Ice Hockey

The Erasmus Student Network (ESN) offers 36 lucky students the possibility to go and watch an ice hockey match for free. Exactly one week ago we had to go to the student centre in the University where we had to give 5 CHF deposit and book our place. This money would then be returned to us on the day to make sure we would attend. The match was Tuesday and I was so excited as I had never seen nor watched on TV an Ice hockey match before. I have only ever seen professional rugby and football matches therefore I had no clue what to expect.

Ice Hockey – The Basics:

So Ice Hockey is a contact team sport. When I say contact I mean contact (but I will speak more about that later). It is played in an ice rink, and two teams made up of six players have to try and score by shooting a rubber puck into the opponents net. In these teams of six there is one goalkeeper who is all padded up in order to make sure that the puck doesn’t enter the goal. Field Hockey started in the United Kingdom and was then developed as ice hockey in Canada. The match is divided into 3 20 minute periods, and if the game ends in a draw then they go into penalties.

Ice Hockey in Switzerland:

Of course before actually going to the match I thought I would read up on it. Apparently, alongside football, Ice hockey is one of the most popular sports in Swtizerland. Their national league A team is the top tier of the Swiss hockey league system. There are 12 clubs, including Ambrì, Bern, Biel, Davos, Fribourg, Geneva, Kloten, Lausanne, Lugano, Langnau im Emmental, Zürich and Zug. During the regular season, each team plays 50 games. The top 8 teams will then be entered into the playoffs, and the winner will be Swiss Champion.

Is Ice Hockey Violent?

Ice Hockey is a very violent sport. When my friend told me that they always break out in fights on the ring, I thought that maybe it had happened before, but I never thought that it was a frequent occurrence in all ice hockey matches. Apparently that’s all part of the fun. In fact, in the match that we watched, two players broke into a fight, and that was the time where the whole stadium started shouting and egging them on. I must admit it was probably the most exciting part of the game – you could see everyone take out their phones and take a video on snap chat. Anyway I read this up when I got home because I was confused as to why no one got disqualified. The players just got put in a sort of separate bench to cool off, but when they returned everything carried on as normal! Apparently, fighting is a target of criticism and it is a way to demoralize your opponents whilst exciting your team.

Geneva Servette:

Geneva ice hockey team has gone through 100 years of history I will not bore you with it all, but I will state some interesting points. Firstly the ice hockey team is called Servette, and it started around the 20th century. It was only until 50 years later that they could finally put their hands on artificial ice for the rink, therefore as a sport it only really took off then, as they could finally host their own matches at home.

The Match:

The match started at 19. 30, and it was a very exciting beginning. They had cheerleaders welcoming the team and better still, a sea eagle called Sherkan which took a tour of the stadium. This gigantic bird is the Geneva team mascot and launches the match. After all these presentations the teams came out (with mini fireworks) and finally the match started. It was Geneva – Zurich. This game was probably one of the most exciting games I have every watched, simply because it was so different to what I could have ever imagined. Not only a big fight broke through (it was so violent! ), but also the match ended 1-1 meaning that they went to extra time, which had a duration of 5 minutes (in which neither of the teams scored) and later to penalties. In the end Zurich won, but I guess it was a tough match therefore a well-deserved win.

Suggestions:

I suggest if you come to Geneva on your Erasmus to keep an eye out for this event. It was really worth going, especially if is for free! Also, the Erasmus students got given terrible seats (of course, the tickets were free) however my friend and I moved over to the centre of the stadium and luckily no one was assigned those seats so we ended up watching the match from amazing seats – so if you do go, I would advise you do the same!

Finally, if you are a big fan of Ice Hockey and fancy going to frequent matches, they do have seasonal tickets at student prices as well!

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