Nous sommes toujours fidèles!
Hockey fever is here! Did you know that Switzerland has not one, but three different hockey leagues? The top rank is the Ligue Nationale A, just below that is Ligue Nationale B, and below those are the regional leagues. The LNA is one of the oldest hockey leagues in Europe (going back to 1916) and is considered to be one of the top European leagues, behind Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic and Russia. In fact, during the NHL lockout, several NHL players came to Switzerland to play, including perennial playoff choke artist, Joe Thornton. Jumbo Joe must have hit the fondue pretty hard, though, as he managed a paltry 54 points in 40 regular season games. I also note that Thornton scored a ridiculous 24 points in 14 playoff games, which should be compared to his more representative 53 points in 76 NHL playoff games. Maybe the Sharks can have their home games moved to Switzerland to inspire Thornton to show up for the post-season... not that I'm bitter or anything. I digress.
Despite being the 4th (or 5th, depending on how you count) largest city in Switzerland, Lausanne does not have a hockey club in the LNA. Instead, the mighty Lausanne Hockey Club -- aka the LHC, aka the Red Lions -- plays in the less prestigious LNB. Still, as the hockey fan that I am, I was eager to go check out a match and I took the occasion of my father's visit to make my first trip.
Luckily for us, my father's visit coincided perfectly with the all important LNB playoffs. After finishing the regular season in third place, the mighty LHC roared into the playoffs, winning a couple of series and thus facing the hated EHC Visp in the LNB Championship series. Check out this awesome video that the club made to get people pumped up for the playoffs. I dare you to watch this video and not want to go outside and kick some butt. We had tickets for game 4, and up to that point the series was 2-1 in favor of Lausanne. Excitement was in the air.
When I bought the tickets, I had the choice of seats or "standing room." I think I've gotten SRO tickets for baseball games before, and what it means is that you end up sort of wandering around the stadium, watching the game from behind the outfield fence, or standing underneath one of the overhangs -- basically, it's a relaxing way to catch a bit of baseball while spending too much money for beer. The standing area here was entirely different. Basically, people were standing so that they could yell and jump more easily -- sort of as if the Stanford 6th man section were twenty times larger, twice as drunk, and constantly singing. I guess this sort of crazy person section (generally referred to as Ultras) is pretty common at soccer stadiums, but I wasn't really expecting to see it at a B-league Swiss Hockey game.
As I didn't feel like the two of us would fit in very well with the Ultras, I decided to get normal seats. Although our seats were not ideal, they were pretty darn close to the ice and not too far off to the side.
One cool thing about the seating is that there is a special section of the arena reserved for visiting fans. Since Visp is relatively far away (about 2 hours by train) and not particularly large, they did not exactly fill their section. But, with the aid of a massive kettle drum, plenty of horns and noisemakers, they did their best to be annoying all game long.
As is apparently de rigeur, the LHC has its own animal mascot. I have no idea what his name is, but I have to admit he didn't really make much of an impression. First, he did not descend on wires from the ceiling, accompanied by music. Second, other than riding around on the Zamboni and generally just wandering around the ice before the match, he barely did anything. He did not run around getting people pumped, he did not pretend to eat small children, he did not get cheers started; in sum, he has a long way to go before I would even mention his name in the same sentence as the hardest working fish on the ice.
As for the hockey match itself, it was a tightly-contested, low-scoring affair that featured lots of end-to-end action and some great saves by both goalies. After going up 1-0 early in the 3rd period, Lausanne failed to hold the lead as Visp scored in the closing minutes of the game, forcing overtime. Shortly into overtime, though, the LHC came through with the winner, thus taking a commanding 3-1 series lead. Here is a video I took of the after match celebration. Towards the end, you can hear the crowd breaking into one of their favorite cheers, Tous ensemble! Tous ensemble! Hey! Hey!
Despite being the 4th (or 5th, depending on how you count) largest city in Switzerland, Lausanne does not have a hockey club in the LNA. Instead, the mighty Lausanne Hockey Club -- aka the LHC, aka the Red Lions -- plays in the less prestigious LNB. Still, as the hockey fan that I am, I was eager to go check out a match and I took the occasion of my father's visit to make my first trip.
Fig. 1: That's about as big a smile as I could get out of him.
Luckily for us, my father's visit coincided perfectly with the all important LNB playoffs. After finishing the regular season in third place, the mighty LHC roared into the playoffs, winning a couple of series and thus facing the hated EHC Visp in the LNB Championship series. Check out this awesome video that the club made to get people pumped up for the playoffs. I dare you to watch this video and not want to go outside and kick some butt. We had tickets for game 4, and up to that point the series was 2-1 in favor of Lausanne. Excitement was in the air.
When I bought the tickets, I had the choice of seats or "standing room." I think I've gotten SRO tickets for baseball games before, and what it means is that you end up sort of wandering around the stadium, watching the game from behind the outfield fence, or standing underneath one of the overhangs -- basically, it's a relaxing way to catch a bit of baseball while spending too much money for beer. The standing area here was entirely different. Basically, people were standing so that they could yell and jump more easily -- sort of as if the Stanford 6th man section were twenty times larger, twice as drunk, and constantly singing. I guess this sort of crazy person section (generally referred to as Ultras) is pretty common at soccer stadiums, but I wasn't really expecting to see it at a B-league Swiss Hockey game.
Fig. 2: The Ultras. They had massive home-made flags and banners and basically never stopped chanting all games long. Pretty impressive.
As I didn't feel like the two of us would fit in very well with the Ultras, I decided to get normal seats. Although our seats were not ideal, they were pretty darn close to the ice and not too far off to the side.
Fig. 3: The view from our seats.
One cool thing about the seating is that there is a special section of the arena reserved for visiting fans. Since Visp is relatively far away (about 2 hours by train) and not particularly large, they did not exactly fill their section. But, with the aid of a massive kettle drum, plenty of horns and noisemakers, they did their best to be annoying all game long.
Fig. 4: The visiting supporters. A few things to note about the photo: first, check out the thick fencing to keep them from interacting with the crazy home crowd (there is a standing section on the far left of this photo). Second, notice the inviting concrete "seats" available. And finally, notice that each of the fans is being fully patted down by one of the numerous guards each and every time they entire the section. Seriously, this seating section is about one step up from a full-security prison.
As is apparently de rigeur, the LHC has its own animal mascot. I have no idea what his name is, but I have to admit he didn't really make much of an impression. First, he did not descend on wires from the ceiling, accompanied by music. Second, other than riding around on the Zamboni and generally just wandering around the ice before the match, he barely did anything. He did not run around getting people pumped, he did not pretend to eat small children, he did not get cheers started; in sum, he has a long way to go before I would even mention his name in the same sentence as the hardest working fish on the ice.
Fig 5. The LHC mascot. Lausannie? Lionie? This was about as excited as he got all match, unfortunately.
As for the hockey match itself, it was a tightly-contested, low-scoring affair that featured lots of end-to-end action and some great saves by both goalies. After going up 1-0 early in the 3rd period, Lausanne failed to hold the lead as Visp scored in the closing minutes of the game, forcing overtime. Shortly into overtime, though, the LHC came through with the winner, thus taking a commanding 3-1 series lead. Here is a video I took of the after match celebration. Towards the end, you can hear the crowd breaking into one of their favorite cheers, Tous ensemble! Tous ensemble! Hey! Hey!
Fig. 6: The winning goal (still in the net)! If you look closely, you'll notice that LHC is not shy about sponsorship -- those are the Golden Arches on their socks.
The LHC went on to win the next match, in Visp, thus securing a 4-1 series victory and the LNB championship. Hooray! But, the journey was not yet over: as champion of LNB, Lausanne had an opportunity to play the last-place team from LNA in a best of seven series. Winning that series would mean promotion to LNA and the end of the ignominy of toiling in the lower leagues. Lausanne won the LNB last year but lost the promotion series, so they were eager for another chance. Between them and the LNA stood the hated HC Bienne. Now that I was officially an LHC fan, I felt compelled to go to at least one game in the promotion series, but as tickets for actual seats were pretty expensive, I figured that if I wanted the full LHC experience, I really needed to get a standing-room ticket with the Ultras. Why not?
Fig. 7: The Ultras, as seen from the inside. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my real camera with me so all I have is this stupid cellphone photo.
Joined by labmate Jens, I went to the 4th game of the promotion series. At this point, LHC was down 2-1 and desperately needed a home victory to keep hope alive. We arrived about half an hour before the match and found that the standing section was pretty much entirely full. We had to force our way up to the top, then squeeze in tight. Looking around, I estimated that if there were a fire, the blocked staircases, the single exit door, and the incredible density of people would have resulted in an absolute disaster. I pondered this thought quite a bit as I looked around and saw tons of people sneaking cigarettes -- smoking isn't allowed inside the building and they were afraid to go outside and lose their spots. Anyway, it was a density of people that would probably be prevented by (reasonable) legal concerns in the US.
The match was absolutely awesome. Lausanne went ahead early and never looked back, finishing the game 4-0. As expected, there was a lot of chanting and singing going on, and once we got the hang of it, we yelled with the best of them. Most of the chants are sort of a combination of Allez (Go!) and LHC, but some others were a little more complicated. Here are some youtube videos other people took of the crowd singing and chanting. There are really a lot of these videos on youtube (for Lausanne alone) which really speaks to the intensity that their partisans bring. It was an awesome experience to be part of it and I definitely am looking forward to future games.
So what about those future games? Lausanne and Bienne took the series to the full seven games and the seventh game itself was tied for nearly its entirety. Then, in the 57th minute, Bienne scored and then held on to win. Thus, the incredible LHC must remain in the LNB for at least one more year. Oh well, at least this means that ticket prices won't go up.
Aux armes!
Nous sommes les Lausannois!
Nous sommes toujours fidèles!
Et nous allons gagner!
Allez LHC!!!
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