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Kristián Kudroč
Kristián Kudroč (born May 21, 1981) is a Slovak former professional ice hockey defenceman. Playing career Kudroč was drafted by the New York Islanders as their first-round pick, 28th overall, in the 1999 NHL Entry Draft. He is a large, physical defenceman with an impressive slapshot. He played in North America from 1999 to 2005, and represented SaiPa in the Finnish SM-liiga in the 2005–06 season, where ''SaiPafanit'' (the SaiPa fan club) elected Kudroč Player of the Year. Kudroc suffered a pre-season injury in a Tournament game with Barys Astana prior to the 2014–15 season. Kudroc was ruled out for the duration of the season in order to rehabilitate. As a free agent, Kudroc moved on from Astana and signed a one-year contract with Metallurg Novokuznetsk on June 4, 2015. On August 17, 2015, Kudroc sought a release from his contract with Metallurg for personal reasons. He returned to Czech Republic, signing a contract after a years hiatus with HC Plzeň of the Extraliga o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tampa Bay Lightning
The Tampa Bay Lightning (colloquially known as the Bolts) are a professional ice hockey team based in Tampa, Florida. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. They play their home games at Amalie Arena in Downtown Tampa. The Lightning have won three Stanley Cup championships: 2004, 2020, and 2021. They also reached the Stanley Cup Finals in 2015 and in 2022. The team is owned by Jeffrey Vinik, and the general manager is Julien BriseBois. Jon Cooper has served as head coach since 2013, and is the longest-tenured active head coach in the NHL. Franchise history Early years (1992–2000) Bringing hockey to Tampa In the late 1980s, the NHL announced it would expand. Two rival groups from the Tampa Bay Area decided to bid for a franchise: a St. Petersburg-based group fronted by future Hartford Whalers/Carolina Hurricanes owners Peter Karmanos and Jim Rutherford, and a Tampa-based group fronted by Phil Esp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Slovaks
The Slovaks ( sk, Slováci, singular: ''Slovák'', feminine: ''Slovenka'', plural: ''Slovenky'') are a West Slavic ethnic group and nation native to Slovakia who share a common ancestry, culture, history and speak Slovak. In Slovakia, 4.4 million are ethnic Slovaks of 5.4 million total population. There are Slovak minorities in many neighboring countries including Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine and sizeable populations of immigrants and their descendants in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, United Kingdom and the United States among others, which are collectively referred to as the Slovak diaspora. Name The name ''Slovak'' is derived from ''*Slověninъ'', plural ''*Slověně'', the old name of the Slavs (Proglas, around 863). The original stem has been preserved in all Slovak words except the masculine noun; the feminine noun is ''Slovenka'', the adjective is ''slovenský'', the language is ''slovenčina'' and the country ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Goal (ice Hockey)
In ice hockey, a goal is scored when the puck entirely crosses the goal line between the two goal posts and below the goal crossbar. A goal awards one point to the team attacking the goal scored upon, regardless of which team the player who actually deflected the puck into the goal belongs to (see also own goal). Typically, a player on the team attempting to score shoots the puck with their stick towards the goal net opening, and a player on the opposing team called a goaltender tries to block the shot to prevent a goal from being scored against their team. The term goal may also refer to the structure in which goals are scored. The ice hockey goal is rectangular in shape; the front frame of the goal is made of steel tube painted red (blue in the ECHL because of a sponsorship deal with GEICO) and consists of two vertical goalposts and a horizontal crossbar. A net is attached to the back of the frame to catch pucks that enter the goal and also to prevent pucks from entering it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Season (sports)
In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of September. In other team sports, like association football or basketball, it is generally from August or September to May although in some countries - such as Northern Europe or East Asia - the season starts in the spring and finishes in autumn, mainly due to weather conditions encountered during the winter. A year can often be broken up into several distinct sections (sometimes themselves called seasons). These are: a preseason, a series of exhibition games played for training purposes; a regular season, the main period of the league's competition; the postseason, a playoff tournament played against the league's top teams to determine the league's champion; and the offseason, the time when there is no official competition. Preseason In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Playoffs
The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be either a single game, a series of games, or a tournament, and may use a single-elimination system or one of several other different playoff formats. Playoff, in regard to international fixtures, is to qualify or progress to the next round of a competition or tournament. In team sports in the U.S. and Canada, the vast distances and consequent burdens on cross-country travel have led to regional divisions of teams. Generally, during the regular season, teams play more games in their division than outside it, but the league's best teams might not play against each other in the regular season. Therefore, in the postseason a playoff series is organized. Any group-winning team is eligible to participate, and as playoffs became more popular they were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Regular Season
In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of September. In other team sports, like association football or basketball, it is generally from August or September to May although in some countries - such as Northern Europe or East Asia - the season starts in the spring and finishes in autumn, mainly due to weather conditions encountered during the winter. A year can often be broken up into several distinct sections (sometimes themselves called seasons). These are: a preseason, a series of exhibition games played for training purposes; a regular season, the main period of the league's competition; the postseason, a playoff tournament played against the league's top teams to determine the league's champion; and the offseason, the time when there is no official competition. Preseason In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elite Ice Hockey League
The Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL), sometimes referred to as the British Elite League or, for sponsorship reasons, the Viaplay Elite League, is an ice hockey league in the United Kingdom. Formed in 2003 following the demise of the Ice Hockey Superleague, it is the highest level of ice hockey competition in the United Kingdom. The league operate three competitions for members; the play-offs determine the national champion for the season, following a regular season league competition for which separate champions are also crowned, and which selects and seeds the teams in the play-offs. Finally, a stand-alone cup competition, the Challenge Cup, is also held annually, beginning with the group stages followed by a knock-out format. The league currently consists of one division of ten teams, with representation from all four nations of the United Kingdom – the only league in any sport to do so. In fourteen completed seasons the league championship has been won by five different ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Austrian Hockey League
The ICE Hockey League (International Central European Hockey League), known as the win2day ICE Hockey League for sponsorship reasons, is a Central European hockey league that also serves as the top-tier ice hockey league in Austria, it currently features additional teams from Hungary, Italy, and Slovenia. The league was known as the Erste Bank Eishockey Liga (EBEL) from 2003 until 2020 and as the bet-at-home ICE Hockey League during the 2021-22 season. Until 2005–06, the league consisted solely of Austrian teams. Since then, the league has added teams from Slovenia (from 2006 to 2017 and from 2021 onwards), Hungary (starting 2007–08), Croatia (from 2009–10 through 2012–13, and again from 2017–18 through 2018–19), the Czech Republic (starting in 2011–12 through 2019–20 and again from 2021-22 onwards), Italy (starting in 2013–14), and Slovakia (starting in 2020–21 through the start of 2021–22). The non-Austrian teams are competing for the "League Champion" titl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metallurg Novokuznetsk
Metallurg Novokuznetsk (russian: Металлург Новокузнецк) is a professional ice hockey team from Siberia based in Novokuznetsk, Kemerovo Oblast, Russia. They are currently members of the Supreme Hockey League (VHL). History The team was founded in 1949 in Novokuznetsk (then Stalinsk) to compete in the lower divisions of the Soviet ice hockey championship. During the 1960s, Metallurg managed to advance to the elite group for several seasons, but did not establish itself as a major club until the 1990s when the International Hockey League was formed. During the first years of the post-Soviet era, Novokuznetsk significantly improved its roster with players from the Ust-Kamenogorsk school. The team's downfall began in 2004 when its managerial staff moved to SKA Saint Petersburg signing the best players from Novokuznetsk. Despite that the team was able to rebuild itself and years later joined the Kontinental Hockey League in 2008. Following the 2016–17 season ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SM-liiga
The SM-liiga (marketed as just Liiga from 2013 on), (Finnish for ''League'') colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. It is one of the six founding leagues of the Champions Hockey League and currently allocated five spots - the maximum number - based on success in previous editions. It was created in 1975 to replace the SM-sarja, which was fundamentally an amateur league. The SM-liiga is not directly overseen by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association, but the league and association have an agreement of cooperation. SM is a common abbreviation for ''Suomen mestaruus'', "Finnish championship". The SM-liiga formerly had a system of automatic promotion and relegation in place between itself and the Mestis, the second highest level of competition in Finland, but the automatic system was ended in 2000. The league was opened in 2005 and allowed KalPa to get a promotion. In 2009, a new system was i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland across Estonia to the south. Finland covers an area of with a population of 5.6 million. Helsinki is the capital and largest city, forming a larger metropolitan area with the neighbouring cities of Espoo, Kauniainen, and Vantaa. The vast majority of the population are ethnic Finns. Finnish, alongside Swedish, are the official languages. Swedish is the native language of 5.2% of the population. Finland's climate varies from humid continental in the south to the boreal in the north. The land cover is primarily a boreal forest biome, with more than 180,000 recorded lakes. Finland was first inhabited around 9000 BC after the Last Glacial Period. The Stone Age introduced several differ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
