Today at 12 noon in Helsinki the draw for the knockout rounds of the Champions Hockey League took place.
And the chance of another Swedish winner in the competition have been heavily reduced as four of the five clubs from that nation have been drawn against each other in the playoffs. Only Luleå HF will face foreign opposition in the last 16 stage, but they will find that SC Bern, the home club of 2012 New York Rangers drafted Swede, Calle Andersson, are no push over if they want to advance.
Current champions, Frölunda Indians, will also have their work cut out against Färjestad BK, whilst Skellefteå AIK will face Djurgården IF in a re-run of last year's SHL quarterfinal match.
Whoever survives this clash will almost certainly face last year's CHL finalists, Red Bull Munich. They have been drawn against Yunost Minsk who are the first team from Belarus ever to make it to the playoffs. Munich should win with ease and my feeling is that they will beat which ever Swedish team they meet in the quarterfinals. That's because they will probably be more hungry for CHL glory than their SHL rivals.
If Munich win against Skellefteå or Djurgården they could well face another DEL club left in the tournament. That is because German team Adler Mannheim are in a favourable position as the strongest team in their quartet of playoff clubs. They will play Czech team Mountfield HK and then play the winner of Tappara Tampere verses EV Zug. If Mannheim played as they did in the group stages they should be capable of beating all three of these teams.
For more details check out the Champions Hockey League's own pages:
@ABritOnThinIce1
