Milos Riha

Less than two weeks before the 81^st Spengler Cup will take place in Davos there was another "national team break" within Europe's best hockey leagues with several international tournaments.

For instance Russia, Finland, Czech Republic and Sweden played the Channel One Cup in Moscow which was won by the Russians. Some of the players who played the tournament in Russia will also fight at the forthcoming Spengler Cup: The Russian Alexander Eremenko and the Czech Milan Hnilicka are the two goalkeepers of Spengler Cup Competitor HC Salavat Yulaev Ufa. The leader of the Russian Super League brings also Andrei Kuteikin and Alexei Tereshenko as well as the Czech Miroslav Blatak to Davos. The forwards Tomas Rolinek and Petr Sykora from HC Möller Pardcubie are further players who played recently the Channel One Cup in Moscow and soon will be playing in Davos.

Despite regular good performances of Rolinek and Sykora their team Möller Pardubice is only placed 11th in the Czech Extra League. The runner-up has besides played two games more than most of the competitors. At least the margin of only five points to the 8^th place is not too bad. . In the end of November Möller Pardubice's executive floor decided to replace their coach anyway. Instead of Milos Riha the former Czechoslovakian forward Jiri Sejba is now head coach of the team.

Sergei Mikhalev does not to be afraid of losing his position as head coach of HC Salavat Yulaev because his team leads the Russian Super League by an eleven-point margin on pursuer SKA St. Petersburg. Yulaev scores clearly the most goals in the Russian league and the team can impress hockey experts with its four well-balanced rows. Under these circumstances the Russian leader must be declared as the best hockey team outside the NHL.

After a weak start to the season the German titleholder Adler Mannheim hits now form in time for the forthcoming Spengler Cup. The Adler Mannheim won 10 of their last 14 games. They are placed fifth in the German DEL at the moment but they have played four games more than most of the other teams. And recently the team suffered another setback after a 2:7-loss against the Eisbären Berlin.

The Spengler Cup host HC Davos fell into a sort of limbo during the current Swiss championship. After having been defeated six times in a row the Spengler Cup titleholders and acting champions in Switzerland lost contact to the top position. Although the HCD managed to win 3 of the last 4 games the club is already 22 points behind the superior leader SC Bern after two thirds of the qualification round. At least the HCD's backlog to the second-placed Servette Geneva is only 7 points but the same margin is the team's own advantage on position eight which means that the qualification for the playoffs is not yet certain.