Representatives from all six Swiss clubs in the CHL met with the media on Thursday in Lucerne, with the Round of 32 on the horizon.
CHL News
LUCERNE, Switzerland – It's been a great year for Swiss teams in the Champions Hockey League so far, with all six reaching the Round of 32 – five of them as group winners. On Thursday afternoon, representatives from all six clubs met with local media to speak about their success in the group stage, how far they can go in this year's competition, and the CHL overall.
"It was not easy," SC Bern coach Kari Jalonen said about topping his group that included HC Kosice and Black Wings Linz. "We always want to make sure we prepare ourselves as best as possible because the CHL is important to us. I talked to my guys and they are ready to move forward. The format is clear – we have to go step by step."
The first step for Jalonen's crew will be Red Bull Salzburg, in the only Round of 32 match-up that sees two reigning league champions go head-to-head.
Another Swiss team to win its group was EV Zug, who surprised a lot of people by taking all six points from traditional Finnish power IFK Helsinki.
"We are a good team with different characters and also will work to move forward," said Zug right winger and Cramo Top Scorer Carl Klingberg. "The fact that we have players from many countries is an advantage for us. Eisbaren Berlin are a good team, but we have the energy and are hungry. We will play the first game on 4 October and we'll see what happens."
Klingberg, who hails from Gothenburg, Sweden, is also looking ahead in the bracket to a potentially interesting opponent in the Round of 16. "I really want to go to the next round, as Zug would probably play Frolunda there. Since I saw the Playoff Draw, I have imagined playing them in the CHL – it would be a big thing for me, personally."
However, he also knows overlooking Berlin would be a mistake. "I don't know too much about the Eisbaren, but we must focus on our own game and proceed from there."
Besides Klingberg, another player present at the meeting was Fribourg-Gotteron captain Julien Sprunger. "We will be as strong as possible in this tournament," he said.
"I think it's a good competition for us and going to play in the Czech Republic and Germany were good experiences," Sprunger said of the group stage against Orli Znojmo and Red Bull Munich. Looking ahead to the Round of 32, he said, "We saw Kosice play at Bern during the first round. We need to focus and we'll see how it plays out."
Head coach Hans Wallson is new to Switzerland and ZSC Lions Zurich this season, but he's been involved in the CHL the past two seasons behind the bench of Skelleftea AIK. Two seasons ago they went to the Semi-Finals. His new team has yet to reach the Round of 16 in this incarnation of the CHL, but of course they were club champions of Europe back in 2008-09. Both coach and team are anxious to advance forward, but they know it won't be easy.
"It will get much more difficult now," Wallson said, cautiously looking ahead to German finalists Grizzlys Wolfsburg. "Of course we want to win everything, but we'll still see how things progress once the puck is dropped."
New to the competition this year are HC Lugano. In a tough group with Finnish champions Tappara Tampere and Adler Mannheim, who are only one year removed as German champs, there was no guarantee they would advance, but they won the group.
"The fans in 'Ticino' were eager to see the competition," general manager Jean-Jacques Aeschlimann said of the fine support his team got in the group stage. "We've played well so far and the coaching staff is ready for the future. We have the chance to play in four championships this year: the Swiss Cup, the Spengler Cup, the CHL and the NLA."
The only Swiss club not to win its group was HC Davos, and in fact they tied for top spot in points with Djurgarden Stockholm, only to lose the head-to-head aggregate score.
"We have played well so far in this competition," said Davos scout Bruno Aegerter, speaking not only of this season but also last, when they advanced all the way to the Semi-Finals. "We are again looking to go to the highest level of Euopean hockey. We have not started the (Swiss league regular season) the way we wanted to, but playing Linkoping is a good opportunity to turn things around."
The six Swiss teams, and in fact all remaining 32 teams, get back at it on Tuesday, 4 October, with the first legs. The return legs will go a week later, on 11 October, when the CHL's last 16 teams will be determined. We'll see how many Swiss entries are among them.