Eurolanche

Member stories

To celebrate the 10th season of the Eurolanche Fan Club, we launched a new website – Story.Eurolanche.com – in October 2016. The website also contained a Member stories section. During each week of the 2016-17 regular season, we brought our readers one member story. In each part, we wanted to describe how he became a fan, as well as something from his personal and professional life. Behind the story of each Eurolanche member is a unique fan and life story. With this series of articles, we wanted to highlight the uniqueness of the Eurolanche project, which not only made an impact in Europe, but in the world as well. You can find these member stories in this part of the book:

• Thiago Simoes: Color Analyst at ESPN in Brazil
• Norbert Gruber: The owner of a priceless jersey
• Louis Duchesne: Fan from Day 1
• Boris Wiedemeyer: Cody McLeod jerseys collector
• Alex Manton: A hockey administrator
• David Puchovsky: Eurolanche’s founder who found kidnapped kids
• Jakub Klos: Eurolanche website administrator
• Matej Klucho: Head coach of a youth floorball team
• Roger Rensch: President of the David Aebischer fan club
• Jozef Illes: A sportsman and sports fan
• Martin Jurkovic: Flight attendant
• Tomas Vnuk: An extraordinary experience with the Cup
• Joona Leppala: The first Eurolanche member and a famous artist
• Peter Schnierer: Marek Svatos’ biggest fan
• Andy Kay: Organized his Invasion from the US to Europe
• Rudolf Sery: Eurolanche Vice President and traveler
• Myron Thiessen: Avalanche fan from Belize
• Reudon Edwards: Supporting the Avs from Barbados
• Taylor Baker: Eurolanche member working at the Pepsi Center
• Ales Bubilek: American football player
• Jan Jabrocky: Fan thanks to a card of Dave Karpa
• Michal Hezely: Eurolanche’s main translator
• Marko Keipi: A professional poker player
• Maja Andreuzzi: An ice hockey and equestrian fan

Thiago Simoes from Brazil: Color Analyst at ESPN in Brazil

Brazil is the homeland of soccer. There is not a single person, who wouldn’t know the famous Pele. How did ice hockey come into the life of a regular, passionate sports fan in this kind of country? Thiago’s story serves as a great example in two ways. First of all, Eurolanche isn’t only for European-based Avalanche fans, but for fans from all around the globe,as it is the most effectively-functioning Fan Club in the world. Secondly, Colorado Avalanche fans live everywhere.

Thiago Simoes, 36, started to follow ice-hockey in 1988 thanks to a video game. Watching real-life games was impossible due to the lack of information and internet. “Everything changed in 1992, when my family got cable TV. At the same time, the Bandeirantes Channel broadcasted roller hockey games. The Brazilian national team was one of the best in the world,” said Thiago, who still plays roller hockey with his friends. Skating on ice isn’t a possibility, as there are literally no ice rinks in the entire country. Despite this, many Brazilians are fans of the game and you can find various Facebook pages dedicated to different NHL teams, too.

Thiago was a Quebec Nordiques fan, so it was a natural for him to follow the team after its relocation to Denver. “I followed both Stanley Cup Finals games live from Brazil. I love Joe Sakic, but my favorite player was Peter Forsberg. His skill, strength and courage always enchanted me,” said Thiago, who became a Eurolanche member in 2011. “I love the idea of being a member of an Avalanche Fan Club outside North America. Maybe I will participate in an Invasion someday,” explained one of the most die- hard Avs fans from Brazil.

Thiago works as a color analyst for EPSN Brazil. He started to cover NHL games in 2008 for one of the most famous radio stations in the country and then moved on to TV three years later. Aside from hockey, his voice can be heard during soccer matches. Various North American media reported about Thiago or his colleague’s Portuguese commentary of NHL games.The Ottawa Senators even published their version of their “SCOOOORES” call.

Thiago is not only a fan, but a collector as well. For some reason, he decided to collect signed hockey cards of every first overall draft pick ever. “It is really rare to own signed hockey cards in Brazil. The coolest thing about this collection is that it will never end, because every year, there’s always another draft,” concluded Thiago.

In case you’re interested in the unabridged, colored PDF version of the book, contact us at eurolanche@eurolanche.com. The physical copies are all sold out.

 

Norbert Gruber from Austria: The owner of a priceless jersey

Austria is not really a hotbed when it comes to ice hockey. During winter, most Austrians are going and doing everything, which can be done on skis. Nevertheless, for Norbert Gruber, 33, it was all about hockey starting from the age of 10. After following the NHL

for three years on a neutral basis, he decided it was time to pick a favorite team. It was during that year that the city of Denver was supposed to get a new NHL franchise. “I decided to pick the moving team, as the stars from the former Nordiques were some of my favourite players,” explained Norbert.

Being an Avs fan in isolation for nearly 12 years, the creation of the Eurolanche Fan Club finally made it possible for Norbert to talk to people, who share his passion. Most of the discussions took place on the internet and they usually met only once or twice a year. But nevertheless, it became clear for them that they all wanted to go to Denver together to see the Avs play live.

In 2009 though, Norbert finally managed to travel to Denver for the first time with two other Eurolanche members as part of the Eurolanche Invasion II. “Despite the fact that I already owned three Avalanche jerseys, it was clear for me that I would clear out the official merchandise shop, not just by buying shirts and sweaters, but also by buying the new set of jerseys. After buying the new away jersey, I had an idea to keep the back of the jersey blank and maybe use it to collect signatures on the big white spot. When I made this decision, I never expected that my jersey is going to look the way it looks today,” said Norbert.

Being so impressed by the experience of seeing the Avs play in person, it was clear for Norbert that he had to come back to Denver after his first trip to see them again and to get some more signatures. “Well, what can I say? I came back, but not just once, but five more times. After finishing my fifth Invasion, I ran out of space on the back of the jersey, where the number and the name of the player usually are. So, beginning with my sixth Invasion in 2016, I was forced to start using the sleeves for signatures,” said Norbert, who works in the financial services industry as an advisor/consultant.

“Of course, the plan is to keep it going and probably, during my next Invasion, I might have to use the front of my jersey. And to be more careful than ever, as the value of the jersey increases with each and every new signature,” concluded Norbert. Not that he is wearing and carrying his jersey carelessly so it could tear. The problem is that, because of all the signatures, he is not able to wash the jersey in a washing machine. Therefore, he has to take care of stains from food and beer, which is the hardest part when wearing the jersey.

Commercial break: Two big hockey blunders

Everyone makes countless mistakes in their lives. This has also been my case, including the hockey part of my life. Some were bigger, some weren’t. I consider one of them a mistake connected with the Golden Puck, an annual hockey evening gala, where Slovakia’s best hockey players are awarded prizes. In 2007, together with fellow autograph collectors, I waited for the attending players at the theater the gala took place. After the players arrived, I got the idea of sneaking in. I had a copy of my journalist license (without a photo and further details) from the already defunct ‘Práca’ newspaper in my wallet. I was given the copy by an acquaintance, also an autograph collector. I showed it to the security at the entrance and they were thinking about wether to let me in. I made one enormous mistake. I wore denim shorts with holes on both knees (pre-fabricated to precise). They were definitely the most hideous denim shorts I ever owned. Despite this, I still thought I could get into the theater. I still thank the security chief that he didn’t let me in. I can’t begin to describe what could possibly happen if I went in. Maybe the media would’ve written about me! The second faux pas happened on the very same day a year later. I finally wore a suit and had an official accreditation in my pocket. Following the awards show, everyone went to a hotel for the official reception of the event. I felt bad for a fellow collector, who had to wait outside with his hockey cards. That’s why I took his notebook and took it to the table of the biggest names of Slovak hockey. Satan, Hossa, Demitra... you name it, the entire Slovak hockey elite was sitting there. It felt awkward to annoy them with something as trivial as this in front of their wives, but I had no restraints. I still regret my decision, but I’ve learned my lesson.

Louis Duchesne from Canada: Fan from Day 1

There are many Eurolanche members, who started to follow Avalanche hockey since Day 1 in 1995, when the team was re-located from Canada. But there are not many who were supporting the Quebec Nordiques before all that happened. And there are only a handful of them, who remember the WHL era of Nords hockey. This is a story about Louis Duchesne, 57, from Gatineau, Quebec, who has been an Avalanche/Nordiques fan since the real Day 1.

“My favorite players back then were Peter Stastny and his brothers Anton and Marian. I remember very well, when Sakic, Sundin and Forsberg got drafted and this is the main reason I have never cheered for another team. Today, my favorite players are Duchene, Landeskog and MacKinnon,” said Louis, who regularly traveled from Quebec to Denver to attend Avalanche games. The last time he was in town was in October 2015, when he attended two games, including the home opener against the Dallas Stars. He and his son Derick were fortunate enough to meet a familiar face. “While we were at the Pepsi Center, we met Joe Sakic and it was a real pleasure chatting with him and getting to snap a picture with him,” said Louis, reliving the moment.

Louis is an avid Colorado Avalanche collector. He owns game- used sticks, replica jerseys and signed pucks from all five Stastnys: from the Nordiques’ Peter, Anton, and Marian, and from Peter’s sons Paul and Yan. “My main collections are bobble heads, starting with a 3-foot custom made Matt Duchene, to over 90 other bobble heads. This collection is huge and took me over 10 years to collect and complete all of the available series,” said Louis, whose goal is to keep this collection, but if someone is really serious, he would entertain the idea of selling it. He may even offer it to the Avalanche organization for display at the Pepsi Center.

Being one of the longest Avalanche supporters, Louis became a Eurolanche member after reading many articles about Avalanche players and especially stories about the Eurolanche Invasion project on the Fan Club’s website. ”From that point, I knew I had something in common with Eurolanche members. I wanted to be part of this growing Fan Club and eventually join them on future Invasion trips to attend my all-time favorite hockey team,” said Louis.

Louis is a retired veteran of the Canadian military, having served for 35 years in almost all provinces, while also serving abroad, specifically in Baden in Germany for five years. He has also travelled extensively all over the world and Europe. Today, he is still working for the Department of National Defense as a civilian. This is his 41st year of working for the military and as a civilian worker.

Boris Wiedemeyer from Germany: Cody McLeod jerseys collector

If you want to meet the biggest fan of Cody McLeod, you would have to travel to Germany where Boris Wiedemeyer lives. This 44-year-old Colorado Avalanche fan and an area manager at a logistics service has been following McLeod’s career since 2011. “I started to collect game-worn jerseys four years ago and I have been mainly focused on Cody McLeod. As of now, I have six game-worn jerseys and additional four of other Avalanche players,” explained Boris.

When a fellow collector introduced the Eurolanche Fan Club to Boris, it was a no-brainer for him to join the group of the most passionate Avs fans. “I have always wanted to see an NHL game in person – and in Denver, at best. I got in touch with Eurolanche and signed up for the Eurolanche Invasion VIII, which included going to the Stadium Series game against the Red Wings,” said Boris, who became an Avalanche fan in 2007.

His dreams came true when he met Cody McLeod in person in Denver during Invasion VIII following one of the practices. He could finally get signatures on his entire collection and took a photo with the Avs enforcer. “Cody was really nice to me and to the entire group. He even got out of his car and was patient enough to sign everything I had. I was really nervous, but I really enjoyed it in the end,” recalled Boris. He also bought three game- worn jerseys of the Avalanche ECHL affiliate Colorado Eagles.

Boris has been an ice hockey fan since 1988. Nine years later, he became a fan of his local team, the Berlin Polar Bears. He even started to play inline hockey as a goalie, but had to retire due to a serious injury. Today, he is playing goalie in an ice hockey beer league. His goalie mask was customized by a professional painter, which makes it a rare souvenir in his hockey collection.

Alex Manton from Thailand: A hockey administrator

Bangkok, Thailand is the ‘City of Angels’ in the ‘Land of Smiles’. It is a city built in a jungle. It’s not a place you’d expect sheets of ice. Yet they are here. Not many, though. And most of them aren’t good quality. But they are good enough to skate on. And for many expats and locals alike that’s enough for hockey.

Moving to Bangkok from a small town in Wyoming, USA, was a big culture shock. The weather was opposite to that which Alex Manton, 44, was accustomed to. Instead of long winters, he now has no winters at all. The food, the language, and the customs are completely foreign. But hockey is one constant, a touchstone of normalcy for an overheated “farang”.

As a youth, hockey was at best an occasional interest, half-heartedly checking the standings for the Hartford Whalers. Even during the six years he lived in Colorado, he only followed the Colorado Flames and the Colorado Rockies very loosely. After a stint in the USMC (United States Marine Corps), during which he utterly failed to go see Wayne Gretzky as an LA King while stationed in southern California, he decided to attend university in Wyoming. This got him back into the cold, but still not back into hockey. “I saw the Avs win the Cup in 1996 on TV. I didn’t even realize Colorado had an NHL team until that game,” he said, speaking of his first introduction to Avalanche hockey.

Then he met his wife. At the time, she lived in Denver, was a huge sports fan and was responsible for renewing his interest in hockey. And she got him hooked on the Colorado Avalanche. In relating what drew him to the Avs, he says: “I fell in love with the power game of Peter Forsberg, the snap wrister of Joe Sakic, the attitude and disappearing five hole of Patrick Roy. The epic battles with Detroit and Dallas in the playoffs were irresistible, a must-see,” said Alex.

And his interest in hockey grew beyond only watching. In 2005, he decided to try playing with a few friends that had a weekly drop-in hockey game. His first attempt was in goal and did not go well. That’s why he bought forward gear and hasn’t looked back. He can honestly say that he is an international player, having played in tournaments on multiple continents. And he has been lucky enough to have skated with players of all abilities, from 4-year-old kids just learning to skate, to active and retired NHL players.

Now, his main hockey activity is organizing, as he’s the administrator for a new league here in Bangkok, the Siam Hockey League, which began its inaugural season on November 6 2016. The league is replacing the Thai World Hockey League, which he played in and loved, but which was cancelled due to the owner not having enough time to run it. He also helps to organize two large international tournaments. Both have teams from all over the world. The upcoming tournament has 40 teams signed up, and the rosters include players from at least 22 nations.

Alex has been a Eurolanche member for about two years, as soon as he found out about the Fan Club welcoming non-European members.“I think it’s an awesome concept, which is executed very well. The trips, the player contacts, the events throughout the year are fun to read about and I hope to be able to take part in the future, as long as our next posting is closer,” concluded Alex.

David Puchovsky from Slovakia: Eurolanche’s founder who tracked down kidnapped kids

When a childhood friend of David Puchovsky, 27, first told him about the Colorado Avalanche (because he didn’t know any other team), he didn’t know that this would be a moment that would greatly influence his future. He started to follow the Avalanche ever since and saw the Avalanche play on TV for the first time three years later. In 2007, he founded the Eurolanche Fan Club, currently the most unique fan project in the entire NHL. “One day, I had the idea of uniting all European Avalanche fans. I certainly didn’t expect such an enormous amount of interest. After a year, we finally had our first professional website and went to Denver on our first Eurolanche Invasion,” said David, who remains the Fan Club’s President to this day.

During Eurolanche’s 10 years of existence, David organized nine trips to Colorado under the name Eurolanche Invasion. The project is without doubt Eurolanche’s most successful project, as 54 Fan Club members participated in Eurolanche Invasions. They attended an astounding number of Avalanche games – 56 games in total. “Organizing each Invasion is rather difficult, because we try to improve the project with each trip. For me, the satisfaction of the participating members is what matters most of all. We organize other projects for those members, who can’t join us on our overseas trips, for example meetings in Europe,” described David.

The vast majority of renowned hockey media have published reports about the Fan Club. Eurolanche appeared on NBC Sports, when Jeremy Roenick interviewed David, Eurolanche’s founder. Exclusive interviews with are one of the most popular features on Eurolanche.com. This is where David utilizes his experience from working as a professional journalist – he wrote for the Slovak daily newspaper Novy Cas from 2013 until 2015.

During his time as a journalist, he covered the main and exclusive daily events. His biggest success was tracking down three kidnapped Slovak children, who were abducted by their fathers from Slovakia into foreign countries. “The first case was the case of a 4-year-old boy, who was abducted by his Muslim father for the second time. He brutally assaulted his mother-in- law. I found them both after three months in Budapest, Hungary. The family of the boy hired two big guys, with whom I’ve been searching the city for days. When we finally saw the kidnapper riding a bicycle, we alarmed the nearby policemen and ran for him. He wanted to escape, but was ultimately unsuccessful. He was subsequently deported from Europe,” said David about the first case.

The second case was much more difficult, as he worked on solving it for more than a year. In 2011, a Slovak father disappeared with his two children during one of their regular meetings. He couldn’t get over the fact that his wife wanted to divorce him. Slovak authorities had no information about their whereabouts. David finally found them in Panama, Central America, in 2015. “The case was very difficult, as the authorities had no information about the whereabouts of the father of the children. He also hid on the internet, but he ultimately made one mistake. Upon finding him, I had to work with Slovak authorities to be sure that the authorities in Panama would cooperate with us and extradite him. We’ve been preparing for the whole thing for three months. I went to Panama in March 2015 along with a colleague of mine, a photographer. For three days, we followed his every move. When everything was finally ready, the police took him into custody. The mother could finally get her children back and the father was put into jail,” recalled David.

David wrote a book about both cases titled “Unesené” (which translates as Kidnapped – to read more about the cases and the book itself, visit www.unesene.sk). In late 2015, he decided to leave his job in the media due to personal reasons and by the time of the release of this book, he was the head administrator of the official Facebook page of the Police of the Slovak Republic.

Jakub Klos from the Czech Republic: Eurolanche website administrator

The Eurolanche Fan Club would hardly exist for 10 years if there was no functional website providing Colorado Avalanche fans with all kinds of stuff regarding their beloved hockey team. Jakub Klos, 29, built a hearty relationship with ice hockey at the age of six, when he started to play hockey in his native town of Koprivnice. Shortly afterwards, hockey became an integral part of his life, which in his words is never going to change. “I’ve really lived with hockey and I always dreamed that one day, I’ll play for my beloved Avalanche,” he said. Nevertheless, Jakub was forced to end his active hockey career because of the challenges of studying at university, but that made him engage in hockey more passively. “Thanks to the internet, information was easily available and accessible at all times. I craved for even the slightest bit of news about what’s going on with my beloved club,” said Jakub.

When Jakub accidentally stumbled upon a community of fans with the same passion, already a devoted fan of Colorado for many years at the time, he would have never thought that he will take over the responsibility of the entire website of the sole European Fan Club of the Colorado Avalanche. At first, Jakub contributed several articles a week. ”I was so glad that I can be somehow involved in running the Fan Club, especially to have the opportunity to be in regular daily contact with other Colorado fans,” he added.

The newly founded website needed someone who could take care of its maintenance and development. “Given the fact that I have studied computer science at the time and no one else applied for the position of web administrator, there was no reason to hesitate,” said Jakub about the beginnings of his tenure as Eurolanche’s website administrator. Jakub currently works as an analyst at an IT company.

“I really appreciate the fact that I am an important part of the Fan Club and the entire community of Colorado fans. I only think about ways to improve our website, so it can capture moments like when MacKinnon and the rest of the team are holding the Stanley Cup above their heads in the future,” said Jakub, concluding the story of a young hockey player who became the website administrator of Europe’s largest NHL Fan Club.

Commercial break: Fear of English

In each group of European fans travelling to North America as part of the Eurolanche Invasion project, there’s always at least one who fears that his English won’t be good enough for such a trip. Will the customs officers let me through? Will I be able to answer the questions of the immigration officer? What if I get lost? The truth is easier than it might seem – you don’t have to speak English at all. How is it possible? I remember two Eurolanche members, whom I won’t name of course. The first one didn’t speak English, not even a bit. His longest sentence was “Yes, no, yes, no.” etc. He survived, went on many trips and even though he couldn’t join in on the debates with our US friends, he described the whole trip as the best experience of his life. Back in London, one of the security guys asked him a simple question: “Do you have any explosives in your luggage?” You’ve guessed it. To the surprise of the security guy, this member answered with a clear yes. Luckily, he immediately realized that the biggest weapon he had was his bad English and he let him through following a simple check. Everyone has to realize that bad English won’t keep you from fulfilling your dreams. All airport employees and policemen think the same.

Matej Klucho from the Czech Republic: Head coach of a youth floorball team

Matej Klucho was born in 1989 in Liberec, where he still lives. Matej was interested in sports since his childhood and he wanted to be an ice hockey player, nevertheless a series of events brought him to a similar sport – floorball. He is now in the last year of finishing his engineering degree at the Technical University in Liberec.

He became a ‘diehard’ fan during the 2000-01 season. Unlike the majority of Avs fans, his initial desire to support his team was not because of Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg or Patrick Roy, but because of star defenseman Ray Bourque. His story literally enthralled Matej and the then-pupil attending elementary school started to follow Colorado’s results, wishing the team as much success as possible Once upon a time, a happy ending occurs in sports and luckily for Matej, it happened for the Avalanche and Bourque during the same season, resulting in a new passion of his. More and more players in Avalanche jerseys started to appear in albums with hockey cards and he simply could not play with a different team in the popular NHL computer game series ever since. His original fondness of an NHL team took a wholly different course.

Besides nationwide sports monitoring, he himself played floorball. Since Matej was an excellent writer, he began to write articles for the Liberec floorball club website at a very young age. When the opportunity popped up in 2007, he did not hesitate to mix business with pleasure and joined the Eurolanche Fan Club.

As time went by, Matej became a very important part of Eurolanche and had travelled three times straight to Denver as part of the Eurolanche Invasion project to watch his idols live. “I consider the Invasions to the Mile High City one of the most beautiful memories of my life and always love to think of them,” he recalled.

Not only did he establish himself as an important member of Eurolanche, he also did so in floorball as well. From an ordinary member and player, he became an important part of FBC Liberec, coaching168

in several different categories until eventually becoming a youth team head coach. In addition, he still actively plays for this team. Even more fascinating is the fact that he has more than 100 starts in the top-tier Czech floorball league, which is a pretty solid number considering the seasons only consist of 22 games.

Due to the increasing amount of duties and the challenges of finishing his engineering degree, Matej was forced to pass his position within Eurolanche to ‘younger’ colleagues, but he still follows his favorite team and hopes for more magical moments similar to those that happened during the 2000-01 season

Roger Rensch from Switzerland: President of the David Aebischer fan club

Eurolanche has become famous for its annual Eurolanche Invasion – trips to Denver to attend Colorado Avalanche games. Yet Fan Club members from various European countries weren’t the first from the continent to have a chance to meet Avalanche players in person. Roger Rensch, 48, founded David Aebischer’s fan club in 1997. “When David announced that he would leave Fribourg in 1997, I met him and we talked about creating a fan club. During the following years, we met many times and even organized seven trips to Denver, three to Hershey and one to Montreal,” explained Roger, who joined the Eurolanche Fan Club last year. Roger is the one wearing glasses in the photo above.

The Official International David Aebischer Fan Club (TOIDAFC) has ceased operations after David’s retirement from hockey a couple of years ago. “Despite this, I still meet with Abby. In the past, we used to meet several times every summer and on my trips to the States between 1998 and 2008. Swiss hockey fans are very passionate, so it wasn’t a problem to get many fans to go the meetings with Abby or on trips to the US,” explained Roger, who currently works as an insurance manager.

Between 25 and 40 hockey fans joined Roger on his annual oversea trips. The trips didn’t only include Europeans, but also local fans from the USA, or even one from Japan. Every trip was really unique for him. It was hard for Roger to recall his favorite memories. “The best experience was surely winning the Stanley Cup. I attended Game 4 in New Jersey, Game 5 in Denver, watched Game 6 on the jumbotron in Denver and Game 7 in Denver. That was one of the best experiences of my life,” said Roger.

His other experiences include a moment, when his group started a so-called Mexican wave in the Pepsi Center; watched Abby’s fight with his former backup goalie Phillipe Sauve while the entire arena was shouting “Abby, Abby”; “dangerous” cheering in Detroit, or in the Phantoms arena during an AHL game against Hershey, the Avs’ former AHL affiliate. “We didn’t know that the Phantoms and the Bears had a big rivalry before the game. So we made a lot of noise singing and cheering for the Bears. The Bears ultimately won the game pretty easily, so a lot of Phantoms fans were angry and we had to be escorted from the arena by the police,” said Roger, recalling the moment after many years.

Roger still believes it didn’t make sense for Colorado to trade away Abby while he was in the prime of his career. Aebischer retired from hockey in 2015, citing injury problems. Since then, he’s been a goalie coach for various teams in Switzerland.

Before we conclude Roger’s story, there is one more memorable experience he would like to share with us. “We came to the arena in Hershey with our drum from Fribourg and the arena staff took it away during warm- ups, because it made too much noise. Several times during the first period, the audience and the fan club cheered: ‘We want the drum, we want the drum.’ Finally, at the start of the second period, the staff brought us the drum back,” said Roger.

Jozef Illes from Slovakia: A sportsman and sports fan

Jozef Illes, 33, lives in Vranov nad Toplou, Slovakia. He is a businessman and owns two e-shops and one shop in his hometown. He sells clothing, shoes and sporting goods, especially fitness products, as he is a huge fan of sports in general. He mainly watches ice hockey, football and tennis. He’s been following the NHL since 1994.His favorite player was goalie Patrick Roy.His unexpected trade to Colorado in late 1995 was the reason he became an Avalanche fan.

“My biggest dream was to travel to Denver in person and attend an Avalanche game in the Pepsi Center. It came true in 2016, when I joined the Eurolanche Invasion VIII. It was one of the best experiences of my life. It was something I’ll never forget,” said Jozef.

For Jozef, there are many special memories from Invasion VIII. Seeing the Alumni Game a day before the Stadium Series game against the Red Wings in Denver with legends on both sides of the ice was probably one, if not the best memory. In-person meetings with current and former Avalanche players were also very interesting and memorable; like for example with Peter Forsberg. All participants of the Eurolanche Invasion went home with valuable souvenirs – mostly photos and autographs. “I’ve been a part of the Eurolanche family since 2013. I can only hope that I will eventually be able to join another Invasion in the foreseeable future,” said Jozef.

Jozef has a lot of hobbies. He does many sports, especially soccer, table tennis, tennis and chess; his favorite activities further include swimming, diving, cycling, skating and running. In 2013, he started to run and train. Then he started to attend various running competitions, especially extreme obstacle races. He mostly likes two very famous competitions – the Spartan Race and the Predator Race. He finished 2nd at the most difficult Spartan Races in Europe. Last year, it was the European Championship (31 km, 45 obstacles) and in 2016, it was the Ultra Beast (50 km, 75 obstacles). “Right now, I’m preparing for my first marathon. It’s hard, but I believe that I can make it,” concluded Jozef.

Martin Jurkovic from Slovakia: Flight attendant

Martin still remembers his first experience with the NHL during elementary school sometime around 1995, when all the guys collected NHL trading cards. He somehow ended up having the most from the Quebec Nordiques,so they became his favorite team.He later switched to the Colorado Avalanche. At the time, it was very popular to write a letter to the “far away” United States, as they would send you several souvenirs or photographs.

Since there was no internet in Slovakia during that time, he gained all information from monthly magazines and teletext. “After all those years, I still remember the teletext page 261 was for scores, 262 for standings, and 263 for stats. I also remember the tension while page 261 was loading to know whether Colorado won or not, especially in the playoffs, I was always so nervous,” said Martin.

Martin, 29, works for an airline as a flight attendant. “I often stay at hotels with poor internet connection, so it’s hard for me to watch games. But I follow the scores online every day,” explained Martin. Unfortunately, his airline does not offer any flights to the US or Canada. Otherwise, he could easily attend NHL games. That is why he also decided to join the Eurolanche Invasion VIII in 2016 – to finally see the Avs live. Not only did he attend regular season games at the Pepsi Center, but he also attended the Stadium Series at Coors Field, which included the Alumni Game with the likes of Roy, Sakic, Forsberg and other players he adored as a kid. “It was a very special thing for me. It was like a flashback to my childhood when all this ‘American stuff ’ was so far away from us. And then, I was there, watching them playing, just a couple of meters away from me. Unbelievable experience,” said Martin.

Martin also traveled to Toronto to see all the best hockey players in the world playing for the World Cup. He attended five games, at least one from each team in order to have a chance to see all the players. And to see Avalanche players playing for their national teams. “The rosters were just unreal. You don’t get to see players like Kane, Crosby, Toews, Gaborik and many other NHL stars every day. But I have to say that I was a little disappointed with the attendance at the Air Canada Center. To my surprise, not even a game featuring Team North America with last year’s first overall pick and future Toronto star Auston Matthews was sold out,” concluded Martin.

Tomas Vnuk from Slovakia: An extraordinary experience with the Cup

Tomas Vnuk has participated in two Eurolanche Invasions, during which he experienced a number unforgettable moments. He joined Eurolanche in 2012 in order to fulfill his dreams and to see the Colorado Avalanche play in front of him. It was during the Eurolanche Invasion VII, when he experienced an unconventional meeting with an even more unconventional end.

The history of this meeting dates back to 2013, when Tomas was on holiday in the USA attending a Blue Jackets game, during which he saw Slovak forward Marian Gaborik, playing for the Blue Jackets at the time, in action. “I took some pictures with him and he won the Stanley Cup a few months later. When I was with my friends, I often joked that he won thanks to me and that I had brought him luck,” said Tomas.

A year passed and Tomas participated in his first Invasion – the Eurolanche Invasion VII. After the game between Colorado and the Chicago Blackhawks, Marian Hossa came to a group of fans and despite the fact that everyone wore Avalanche jerseys, gave several autographs and took photos with us. After that, Tomas told him about his previous experience.“I told him that I took a picture with Gaborik during the season he won the Stanley Cup and that he’s going to win it thanks to the photos with me. Marian laughed and said that if it really happens, he will find me,” said Tomas describing a moment from the 2014-15 season. And it actually happened. Hossa won the Stanley Cup that very season.

A few months later, Slovak newspapers published reports about this experience, which resulted in Tomas being contacted by Marian’s sister-in-law and receiving an invitation to celebrate his day with Stanley Cup with him. Tomas accepted the invitation and came with two other Eurolanche members. “We took pictures with the Stanley Cup and Marian in his garden. There were other fans, too. We were eventually invited into Marian’s house. While Marian was eating goulash in his kitchen, we took more pictures with the Cup. It was incredible. It just shows what a great person he is,” said Tomas.

Tomas lives in Cadca, in the northern part of Slovakia, where he works in a family business. He spent a year in Kentucky as a high school student in an American host family. He remained in contact with his ‘American parents’ and they even attended his wedding in Slovakia.

Joona Leppala from Finland: The first Eurolanche member and a famous artist

At the beginning of Eurolanche’s 10th anniversary season during the 2016-17 season, more than 600 fans from 40 different countries were registered members of the Fan Club. But who was the very first registered member when David Puchovsky, the President and Founder of Eurolanche, founded the whole thing back in August 2007? It was Joona Leppala, a 23-year-old fan from Finland. “Has it already been 10 years? Time sure flies! I was always really proud of being part of this special Fan Club and I am really proud to be the first member,” said Joona.

There are not many Avalanche fans who can still remember the early days of the Eurolanche or even the era before. Most of the Eurolanche members can’t imagine the days before Eurolanche came into existence. No trips, no meetings, no original stories and interviews. Since Joona is the first member of the Fan Club, he can share what happened 10 years ago. “I think it was 2006 when I got in touch with some international Avalanche fans, which I met on discussion boards. We spent a lot of time talking about the Avalanche. I think one of those guys was David Puchovsky and I remember that had an idea to create an Avalanche fan club for Europeans. I went crazy about it and wished that it would eventually happen,” recalled Joona. “There were many possible names, but I think Eurolanche was the best one. When Eurolanche started, I think it had like 10 members. I remember the time as one of the greatest I’ve ever experienced. It had such a big impact on me and I think it’s the biggest reason I still feel warm and fuzzy about the Colorado Avalanche,” said Joona.

Finland is a hockey country, where it isn’t easy to support a team which isn’t too popular among local fans. Actually, Joona was the sole Avalanche fan among his peers when he was a kid. Many Finnish fans loved the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim because of Teemu Selanne. “My friends criticized my choice of becoming an Avs fan. I started to follow them after playing NHL 98, since it had a picture of Peter Forsberg on the cover. I didn’t really care about the players until I found out those players were actually real. I was 5 at the time, so I was surprised to learn that there really is a hockey league called the NHL, which had all these teams in real life,” said Joona, who only checked Avalanche game results in the mornings and watched highlights at first,but began to watch live games at night later on.“At school, I had photos of Avalanche players and I remember getting really mad when some guys ‘accidentally’ smeared those photos with paint,” said Joona.

Joona competed in a Finnish talent show in 2009, where he performed freestyle floorball performance. After this, his whole life changed and he began to perform all around the country. Later, he became a YouTuber. Today, he records and broadcasts his own videos for a living. His channel ZoneVD has more than 115,000 subscribers.

Joona believes he will be able to participate in a Eurolanche Invasion in the future. He has a message for all Eurolanche fans: “ You should be really proud to be a member of this wonderful Fan Club. Eurolanche has provided me with many great memories, which I’ll remember for the rest of my life. I remember that back in days, everything about the Fan Club was so small, but every one of us was super passionate about it. I think that’s what makes us Avalanche fans. Passion,” concluded Joona.

Peter Schnierer from Slovakia: Marek Svatos’ biggest fan

Tragedy struck the hockey world in November 2016. Marek Svatos, former Colorado Avalanche player, died in Denver. Not only his family, but also fans worldwide were shocked by Svatos’ passing. Among those mourning his death was Peter Schnierer, a 32-year-old dentist from the Slovak city of Zilina and probably the biggest fan of Marek Svatos, who was born in the same city Peter studied in – in Kosice. “I’ve been a fan of the Avalanche since the franchise relocated to Denver. I started to follow Peter Forsberg while the franchise was still in Quebec. With the arrival of Patrick Roy, he immediately became my favorite player. When the first Slovak players – goalie Peter Budaj and forward Marek Svatos – came to Denver, I became an even bigger fan,” said Peter describing the beginnings of his fandom.

Soon afterwards, he became mostly focused on Marek Svatos. His support of Svatos stemmed from one of their many personal meetings. “I met Marek for the first time back in 2005, while I was still studying in Kosice. Afterwards, we met almost every year. He was a great guy, someone you could talk to like you’ve been long-time friends,” said Peter. His collection of memorabilia of Marek Svatos is truly imposing, yet he still tries to make the collection even bigger. “I’ve got four of Marek’s hockey sticks, one pair of game-worn gloves, three game-worn jerseys (Colorado, Ottawa and Nashville) and more than 320 hockey cards. People often call me Svatos on hockey websites selling memorabilia,” he said.

In Slovakia, Peter is well known as a collector of hockey souvenirs and memorabilia. He started his hobby back in the 90’s, when his cousin showed him his hockey cards and took him to his first Slovak hockey league game. Thanks to years of collecting, his hockey collection became truly astounding – 60 game-used sticks from players like Peter Budaj and Pavol Demitra, more than 40 game-worn jerseys from the Slovak hockey league, the NHL and minor North American leagues, and last but not least, more than 100,000 hockey cards. For the most part, his collection of hockey cards includes cards of Avalanche players and Slovak hockey players, but his collection also includes signed cards of Wayne Gretzky, Patrick Roy, Bobby Orr, Mario Lemieux and other legends.

This story was part of the memorial book about Marek Svatos which was given to his family in Denver during the Eurolanche Invasion IX.

Commercial break: The NHL in Prague

No, it wasn’t Colorado that I first saw play from all the teams of the NHL. A few weeks prior to the Eurolanche Invasion I, in late 2008, the NHL came to Prague as part of the NHL Premiere event. I had to be there. I was pleasantly surprised that I god accreditation, even though I wrote for a regular smaller website. I spent the next days at the stadium in Prague. All day – I arrived in the morning and stayed until the evening. I wore a suit, just like the American and Canadian journalists. I met several important persons from the North American media. I witnessed their high level of professionalism. I covered the practices and both games between the New York Rangers and the Tampa Bay Lightning. I even saw the owner of the Lightning. I watched Gary Bettman’s press conference. By mistake, I changed a word in my question to Barry Melrose, then-head coach of the Lightning, who laughed at me a little... It was the experience of a lifetime, which was a little teaser of what would happen in Denver in the near future. The trip to Prague was preceded by an exhibition game between the Rangers and HC Slovan Bratislava, currently playing in the KHL. I also covered this game in Bratislava as a journalist. The first two rows at the stadium were reserved for journalists and several VIPs. I suddenly found myself sitting beside iconic goalie Olaf Kolzig. This is why I did an interview with him during the game. I got into the referee locker room after the game, where I met the legendary Kerry Fraser. We took a picture together with Igor Larionov at the post-game reception.

Andy Kay from the USA: Organized his Invasion from the US to Europe

The Eurolanche Fan Club organizes trips to the US every year. The project is called “Eurolanche Invasion”. Over the course of nine organized trips, Eurolanche members have met many local US fans and have made long-lasting friendships with several of them. Like with Andy Kay, 45, who spent most of his life living in Colorado and even made his own Invasion to Europe back in 2012. “I was fortunate to travel to Slovakia in 2012 to meet with Eurolanche members at their summer meeting in Bratislava. With no hockey being played at the time, I travelled to many places, five countries, and had a heck of a great time. A Eurolanche paintball outing was a special treat on the outskirts of Bratislava, as that is also one of my favorite activi