Posted by Graeme on December 21, 1997 at 20:57:34:
In Reply to: help an idiot posted by Nick on December 21, 1997 at 16:36:28:
The B and H Cup is a pre season event in which all Superleague teams, and some from lower leagues, take part in. It is spread over four rounds with the winners of the final getting the B and H Cup.
The Superleague is the top league in Britain and it only has one division, at the end of the season the winners of this receive a cup for being 'Superleague Champions'.
After the regular season there are the play offs in which the winners recieve a cup for being 'British Champions'.
Now for the Express Cup. Last season each Superleague team played each other six times (3H 3A) however this year they only play each other 4four times (2H 2A) as there were plans to have an extra competition involving teams from Europe. This competition did not come about so the Express Cup was introduced with each team playing each other twice (1H 1A). The reason people do not see the Express Cup as being important is because it is simply the missing Superleague fixtures "dressed up" as a new competition and people would rather these fixtures count towards the Superleague.
These are all of the domestic competitions. The European Hockey League is a competition in which the league champions from all over Europe take part (although Storm gained entry through a wild card) to produce the true champions of Europe. The winners of this receive 'The Silver Stone'. The EHL comprises of 24 teams from 12 countries and so I do not understand why it isn't just the league cahmpions and the play off champions from each country (some countries have 3 teams in the EHL and others (such as Britain) only have 1.