‘Betty’ the hockey groundhog peeked out from her hole this morning and saw her dark shadow. Thus, there will be 6 more months without NHL hockey!



I think we’re having Groundhog Pie for dinner tonight!

As the major European leagues saw the January 31st transfer deadline come and go, there were some last-minute deals that just got reported. Many of the players are taking the same “I doubt there will be an NHL season right now” attitude and signing with European clubs.

There will also be a break in the schedule at the European countries compete in various International tournaments. Slovakia will be at the Pannon GSM Cup while Czechia will compete in the Swedish Hockey Cup. Because of this, some of these new transfers won’t make the debuts for their new clubs for a short time. The players and teams have filed ‘registration’ papers to register the transfers. If there is an NHL season, then they won’t ever make an appearance for their new clubs.

Credit to Joeri at Eurohockey.net and my Slovak pal, Daniel, for helping me compile this information.

1. Ray Whitney has signed with HC Lugano (Switzerland)
2. Nikos Dimitrakos to Langnau (Switzerland, but If he can get a Greek citizenship bef. Feb 15)
3. Sergei Samsonov to Dynamo Moscow (Russia)
4. Olaf Kolzig to Berlin (Germany)
5. Brad Isbister and Richard Matvichuk to Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia). Talk about a major coup for evil $lovan.
6. Ulf Dahlen is coming out of retirement to be a bit player for Timra (Sweden). It is expected that he’ll only play when they really need him.
7. Mike Dunham to Swedish team Skelleftea

It was a light pre-tournament schedule yesterday in Czechia. The lone game was the big Slavia-Sparta Prague derby which was won by Slavia by a 4-2 score. Josef Vasicek, who is having a fine season, scored the winning goal to give the ‘good’ guys the victory.

Slovakia had a full schedule, and it looks like a good 4-way battle for the championship is shaping up between Slovan (Satan, Visnovsky, Isbister, Matvichuk), Zvolen (Orszagh, Handzus, Zednik), Kosice (Cibak, Bicek) and Trencin (Demitra, Mezei, Gaborik, Hossa).