Spengler Cup 2015: a preview

The wait is finally over: tomorrow will see the beginning of a new edition of the Spengler Cup, the world's most important and prestigious hockey tournament, which is held every year between December 26th and December 31st in the mountain town of Davos, Switzerland. 

Founded in 1923 by Carl Spengler as a way to promote German-speaking teams after the outcome of WWI, which proved itself catastrophic for the latter language group, the cup was initially won by Oxford University, which fielded a team mainly composed of Canadian students. It was then dominated by European teams, including the Diavoli Rossoneri (from Milan) and LTC Prague (disbanded in 1949): the latter even won the cup jointly with Oxford in the 1932 edition, given the lack of overtime or shootouts to determine a winner at the time. 

Between 1965 and 1983, the Spengler Cup was always won by teams coming either from the USSR or Czechoslovakia, but, starting from the next year, a national selection from Canada was invited to join: a tradition which continues to this day, and which gave the Canadians the first place eleven times. The latter two editions have seen the triumph of Servette over CSKA Moscow and, then, over Salavat Yulaev Ufa: anyways, HC Davos remains the most successful team in the competition, having won it fifteen times, the last one in 2011 against Dinamo Riga.

This year's Cup will see the six participating teams divided into two groups: Group Cattini and Group Torriani. In the first one will play Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg from the KHL (at its first appearance in Davos), the hosts HC Davos, and Team Canada; in the second, possibly the most interesting one, you'll have the opportunity to see Jokerit Helsinki (from the KHL as well, already in Davos last year), HC Lugano (which will return to the cup after sixteen years), and current German champions Adler Mannheim, eager to reply the triumph obtained in 1999 by their fellow DEL competitors Koelner Haie. Jokerit, currently leader of its division in the KHL, Lugano, with a 7-1 record in the last NLA games, and Team Canada, which will use a sizable contingent of players coming from the American Hockey League, will probably be among the protagonists of the clashes at the Vaillant Arena

The overtime will be decided on a 3-vs-3 basis, as in the NHL: also, every team will have the opportunity to field a maximum of three players (plus one goaltender) coming from other teams as a reinforcement.  After the first gameday, every match-up will be determined by the outcome of the first games: for instance, after Lugano - Mannheim, to be held tomorrow as a opener, the losing team will face Jokerit on Sunday, while the winners will do the same on Monday: the ultimate winners of both groups will then directly advance to the semifinals, while the other four clubs will have to face a preliminary round to know their fate. Let's see what will happen…

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