 3-2 [Shots 27-35, Mikkel Ankjær 2G for Herlev, Nicolai Meyer 2G for Aalborg]
Herlev scored and won (miracle)! Now only 3-22 in goal differential.
Aalborg loses yet again, while matching their opponent. Nicolai Meyer continues his one-man-army work for Aalborg!

SønderjydskE - Herning: 5-4 OT
Herning loses again in OT/SO, as they have done in 3 out of 6 matches! Only 1 win so far.
SønderjydskE at the top of the table closely followed by Frederikshavn.

Rødovre - Odense: 2-6 [Shots 30-23, Dale Mitchell 3G 2A (wow!)]
Rødovre's defense has not been solid these last two matches, after an otherwise great start to the season.
Odense has scored as many goals as SønderjydskE (27!).

Production:
Dale Mitchell, Odense: 8g 8A 16P
Nicolai Meyer, Aalborg: 7G 5A 12p [Aalborg has scored 14 goals in all].

 

[Jevo]

Is it just me or is the webpage for the Danish League getting worse and worse as time goes by? It changed when the league changed name to Metal Ligaen, which was a big step down from the old AL Bank Ligaen website, which had much more info on it. Now they have changed it again recently, and now I can't even find goalie statistics on it any more. Reading the FAQ on the page, it appears that it is still in development, and they promise that more will come. But why put out something that is so far below what it was before, when it isn't even finished yet? Sorry for the rant, but it seems like the league hates the few fans they have, at least they don't appear to want new ones.

 

[Justinov]

Is it just me or is the webpage for the Danish League getting worse and worse as time goes by? It changed when the league changed name to Metal Ligaen, which was a big step down from the old AL Bank Ligaen website, which had much more info on it. Now they have changed it again recently, and now I can't even find goalie statistics on it any more. Reading the FAQ on the page, it appears that it is still in development, and they promise that more will come. But why put out something that is so far below what it was before, when it isn't even finished yet? Sorry for the rant, but it seems like the league hates the few fans they have, at least they don't appear to want new ones.

True. They only have the basic statistics and no customized search options.
I go to eliteprospects, though they are often quite late sometimes in their upgrades (but at least they have the goalie info).
Hopefully they will soon get it up and running with more info and options.

Like the layout though. Nice to see a "clean page", not overfilled with commercials!
Link to their site: http://www.metalligaen.dk/Home/Index

 

[Justinov]

Round 6-7:

Aalborg - Rungsted: 4-2 [Shots 22-22]
First Aalborg win of the season.
Rungsted not even close to the level I thought they would be.

Gentofte - Esbjerg: 4-5 OT [Shots 31-33, Mario Lamoureux 3G for Esbjerg]
Gentofte seems to be better and better as the season progresses.
Esbjerg has 3 wins out of 3 in OT/SO.

Herning - Herlev: 3-2 [Shots 28-13]
Herning has trouble scoring many goals.
Herlev improves by actually starting to score

Frederikshavn - SønderjydskE: 3-4 [Shots 24-24, Scott Campbell 2G & Kim Lykkeskov 1G 2A for SønderjydskE].
SønderjydskE wins the battle for currently best team!

Round 7-8:

Gentofte - Aalborg: 3-2 [Shots 27-30, Cody Kunyk 2G 1A for Gentofte].
Aalborg manage to lose yet another close game.
Gentofte putting themselves at a distance to the bottom-two teams.

Rungsted - Herning: 5-2 [Shots 18-35, Johan Andersson 1G 2A for Rungsted].
Though outshot Rungsted takes the win.
Herning still with troubles to score, and questionable goaltending - letting in 5 goals on 18 shots!

SønderjydskE - Rødovre: 2-3 OT [Shots 32-24, Rasmus Astrup 2G for Rødovre]
Big win for Rødovre after a couple of matches with shaky defense.
SønderjydskE still lets in to many goals for my liking, given the quality of their team.

Herlev - Frederikshavn: 1-6 [23-20, Niclas Edman 2G].
Herlev outshot the opponent, still loses massively.
Frederikshavn keeps contact with SønderjydskE.

Esbjerg - Odense: 7-4 [Shots 42-33, Lasse Bang 2G for Esbjerg, Ryan McDonough 2G 1A for Odense]
Esbjerg and Odense continues to be high scoring team; Odense just lets in an awful lot of goals.

 

[Justinov]

Point Producers, so far.
After 7-8 matches the point-producers show - as expected - massive import concentration.
Nicolai Meyer being the only Dane in top 10.

1) Dale Mitchell (CAN) - Odense: 8G 8A
2) Nicolai Meyer (DEN) - Aalborg: 7G 8A (out of 20 Aalborg goals)
3) Mario Lamoureux (USA) - Esbjerg: 8G 6A
4) Robin Bergman (SWE) - Frederikshavn: 7G 5A
5-10)
Scott Campbell (CAN) - SønderjydskE: 8G 3A
Adam Miller (USA) - Frederikshavn: 5G 6A
Cory Quirk (USA) - SønderjydskE: 3G 8A
Olle Liss (SWE) - Aalborg: 3G 8A
Jacob Dahlström (SWE) - Frederikshavn: 3G 8A
John Armstrong (CAN) - Odense: 2G 9A

 

[Justinov]

Goalscoring and goaltending.

1) SønderjydskE: 33-20
Scoring a lot of goals, but letting in far to many.
Joni Myllykoski (7M): 88,3% [That is simply not good enough].
PS: Wondering if SønderjydskE should have gotten Mustukovs?

2) Frederikshavn: 31-17
Also good goal scoring and much better goal-keeping (best tandem in the league so far).
George Sørensen (6M): 92,3%
Christian Larsen (2M): 92,9%

3) Esbjerg: 32-16.
Also great in the goal scoring apartment and decent goal keeping.
Jeff Frazee (4M): 90,6%
Nikolaj Henriksen (3M): 90,8%

4) Odense: 31-26
Scores a lot and lets in a lot.
Tadeas Galansky (8M): 89,9% (still better than SønderjydskE!)

5) Rødovre: 22-19
Low scoring, but great defense except for 1 blowout (receiving 6 goals in 15 min. of period 1 against Odense).
Stefan Ridderwall (7M): 91,8% (good choice to take over from Sebastian Dahm).
Frederik Jacobsen (1M): 80,1%

6) Gentofte: 23-23
After a very bad start, they are getting going offensively. Goaltending is decent.
Teemu Seppänen (7M): 90,4%

7) Rungsted: 17-23
Much worse than expected all around, except for their backup goalie!
Mike Clemente (5M): 85,6% (ouch)
Sebastian Feuk (2M): 95,9%

8) Herning: 17-24
Great goalscoring difficulties, goaltending worse than usually.
Lubos Pisar (8M): 88,7% [After many years as being among the best goalies in the Danish league is age getting to Pisar, or is it just a temporary down period?]

9) Herlev: 6-31
Horrible......
Aaro Peltonen (7M): 86,3%
Marc Schlaeger (2M): 86,4%

10) Aalborg: 20-33
Actually decent offensive efforts basically every match, they just consistently let in more goals than they score.
Marcus Lundell (8M): 86,9%

Conclusion is that only 4 goalis are over 91% saves.......
George Sørensen and Stefan Ridderwall + the two backups (though low match sample) Sebastian Feuk and Christian Larsen. Meaning 3 Danish goalies!

Question: Are many import goalies overrated??
Should the Danish backups get more matches and responsibility.
So congratulations to Frederikshavn to go for a Danish tandem and betting on George Sørensen as first goalie instead of settling for an import!

PS: Simon Nielsen is back in Herning as a backup to Lubos Pisar.
Hopefully he can turn his career back on track and maybe be Herning's first choice if Pisar is faltering!

 

[Valdemar]

Thank you Justinov for keeping this thread afloat, and very nice analysis of performance so far.

 

[Justinov]

Round 8-9:

Odense - SønderjydskE: 2-4 [Shots 28-43]
SønderjydskE holds on to the leagues first place after securing victory in the 3rd period.

Rødovre - Herlev: 4-2 [Shots 43-25]
Rødovre turned 0-2 into 4-2 in the 3rd period.
Herlev is in real trouble and starts to get isolated in the bottom of the league.

Herning - Gentofte: 1-2 [Shots 29-15].
It's officially: Herning is also in trouble.
With their current scoring problems, they look more as a team fighting for 8th spot than a contender team.
Yet still lots of time to turn it around.
Gentofte keeps improving for every game and moves upwards the ranking. Their defense has been really good these last games and their first line produces.

Aalborg - Esbjerg: 6-1 [28-22, Nicolai Meyer 1G 3A, Olle Liss 1G 2A, Christopher Frederiksen 2G 1A]
Aalborg has turned the ship around and finally got the defense working. Nicolai Meyer still produces like insane. Very important win that must boost the confidence level of the team.
Esbjerg must have had a huge off-day??? [6 goals on 28 shots.....].

Frederikshavn - Rungsted: 5-2 [Shots 32-28, Robin Bergman 2G 1A & Niclas Edman 2G 1A for Frederikshavn, Ossi Saarinen 2G for Rungsted.].
Frederikshavn plays really well these season and keeps SønderjydskE from running away in the league table.
Rungsted is so far a disappointment - I expected much more with that roster [Morten Green has 0G 1A after 8 games].

 

[Bank]

Goalscoring and goaltending.

1) SønderjydskE: 33-20
Scoring a lot of goals, but letting in far to many.
Joni Myllykoski (7M): 88,3% [That is simply not good enough].
PS: Wondering if SønderjydskE should have gotten Mustukovs?

2) Frederikshavn: 31-17
Also good goal scoring and much better goal-keeping (best tandem in the league so far).
George Sørensen (6M): 92,3%
Christian Larsen (2M): 92,9%

3) Esbjerg: 32-16.
Also great in the goal scoring apartment and decent goal keeping.
Jeff Frazee (4M): 90,6%
Nikolaj Henriksen (3M): 90,8%

4) Odense: 31-26
Scores a lot and lets in a lot.
Tadeas Galansky (8M): 89,9% (still better than SønderjydskE!)

5) Rødovre: 22-19
Low scoring, but great defense except for 1 blowout (receiving 6 goals in 15 min. of period 1 against Odense).
Stefan Ridderwall (7M): 91,8% (good choice to take over from Sebastian Dahm).
Frederik Jacobsen (1M): 80,1%

6) Gentofte: 23-23
After a very bad start, they are getting going offensively. Goaltending is decent.
Teemu Seppänen (7M): 90,4%

7) Rungsted: 17-23
Much worse than expected all around, except for their backup goalie!
Mike Clemente (5M): 85,6% (ouch)
Sebastian Feuk (2M): 95,9%

8) Herning: 17-24
Great goalscoring difficulties, goaltending worse than usually.
Lubos Pisar (8M): 88,7% [After many years as being among the best goalies in the Danish league is age getting to Pisar, or is it just a temporary down period?]

9) Herlev: 6-31
Horrible......
Aaro Peltonen (7M): 86,3%
Marc Schlaeger (2M): 86,4%

10) Aalborg: 20-33
Actually decent offensive efforts basically every match, they just consistently let in more goals than they score.
Marcus Lundell (8M): 86,9%

Conclusion is that only 4 goalis are over 91% saves.......
George Sørensen and Stefan Ridderwall + the two backups (though low match sample) Sebastian Feuk and Christian Larsen. Meaning 3 Danish goalies!

Question: Are many import goalies overrated??
Should the Danish backups get more matches and responsibility.
So congratulations to Frederikshavn to go for a Danish tandem and betting on George Sørensen as first goalie instead of settling for an import!

PS: Simon Nielsen is back in Herning as a backup to Lubos Pisar.
Hopefully he can turn his career back on track and maybe be Herning's first choice if Pisar is faltering!

This is absolutely great Justinov! Deserves recognition.

Re: the import goalie thing. Haven't thought about for some time but my initial thoughts are:

A) If Sebastian Feuk is anything like his short stint as a backup in Rødovre he'll come back down to earth. He had a terrible tracking and rebound control. Worked hard though.

B) Looking back at the goalies stats for the playoffs the last couple of years the only Danish keeper to put up nice stats over more than 2 or 3 games is Sebastian Dahm. Seeing as that's were you'd want your goalie to hit that top level, I don't blame teams for trying the lottery of the foreign goalies.

C) As a Rødovre-fan I was crushed after that first game seven versus Frederikshavn some years ago. Today I still believe that team was geared for the championship. Except in net where they rolled Michael Madsen and Simon Nielsen. Michael Madsen chocked that game seven. The next year Rødovre iced a worse team but had a prime Trevor Koenig in net and went on to the semifinals. Just goes to show the worth of a goalie.

D and conclusion) No I don't the Danish goalie crisis is solved by a rule change. My fear is also that the clubs with money would pry away the Sebastian Dahm, Frederik Andersen and George Sørensens of the world. So a rule where the foreign goalies counts twice or a forced percentage of games with a Danish goalies would only drive up the price of inferior goalies at the expense of the clubs with a bad economy. Now they either don't get their goalie stolen or have the shot at a cheap foreign goalie.