Eki-Finland

Hi!

I´m a hockeyfan from Finland and i´ve been reading your blog for a couple of weeks now. I got the adress to your blog from a finnish hockey site called "jatkoaika"(www.jatkoaika.com) and the forums there. There are alot of finnish fans who also read your blog and we have a lot of interest in how the negotiations turn out.
One reason is that we have around 40 nhl-players playin in our main league(sm-liiga) and for the players to disappear now it would be disasterous for some of the teams as we head in to the playoffs in about a month(10-12 games left in reg season). I really have hoped for the season to start as i am an hardcore hockeyfan(by my own standards).
I saw about 70 games last year(a cable network called canal+ broadcasts them live at nighttime here) and read reviews from about every game played last year from different websites. So this year has been a bit different with no nhl hockey to watch and read about(although i´ve been reading about ahl and the junior leagues in canada).
Then i would like to thank you for a very interesting and entertaining blog, i´ve had tons of interesting moments reading it and it has been a welcome change to the medias coverage.
Last but not least, i personally would not want to see nhl start this season anymore(because of the amount of players in europe, 70 in Sweden, 70 in Russia, 60 in the Czech league and around 40 in the finnish elite league) because it wouldn´t be a good reg season although the play-offs migth work. Instead i think both the nhl and tha nhlpa owes the fans to make a new and solid deal that will carry this sport in to the future on a healthy and growing basis. Next fall would be a good time to start this new nhl with real training camps etc. and then the fans would see some quality hockey instead of some "forced" shorter replacement season.

ok, so this was just a short hello from Finland and my view on things, i dont know if i contributed to your request but i thought i´d post this anyway =)

best regards,

Eki (my name, short for Erkki)
Habs fan to the end!