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A few days ago I happened to see two lines in small print in the newspaper saying that Vienna's women's hockey team is up 1-0 in the best of three championship final. I'd planned to go to one of their games for a long time now, but somehow never got around to it (also their schedule is confusing because they play in several different leagues and sometimes mix teams etc.) But the second, and potentially last, final game was on Saturday, I knew the time and place, and entry was free. So I called DD, recruited a friend who's never been to a hockey game before, she brought her sister, and we went to the game.
At first I thought we were in the wrong hall. There was almost nobody there! The same hall that usually has several thousand fans when the men's team (the Vienna Capitals) plays, with 7000 seats. All in all there were maybe 200 people there, and someone later told us that usually during the season it's a lot less. I was pretty shocked by that. I figured that there was a difference in attendance, but not that it was this large! I get angry when I think about it.
The game itself was great. My hockey newbie friends, who at first had thought it was strange when I told them shifts are only about 40 seconds, were very surprised how fast it was. No bodychecks allowed, but I didn't miss them and almost kinda liked it, good for the flow of the game. They weren't as fast or accurate as NHL players, of course, especially the accuracy was notable. But the difference to the EBEL (Austrian+other countries' men's league) is much lower. The main difference, it seemed to us, was that their shots were notably less hard. I don't know why they even tried to shoot on goal from the outside, didn't seem very promising to me. They only had three forward lines and two D pairs, no wonder that toward the end of the game they seemed a bit tired. The Vienna team, the EHV Sabres, came out slow and sloppy after the intermissions, but fortunately rallied. They made a few stupid mistakes, missed a few good chances, business as usual. The game was 0-0 after two periods, then 1-0 Salzburg, but it ended 2-1 Vienna, with a very pretty GWG. That meant Vienna won the championship! \o/
(Of course only the men's championship banner hangs in the rafters. Even though the Sabres won several championships the past few years.)
Live games are great. I'm usually pretty vocal, commenting and cursing and arms in the air when we score, much more so than my friends, but they thought it was cool so I didn't feel self-conscious about it. (Even less of a problem in games with several thousand fans.) The women's season is over, but the Caps are still playing in the EBEL semi-finals, and we said we'd go to a game if they make it to the finals. But next season we're definitely going to more Sabres games! Apparently all of their games are free. And we'll have to try and get a few more people to come with us, there should be so many more.
At first I thought we were in the wrong hall. There was almost nobody there! The same hall that usually has several thousand fans when the men's team (the Vienna Capitals) plays, with 7000 seats. All in all there were maybe 200 people there, and someone later told us that usually during the season it's a lot less. I was pretty shocked by that. I figured that there was a difference in attendance, but not that it was this large! I get angry when I think about it.
The game itself was great. My hockey newbie friends, who at first had thought it was strange when I told them shifts are only about 40 seconds, were very surprised how fast it was. No bodychecks allowed, but I didn't miss them and almost kinda liked it, good for the flow of the game. They weren't as fast or accurate as NHL players, of course, especially the accuracy was notable. But the difference to the EBEL (Austrian+other countries' men's league) is much lower. The main difference, it seemed to us, was that their shots were notably less hard. I don't know why they even tried to shoot on goal from the outside, didn't seem very promising to me. They only had three forward lines and two D pairs, no wonder that toward the end of the game they seemed a bit tired. The Vienna team, the EHV Sabres, came out slow and sloppy after the intermissions, but fortunately rallied. They made a few stupid mistakes, missed a few good chances, business as usual. The game was 0-0 after two periods, then 1-0 Salzburg, but it ended 2-1 Vienna, with a very pretty GWG. That meant Vienna won the championship! \o/
(Of course only the men's championship banner hangs in the rafters. Even though the Sabres won several championships the past few years.)
Live games are great. I'm usually pretty vocal, commenting and cursing and arms in the air when we score, much more so than my friends, but they thought it was cool so I didn't feel self-conscious about it. (Even less of a problem in games with several thousand fans.) The women's season is over, but the Caps are still playing in the EBEL semi-finals, and we said we'd go to a game if they make it to the finals. But next season we're definitely going to more Sabres games! Apparently all of their games are free. And we'll have to try and get a few more people to come with us, there should be so many more.
