Continental Cup Superfinals preview

Continental Cup Superfinals preview

Davide Tuniz07 Jan 2016Davide Tuniz»
 

The curtain rises in Rouen on the final act to win the Silver Plate

 
 
 
 

The 18th edition of the Continental Cup will be assigned this weekend in the beautiful town of Rouen, who returns to host for the fourth time, after the 2008-09, 2011-12 and 2013-14 editions, the last chapter of a trophy often criticized in the formula and snubbed by the big powers of hockey, but that is the only European competition remained alive during decades and that from two seasons gives the winner a pass for the rich Champions League

Dragons de Rouen (DEN)

Roster

The Dragons come to Superfinals with the status of favorite and not just because they will play in front of their hot audience, and with the moral at the seventh heaven after the victory in the French Cup on January 3 against the bitter rivals of Grenoble in Paris in front of 10 thousand spectators. Fourth in the championship, six points behind the leading pair Epinal - Gap and finalists in the League Cup, Rouen already living a very positive season, after the semi-disaster last year, which can become triumphant in case of victory of the "plate", a competition that at Ile Lacroix is considered a top priority, as the continuous application to organize Superfinals demonstrate and also this year is the first goal. Passed by a painful change on the bench last season, with the departure in November of coach Rodolphe Garnier, the man behind many of the triumphs of Dragons in the last years, the board decided in the summer to make a real revolution, letting go some of the pillars of the team in recent years: defender Jonathan Janil and especially the captain Julien Desrosiers, an authentic symbol of the team, both finished with Francis Charland, at ambitous newly-promoted Bordeaux. Gone also Raphaël Faure, Theo Lanvers and Loup Benoit and unsatisfying imports Maxime Lacroix, Wes Cunningham and Daultan Leveille. On the bench, with countless perplexities, was boldly called the goalkeeper of all triumphs Fabrice Lhenry, which will then go straight from the ice to the bench. The team is reconstructed with a sumptuous transfer market, which sees land on the banks of the Seine brothers Treille, Sacha and Yorick, stars of national team for years, Nicolas Arrossamena, who returns to Rouen after a season of absolute star in Gap, and national team players Damien Raux and Florian Chakiachvili defender with a deadly shoot. Also the imports were carefully chosen: Canadian goalkeeper Dany Sabourin, already become a crowd favorite, striker Jason Krog, who composed the line with Treille brothers, Finnish defender with excellent hands Tero Konttinen teaming up with tough Olivier Dame -Malka, classic guardian of his area and the blond Olivier Labelle, class but also physical presence on the ice. At the end of December Canadian Dustin Whitecotton was cut off and replaced by compatriot Mark Matheson arriving from Stavanger Oilers and was then made a nice Christmas present to the fans and coach Lhenry and with the arrival of a top player as Joel Perreault, capable to make a difference, but on which weighs the uncertainty of the short time available to fit in the schemes. Upon arrival of Perreault was offset by the departure, direction SaPa Fehervar, the tough-guy Antonin Manavian, an heavy absence on the ice and in the locker room, which will be felt. All this makes the Dragons then the clear favorites for the silver plate, but the team Lhenry is not unbeatable, as shown by the two recent defeats in the domestic league with bottom club Dijon. Much will depend on the opening game against Asiago, probably be the key moment of the tournament

Herning Blue Fox (DEN)

Roster

The Continental Cup has become an obsession in Herning, home of the Blue Fox. Club founded in 1947 and become professional in the late' 90s, the yellow and blue have emerged as one of the dominant forces of hockey Danish only in recent years, but if passionate fans, which certainly will follow the team in Rouen, had to wait a bit before to celebrate championships and cups, on the other hand have been very few times in recent years that have not seen a trophy around Kvik Arena: 13 of the 16 Danish titles have been won in the last 20 years, dressed by 7 national cups, the latter won last year, gaining the right to compete in Continental. Since 1991, only in four occasions - 1999, 2004, 2006 and 2013 - the Blue Fox did not finish the season in the top four. Authentic King Midas for the club was American Todd Björkstrand, arrived as one of the first foreigners in the club in 1998 from Fort Wayne Komets and since then become the symbol all-around of the Blue Fox: 550 games with 627 goals and 572 assists in 14 seasons in Denmark, with seven titles and three domestic cups, stuffed with 5 titles of top scorer and three player of the year awards. Hanging up the skates in 2002 and passed directly from ice to the bench, Björkstrand has not lost the habit of victory: 6 league titles and two cups as coach before leaving Herning at the end of last season to test his skills outside his comfort area at the Austrian Graz 99ers in EBEL. A season and half as a coach and Sports Director, before being sacked last October. Björkstrand launched in professional hockey also the two sons Oliver – currently at the Lake Erie Monsters in the AHL - and Patrick, from last season playing at Medvescak Zagreb, but both grew up on the ice of Kvik Arena. The uncomfortable legacy of a superstar like Björkstrand passed last season to Swedish Linus Fagemo, which was not enough to win the National cup and have been one of Björkstrand boys in the past to keep his charge, replaced this season by Italo-Canadian Mario "Bomber" Simioni, returned to coach in Denmark after an unlucky experience in Bolzano. With Odense and SønderjyskE especially Simioni has built a solid reputation in the country, but he knows to be sitting on one of the most demanding benches of Metal Ligan. He already coached at the last act of Continental in 2012 when he lead SønderjyskE after eliminating Asiago in the semifinals. Blue Fox are not playing some of their best season, in an anonymous 6th place in the standing of Metal Liga and eliminated in the first round of the National Cup from Frederikshavn, placing all hopes to reverse course in this prestigious occasion. Young team with an average age of 24 years on the roster, in the Blue Fox, however, the stars are all veterans: the Canadian Jerred Smithson, 36 years and 606 games in the NHL, this year in Denmark after a year break, the captain and national team player Daniel Nielsen, the Finnish with American passport Tomas Sinisalo and the Slovak goalkeeper, but in Denmark for more than a decade, Lubos Pisar. Among young attractive grows well the national Under-18 Kristoffer Søgaard Jensen, the 21-year old center Kristoffer Lauridsen, forged in Superelit Swedish Malmo and the contemporary Sebastian Andersen, the son of Ernst Andersen, another hockey legend in Herning, with an endless career in yellow and blue, currently goalkeeper coach of the U20 national team. Compared to the team seen in Asiago, the roster has been reinforced by the expert, but slow, Swedish defender Elias Granath, 30 year-old drafted by Dallas in 2003, coming from Schwenninger Wild Wings, author of three assists in five appearances with the shirt of Blue Fox. It is also well placed another arrival of the autumn market, striker Steffen Frank, an assist in Asiago in November, 13 points in the Metal Liga so far. The Blue Fox gave 3 players - strikers Markus Jensen and Daniel Nielsen (the latter cut before the last list) and goalkeeper Olaf Eller - to the Denmark U20 national team, author of an excellent campaign at the World Championship just ended in Finland. In the last five games, four wins and one defeat have improved a bit the ranking and morale. The Blue Fox are not a spectacular team, but very tidy and strong in defense, as shown in Asiago and make everyone's life difficult. Debut Friday afternoon against Tychy

Asiago

Roster

Italian team is back to Rouen after two years for another assault on the trophy, object of desire for the club. After the semifinals, hosted at home, when Asiago grabbed a pass for France knocking out the favourite Kazakh Ertis Pavlodar, the club has decided to strengthen the roster signing the Czech defender Ales Sova, 24 years-old but a good experience under the belt in EBEL and native country. The last sign often “steals” the place of another autumn sign, Canadian Anthony Luciani, never fully getting in the style of play of coach Pat Lefebvre and lastly often considered supernumerary. The Italo-Canadian coach Pat Lefebvre, who replaced John Parco, moved to Cortina after years of successes in Asiago, is still in search of the right recipe to express the full potential of a roster used to winning a lot in recent years. The few changes in the lines, also as regards the imports, are the main force of the club: local players as defenders Stefano Marchetti, Lorenzo Casetti and forwards Federico Benetti, Mirco Presti, Michele Stevan, Josè Magnabosco, the revelation of the season,  and the Tessari brothers, Nicola and Matteo, are all born and raised in Asiago. But also key players as Sean Bentivoglio, Layne Ulmer and Dan Sullivan have several season in Asiago under the belt. This season the team faced two important losses: charismatic captain Dave Borrelli, retired after a problem with his naturalization and legend Michele Strazzabosco, who also quit a career of triumphs, after 619 caps for Asiago and with a call for Buffalo Sabres pre-season camp as best memory. National team defender Andreas Lutz replaced him in the defense, while Canadians Mike Sullivan and goalie Chris Carrozzi are the two new imports. In the domestic league Asiago is currently 4th with 43 points, very far from leader Renon, while in the National Cup was eliminated by traditional rival Val Pusteria in the semifinals. The best scorer is Sean Bentivoglio, with 13 goals and 33 assists in 27 games. He and Layne Ulmer are certainly the players to watch in Rouen

GKS Tychy

Roster

The Poles, coached by Czech Jiri Sejba, are the surprise of these Superfinals and returned to Rouen where in November they knocked out the favorites Belarusian Shakhtar, leading the Polish hockey for the first time in a final. Compared to the roster of November no changes were made, but they are to assess the condition of Czech defender Jaroslav Hertl, with an hip injury, returned to training in last days, who will be aggregated to the French expedition, but his presence on ice is very doubt. Michał Kotlorz, fatigued, and Dawid Majoch, victim of food poisoning during the holidays, are both fully recovered. Experienced team with a typically Czech style-of-play, as evidenced by the many athletes of that country in the roster, Tychy has its strengths in goalkeeper Stefan Zigardy, the defenders almost namesakes Michael Kolarz and Michal Kotlorz, the forwards Mateusz Bepierszcz and Josef Vitek and especially in Marcin Kolusz, a former great unfulfilled promise of Polish hockey, drafted by Minnesota in 2003 after his debut in the Polish league at 15, but that proved later in his career to be able to make a difference only in the Polish league and sometimes in the national team. The game of Tychy pass very often from his stick and his qualities of great assist man. In Rouen the best player, however, was the 29 year-old Jaroslaw Rzeszutko, quick and powerful striker who left a great memory in his two experiences outside Poland, in Amiens in 2011-12, but especially in Newcastle in the previous season when in the roster of defunct Vipers he scored 64 points in 47 games, and was voted best import by the fans. Compared to last winning season are missing players who can make a difference with the goals: the top scorer of last season, Kacper Guzik, moved to Krakow in the summer, while the Russian Yuri Kuzin, second-leading scorer, was pinched by antidoping and banned for two years. Defeated in the semifinals of the Cup by Nowy Targ last week, the Tychy is currently second in the Polish league, 9 points behind leader Krakow. In the last 5 games came four victories, including one in the big match of Krakow, and a defeat on penalties to Sanok. But be careful to underestimate the Tychy, which will debut against Herning Friday, because the Polish team, as has already been shown, is able to embarrass anyone. There also remains the unknown factor of the fans, numerous and passionate, which in November, however, have carried out a wave of vandalism and clashes with police; a scenario that no one wants to see again




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