Eurolanche

Lockout period the success for Eurolanche

It is a big paradox. Last months without hockey – without NHL games – were the most successful part in the history of the Eurolanche fan club. That period has started the Eurolanche to the right direction with fast speed and it does not seem it is going to stop in the near future. The fact that the Avalanche players were closer to us, Europeans, and the natural development of our website www.eurolanche.com, caused the publishing the exclusive stories and interviews.

Included videos show the greetings by the former and current Avalanche players to our members: 

Firstly, it was hard to even imagine how the NHL fan site could work without NHL team. Some fans even predicted the end of the fan sites. At the one side, the fan sites were supposed to have zero stories during the lockout period, at the second side, the interest of their daily visitors was supposed to decrease dramatically. It did not happen in the Eurolanche. From the first day of the lockout, 15^th September 2012, to its end, we had published almost 550 exclusive and own stories. Any other fan sites and even some bigger hockey sites had not published more stories than us. In average, the staff team of the Eurolanche fan club published almost five stories per day. The most, 320 stories were published for Czech and Slovak speaking fans. Less than 200 were in the English language and the rest for the rest of the world.

Thanks to the expansion of our contacts with the reliable sources, we reported some news as the first medium or amongst the firsts. Eurolanche appeared as the source of the news in many worldwide media through the world. For example, we have been quoted or sourced at the websites of The Hockey News, NBC Sports, Denver Sports, Mile High Sports and more. You can find the list of our media appearances here; regularly updated. Eurolanche also was the alone medium, which covered the Colorado Avalanche players´ games on the daily basis. Again, thanks to that, we had become source for various journalists from different countries.

The hockey season 2012/13 was started by exclusive interviews in the Eurolanche fan club. For the first time in our history we decided to not do interviews only at the personal meetings with players, but also via emails, Skype or mobile phones. For example, we interviewed various Avalanche prospects as Calvin Pickard or the Avalanche first pick of the entry draft 2012 Mitchell Heard. We also talked with the former Avalanche players, for example with Ian Laperriere, Chris Stewart, Sandis Ozolinsh or Ville Nieminen. More attractive interviews were done with the current members of the Avalanche roster. Our coverage includes Matt Duchene, Paul Stastny, David Jones, Semyon Varlamov and Ryan O´Reilly. Especially, the interview with O´Reilly included really exclusive content and hot news. For us the best of the best interview of the lockout period was with the Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog. The full list of all Eurolanche´s interviews is available here.

Our work during the lockout was not strict from our homes. We traveled and attended games in person. Mostly we were accredited journalists for the KHL games in Bratislava, Slovakia, Central Europe. We had great opportunity there to did interviews with the current and mainly former Avalanche players. The most memorable trips was thru Czech Republic, where we were accredited for one international (European Hockey Tour) and one national game, met with Stewart and Varlamov. Also we were in the stands for the prestige European Trophy tournament in Bratislava. 

At the end, we did not forget on our members and fans. We run several contests for the Avalanche souvenirs, upgraded our website (will continue in that) a have started the preparations for the next trip to Denver or some European city. We are not about to finish upgrades, but will continue and keep you informed. The pre-season plan for the Eurolanche will be published soon.

On the behalf of the Eurolanche fan club, I thank you for your support during the hard part which hit the NHL. I believe you will stay with us during the upcoming Colorado Avalanche season.

• Lockout or season, Eurolanche continues
• Eurolanche starts Live Coverage
• Eurolanche upgrades the homepage