The NHL lockout is nearly a month old and, as it continues, we'll keep you updated on what's happening with NHL players overseas. The goals, the teams they play for and the (sometimes) horrible uniforms they have to wear.
German hockey teams have the best names
As the stupidity that is the NHL lockout continues to drag on, NHL players continue to take the opportunities they have available to them overseas.
The most common destinatinon has been Russia's KHL, currently the top league in the world as long as the NHL is shut down. But this past week, we've seen a couple of top players sign with clubs in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga, the top professional league in Germany.
I don't know the normal talent level in the DEL and where it ranks among the other European leagues, but no league outside of North America has a larger population of American- and Canadian-born players, a total that has increased thanks to the lockout.
Recent additions to the league included Philadelphia Flyers teammates Danny Briere and Claude Giroux, agreeing to terms with Eisbaren Berlin (English translation: The Berlin Polar Bears), one of the top teams in the league in recent years. No team in the DEL has won more championships than Eisbaren Berlin. Their first came, oddly enough, during the 2004-05 lockout with a roster bolstered with NHL players Olaf Kolzig and Erik Cole.
Young Dallas Stars sniper Jamie Benn also made the jump to Germany and joined the Hamburg Freezers, quite possibly one of our favorite team names (and logos) in all of hockey.
It's perhaps Germany hockey's second-best nicknames behind EHC Wolfsburg Grizzly Adams. And, yes, that team is, in fact, named after the title character in "The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams." Their mascot (a bear, obviously) is named Ben, which was the name of the bear in the Grizzly Adams story.
The only thing to not like about the DEL and its unique team names: The Landshut Cannibals no longer play in the top league.
Here Is What Tyler Seguin Has To Wear In Switzerland
In our first update on NHL players in Europe we showed you the colorful uniforms that San Jose's Joe Thornton and the New York Rangers' Rick Nash had to wear in Switzerland for HC Davos.
They were certainly ... something.
Of course, Nash and Thornton aren't the only NHL stars playing in the Swiss league, as Boston Bruins forward Tyler Seguin is currently suiting up for EHC Biel. He, too, must wear a rather colorful, advertisement-covered uniform, as seen in the image to the right.
Serious question: Would you, as a North American sports fan, have a problem seeing uniforms with advertisements on them? Maybe not to the extreme we see on the sweater that Seguin is wearing, but something.
There are already advertisements all over the ice, boards, and sometimes the glass thanks to the work of computer technology. It's a pretty common thing in all European sports (whether it be futball or hockey) and seems like an easy source of revenue for the teams and leagues. Then again, that's probably just one more thing for the NHL and NHLPA to fight over.
Seguin should be a welcome addition to Biel as it traditionally has been one of the weaker teams in the Swiss National League A, finishing with a losing record in each of the past four years.
At Least Alex Ovechkin Scored During That ESPN2 Broadcast
On Tuesday, ESPN2 showed its first KHL game as Alex Ovechkin's Dynamo Moscow took on Lev. It couldn't have been a worse game to showcase (that is, if you equate a lot of offense to exciting hockey) as it ended with a 1-0 Dynamo victory. Fortunately, that one goal came from the top player that they sought to showcase, Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin.
And it was quite an awkward play.
Lev's goalie couldn't get a whistle while trying to cover the puck, lost control of it and was then plowed over as Ovechkin scored with his back to the net and falling on the ice.
Here's the video, via Russian Machine Never Breaks...
NHL Players Not Putting Up Huge Numbers in European Leagues
Through his first nine games (as of publication on Wednesday) with his hometown team of Magnitogorsk Metallurg, Evgeni Malkin has averaged a point per game (two goals, seven assists).
His latest goal, which came this past weekend, was the type of goal that you would probably expect to see from one of the best players in the world going up against non-NHL players as he deked and dangled his way through the defense before shoving a backhand shot into the net.
Not that he's been a disappointment in the KHL to this point, but would you expect him, the NHL's reigning scoring champion and MVP, to be putting up even better numbers? And not just Malkin, but all of the NHL's superstars currently playing in that (and other) league. As Justin Bourne at Backhand Shelf noted on Wednesday, many of the NHL's top players are far from dominating the European leagues the way we may have expected, and he explained why.
Just take a look at the KHL scoring leaderboards and see if you can find Malkin, Ovechkin, or Ilya Kovalchuk near the top.
The folks at Bovada released another round of lockout odds on Wednesday and the top betting line was on Malkin's point-per-game average in the KHL, putting odds at over one per game at 1/2, and under one at being 3/2. It seems like a mark that should be easy for him (and other superstars) to top, but the KHL isn't a high-scoring league to begin with, and only five players in the league averaged even a point-per-game last season.
One last note on NHL players putting up less-than-stellar numbers: Winnipeg Jets goalie Ondrej Pavelec, he of the new five-year, $20 million contract extension earlier this summer, has a dismal .863 save percentage and 4.62 GAA in six appearances with his team in the Czech league.
Ouch.
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