ZURICH – ZSC Lions and HC Davos unveiled their Victoria Cup jerseys prior to their season opening game at Zurich’s Hallenstadion, also the venue for the 28-29 September event where the Swiss clubs will entertain the Chicago Blackhawks.
Much as a twist of irony, the ZSC Lions (the inaugural Champions Hockey League winner) opened their Swiss league campaign against national champion HC Davos at Zurich’s Hallenstadion on Friday. (Davos won 5-3).
Both teams will return to the same place seventeen days later to take part in the 2009 Victoria Cup event. On September 28, HC Davos will take on the Chicago Blackhawks in the exhibition game, while the Victoria Cup game – the match-up between the European champion and an NHL challenger – will take place on September 29 with the ZSC Lions going against the Blackhawks, who reached the Stanley Cup Final Four last season.
It will be the first time both Davos and ZSC will have the opportunity to meet an NHL club. Last year, the New York Rangers rallied from a 3-0 deficit to defeat European champion Metallurg Magnitogorsk 4-3 in the first Victoria Cup.
The Rangers pummeled event host SC Bern 8-1 in the Victoria Cup exhibition the day before.
Prior to Friday’s game both head coaches, Sean Simpson (ZSC) and Arno Del Curto (Davos), unveiled the Reebok-produced jerseys that the teams will wear exclusively at the Victoria Cup event. Also the beautiful Victoria Cup trophy was presented to the media.
Just like last season at the inaugural Victoria Cup and the Champions Hockey League, the jerseys are free from advertisement in order to clearly highlight the clubs’ logos and colours.
Said Sean Simpson:
"It's obviously an immense opportunity for ZSC to play not only against an NHL club, but against one of the Original Six teams. It's not only a great thing for our club but also for Swiss club hockey as a whole."
Arno, as soon as your game against the Blackhawks was announced you said that you want to become the first Swiss coach who defeats an NHL team..."To be honest, it's just a great privilige to able to PLAY against an NHL club," said Del Curto. "But I must thank Sean and ZSC because without their incredible success in the Champions Hockey League, we would not had got that opportunity. Now we will try to repay by making Chicago work so hard against us, so they will be out of gas when they play ZSC for the Victoria Cup."
Almost 90 percent of the available tickets for the Victoria Cup game are already sold, while the exhibition game has sold 50 percent of the tickets. The Hallenstadion’s capacity is 11,000.
Tickets can be purchased through
ticketcorner.ch and
Victoria-Cup.com.
The Victoria Cup will feature much more than just two games. Switzerland’s biggest shopping centre, SihlCity, will be the host of several Victoria Cup related events from September 23 to September 30.
The visitors will be treated to autograph sessions with ZSC players, the world’s biggest goalie mask exhibition, practice sessions with ZSC coaches and players as well as having the Victoria Cup trophy and the Silver Stone trophy (Champions Hockey League) on display.
The SihlCity events will culminate with the September 27 gala where the Swiss blues (Chicago Blues!) performers Philip Fankhauser and Sam Burckhardt will entertain both ZSC and Chicago players, as well as fans and media.
The Victoria Cup marketing agency Ovation Sports has, together with the media sponsor Blick, launched on Friday a goalie mask painting competition. Children from all around Switzerland are invited to paint a mask for the goaltenders of Chicago, ZSC or Davos.
A clean, to-be-painted, mask was depicted in Friday’s edition of the Blick. A jury will select the best entry for each of the three teams and the winner will be invited with the parents to the Victoria Cup. The three winning masks will be displayed on the boards at the Victoria Cup games in Hallenstadion.
By IIHF.com staff
