The race to see who is the best hockey club is Europe is battled in the Champions Hockey League from the Hungarian point of view we have four players playing for four different clubs in the League.
Group stage play kicks off today with four games, Hungarian fans will start rooting on Thursday when both Blackwings Linz on home ice, Máté Gáspár and Linz will be hosting SC Bern from Switzerland. Aside from the young forward Gáspár, also participating in the CHL will be Vilmos Galló who plays for Linköpings in Sweden with Balázs Sebők and Jesse Dudás in Finland in KalPa and TPS respectively.
The group stage of the CHL is made up of 16 groups with three teams in each group with the top two teams moving on to the knockout stage. TPS Turku will be in group H with Liberec and Lornskog, group K has Kinköpings taking on JYP and Gap. Group M has Kosice joining Bern and Linz and Group N will have KalPa being rounded out by AIK and the Vienna Capitals
“Our goal is to make it out of the group stage”said Galló when asked about what Linköpinks is expecting from this year's CHL. “I don’t know what role I will have in the team yet, they are still figuring out the lines, I will start on the fourth line and work my way up through the line.”
KalPa forward Balázs Sebők also gave his opinion, “last time we managed to be the only club from Finland not to make it out of the group stage, we would clearly like to change this, this year.” he continued on by saying, “We have young team this year, and we have the second smallest budget in the league. I will be centering one of our top two lines, if our key players stay healthy we can have a great season.”
“We been training hard on and off the ice. We are gonna be a fast physical puck possession team who is tough to play against every night.” said Defenceman Jesse Dudás who left DVTK for Finnish club TPS in the offseason. “We are looking to win and advance every chance we get. I feel good in Finland it's a good league different style of hockey but it's gonna be a good adjustment for me and challenge.”