Genève-Servette has become one of the best teams in Switzerland in recent year, but the national title has thus far eluded them. With some new additions to the roster, they hope they finally have enough to get over the top in their domestic league and have success in the Champions Hockey League as well.

by Rémy Lamon

Geneva has a long love story with ice hockey as the Servette Hockey Club was created around 1905, continuing a club that had existed before, but there are no real details about its date of creation. In 1963, the two Geneva teams merged and created the Genève-Servette Hockey Club. Genève-Servette won the National League B for the first time that season in 1963-64, and since then has moved back and forth between the NLB and NLA. They have remained in the NLA since 2002.

Les Vernets and les fans

From the start, the club's biggest challenge was convincing a lowland city to follow a sport that was, at the time, considered to be a mountain sport. Finding ice was a problem, as the city did not get an artificial ice rink until 1954; before that, the team often had to go to another city or to the Jura Mountains to play its “home" games. The arena at Les Vernets finally opened in 1958, and the team continues to play there today. It is now one of the oldest arenas in the Swiss league, and the club hopes to replace the 7342-capacity facility by 2018. The location for it has been found (Trèfle Blanc, near the football stadium), but the political hurdles haven't all been overcome yet.

Genève-Servette is proud to be a connection between the two Genevas: the local Swiss community and the expats as Geneva is a very important international city as the United Nations European Headquarters. Fans chant their support mostly in French, but also in English. The team's fan club is known as Les Irreductibles Grenats. It was created in 2002, when Genève-Servette was most recently promoted to the NLA. They are famous all around the Swiss league for their songs and cheers, and they are a large reason why the atmosphere at Les Vernets is one of the best in Switzerland.

The team wears a colour called grenat in French for its home games. This colour is a dark brownish red. All Genevan teams (football, rugby, hockey) wear this colour and therefore are all called "les Grenats”. The origin for this colour is not really clear.

Genève-Servette is the only hockey team in Switzerland with a live animal as a mascot: Sherkan. Sherkan is a male American bald eagle who flies on the ice at the opening of every home game. The eagle is a symbol of Geneva, as the bird appears on the civic flag. Three other mascots walk among the speactators during games.

The current team

The Genève-Servette Hockey Club believes in the importance of developing its own talent. Therefore, they created Geneva Future Hockey, a program dedicated to introduce young boys and girls to playing hockey. The level of this school is excellent and the professional team has many members that are products of it.

Among them is team captain Goran Bezina, who has played several times for the Swiss national team, including the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. Another is Kevin Romy, who was a member of the Swiss team that won the silver medal at the 2013 IIHF World Championship in Stockholm.

2014 is an important year for the Swiss Ice Hockey League and for Genève-Servette in particular. First of all, they will play in the Champions Hockey League, but 2014 also marks the return of the Swiss Cup, with games between all leagues of all levels. The Swiss Cup was most recently awarded in 1972, and Genève-Servette now has a chance to defend its title 42 years later. The club will be defending another cup as well: the Spengler Cup, which they won in 2013.

Genève-Servette starts the 2014-15 season with a quite new roster. While mainstays like Bezina and Romy are still around, the team has added 18-year-old Noah Rod, who was drafted 53rd overall by the San Jose Sharks in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft. Part-owner, general manager and head coach Chris McSorley has also added four Canadian players with NHL experience this summer: Taylor and Tom Pyatt, Matt D’Agostini and Paul Ranger. They hope this can put them over the top and get them their first-ever national championship.

Team facts

13-14 Individual leaders

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