ECC Super Six

The 2008 ECC preliminary round groups were decided yesterday at the ECC General Assembly meeting in Russia:

First pot: Metallurg Magnitogorsk (RUS) / Kärpät Oulu (FIN)
Second pot: HC Davos S(SUI) / Slovan Bratislava (SVK)
Third pot: Sparta Praha (CZE) / MODO Örnsköldvik (SWE)

The teams were seeded according to their final standing in the 2007 ECC.
That is why the EVIL (I hope they lose every game) Slovan and Swiss champs Davos (who I also hope are beaten down in every game they play in) are ranked higher than both Sparta and MODO who have arguably far stronger squads. Anyway it is good to see that Spartas surprise defeat to an extremely sucky Zilina squad at last years competition coming back to haunt them again....

The draw resulted in the following divisions:

Alexander Ragulin Division (A)
Metallurg Magnitogorsk (RUS)
Slovan Bratislava (SVK)
MODO (SWE)

Ivan Hlinka Division (B)

Kärpät Oulu (FIN)
HC Davos (SUI)
Sparta Praha (CZE)

I'm pretty sure Magnitogorsk will start the tournament as slight favourites over the Finnish champions Kärpät. I'd love for the Kärpät Weasels to finally be victorious in the competition for no other reason than the fact I can't stand the rest of the teams taking part, especially the maroon morons that are Sparta. Anyway The Russians will be trying hard to keep up the RSLs 100% success rate in the competition. Magnitogorsk will be looking to follow in the foot-steps of Avangard Omsk (2005), Dynamo Moskva (2006) and Ak Bars Kazan (2007) who all managed to keep the trophy in the country.



His Royal Highness Jaromir Jagr winning the ECC for Omsk back in 2005!