FIVE WAYS TO FIX EIHL

[clanfandoug]

I thought this would have been up by now as a few folk been discussing playoffs and Conferances etc, but this Chasing Dragons Blog is interesting and worth discussing.
chasingthedragons.wordpress.com/2013/04/12/five-ways-to-fix-the-elite-league/

[clanfandoug]

Mods unsure if in correct place for folk to read it etc.

[flyers40]

Agree totally about the Challenge Cup. If they got rid of that then the extra time/games could be used towards play off time. Id like to see the play offs more on par with the NHL format i.e Not just one off games but maybe played over best of 5 or something along those lines.

[harlan]

The article missed the most blatant way of fixing the EIHL and making it more competitive.

Have an enforceable and workable wage cap.

For the CC to have more meaning no games should count towards league points, all CC games should be for that competition only.
I agree that this competition should be early in the season as the old Autumn Cup was and can easily be over by December or January.
Oh yeah and make this competition a Brit netminder only competition

An Under 23 rule will never work in this country unless it is used in conjunction with a wage cap and reducing the import limit.
Take the import level to 9 then have an Under 23 rule, this will force teams to play those Under 23s as there will be import spots for them to take
With an Under 23 rule the bigger teams will only use them as bench warmers and never ice them and therefore these guys will never get a chance to develop.

If you want the senior players and better Brits to stop demanding high wages, its easy.

Don't give them those high wages!

A wage cap would stop this and would force teams to look at younger players to bring on and develop.

I like the idea of the conferences deciding the teams for the play offs rather than the league and one team from each conference missing out.
Can you really see the league going for this though and have one of their favourite teams missing out?
If they were to go for this format you would quickly see Belfast take the place of Hull in the Gardner Conference to ensure that Belfast, Nottingham, Sheffield, Coventry and Cardiff still had the best chances of making the play offs. The league won't want one of those 5 missing out

[nobabody]

i'd like
a) more competent refereeing
b) play-off weekend moved around the arenas (those that are big enough) which would be in conjuction with the aforementioned conference seeding system
c) EIHL skills competition, like the NHL and KHL do
d) change the challenge cup to a British Cup and involve more teams, seed the teams like Scottish Cup/FA Cup so teams from different leagues join the competition at more advanced stages

[Ironjaw]

Agreed. The playoff set ups ridiculous having it at Nottingham, fair enough it's the best rink and they were the best team but surely you can't have a team getting that much help! Best of 5 in the 3 rounds for me, every team that qualifies would get another 2 minimum home gates aswell which would also help, and for the folk that go to every home game all season that for whatever reason can't make the finals weekend actually get to see the playoffs all the way through.

[spudeeelad]

So in other words . . . make the EIHL the exactly like the EPL, because that is pretty much what is being suggested.

Let's break it down.

Point One: Kill The Challenge Cup - in EPL, it's the EPL Cup and it doesn't exist until the Semi's and Finals. Semi-finalists are determined by who's got the most points in the table, but it's made-up only from results of first home and away game against each team.

2. Make a Minimum, Not a Maximum - already done in EPL, you must have 3 Brits on the ice at all times (excluding PK of course when the player in the box still counts as on the ice)

3. All Points Count For Everything - Disagree, the conference system worked wonders this year, I don't want to see it changed so soon. However, valid point that a team that won the treble didn't win it's own conference.

4. Stop Seeing The Playoffs Only As A Cash Cow - propose alternative method to fund the league being run full time? Unworkable.

5. Make the Playoffs Conference Based - yes, agreed.

However, some additional points.
Best of 5 series - no, just no. This is one step closer to Panthers V Steelers everything single week and I hear enough of 'its the game everyone wants to see' enough as it is.

Veteran rule - this will not work in the suggested format. Brit players demand high wages for one simple reason, the cost of living is higher here than in the USA, Canada and most other places in Europe, particularly the east.
Teams wanting a top Brit are going to have to pay top £ because that player, if he's not local, will have to travel ALOT at considerable cost to games and training sessions meaning;
A) he has to give up his job/focus less on business because, for example, a 4-6 hour drive from Edinburgh to Coventry several times a week would be impractical when trying to combine with a normal job. This is the issue that's forcing up wages in the first place
B) Players return to their local clubs which, given the lack of talent produced in most areas (Scotland being the big producer), merely shifts the monopoly of top Brits from one area to another.
C) If B were undertaken and EIHL being run by the people that it is, this would not prompt investment into local junior systems with a view to long term stability and talent pools, instead it would just result in better imports being brought in to make up for the lack of Brit talent on a team. If this were to happen, I would fear an ENL style league that produces 20+ goal score-lines because, for example, instead of paying a few top Brits, the money is just added together to get, say, 9 Top AHL forwards or even borderline/lower-end NHL against a Brit D and NM.

[pingchowchi]

I doubt we will see a playoff series in the near future, I do not think the arena teams could afford to book dates at the arenas and cancel at short notice. At £10,000 a pop (according to Simmsy) it wouldn't be long before someone went out of business.

[clanfandoug]

Follow up blog by Paul Wheeler from Chasing Dragons
chasingthedragons.wordpress.com/2013/04/14/following-up-five-ways-to-fix-the-elite-league/

[spudeeelad]

Apr 15, 2013 21:02:45 GMT clanfandoug said:

Follow up blog by Paul Wheeler from Chasing Dragons
chasingthedragons.wordpress.com/2013/04/14/following-up-five-ways-to-fix-the-elite-league/

Some good points raised again, but as always, seems to be merely covering ground that has already been covered many times. Before it was scrapped, EPL teams were already invited to play in the BKO cup but declined on several grounds which were, but not limited to;

1) Travel. Some EPL teams were not keen on even accepting Manchester into the EPL for geographical reasons with it being suggested we were only accepted to make the league remain at 10 teams. This means a game such as Guildford Vs Dundee is not going to be accepted.

2) 10/11 mostly Canadian imports against 4 EU imports is asking for nothing short of a massacre. I saw Coventry Vs Manchester a couple seasons ago and even with Coventry only playing 4 imports, they basically scored as and when they chose to do so.

3) Low crowd numbers. There appears to be little fan interest from both sides to attend cross-league games, probably due to the lack of competition. I have read many comments from EIHL fans stating they would not spend their money on an EIHL-EPL game because, basically, the EPL teams were considered unworthy.