Eurolanche

The summary of Eurolanche’s 10th season

The first European and the biggest Fan Club of the Colorado Avalanche, Eurolanche, celebrated its 10^th anniversary of existence during the 2016-17 season. Thanks to a number of new features and organized events, the recent season became the most successful in Eurolanche’s history. The season was highlighted by the Eurolanche Invasion IX, three meetings with former Avalanche players in Europe, two new sister websites and activities linked with the celebration of the Fan Club’s anniversary.

“We wanted to create a lot of activities and new features at the beginning of the season in order to make the recent season an unforgettable part of our history. Although the months of preparations weren’t easy, I’m really glad that all went according to plan. Being able to celebrate our 10-year anniversary means a lot and we know what kind of future commitment it means,” said Eurolanche Founder and President David Puchovsky.

The first activity of the 2016-17 season was a Fan Club member and future Eurolanche Invasion IX participants meeting in Brno, Czech Republic. The meeting took place on the day of the fan club’s 9^th anniversary of existence. It was the eighth member meeting in Eurolanche history, with its main purpose being to present planned activities for the coming season, as well as to present the schedule, program and rules of the Eurolanche Invasion IX to its future participants. Furthermore, both the anniversary logo and motto of Eurolanche were presented at the meeting and both are going to be used until the end of 2017. 

The season was once again highlighted by the Fan Club’s ninth trip (and sixth in a row) to the US under the name Eurolanche Invasion IX. Ten members from Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and, for the very first time, from Hungary and Finland took part in the trip. The participants of Invasion IX attended seven Colorado Avalanche games in total. For the first time ever, they’ve also attended two away games in Anaheim and San Jose during the Fan Club’s biggest trip during a Eurolanche Invasion to date. In the span of five days, Invasion IX participants visited the East Coast of the US and, aside from the two previously mentioned cities, also visited Los Angeles, San Francisco, and, for the first time ever, Mexico.

The Fan Club organized a record number of meetings with former Avalanche players in Europe during the past season. Several Fan Club members met with Steven Reinprecht in Nurnberg, Germany, Uwe Krupp in Berlin, Germany and David Aebischer in Fribourg, Switzerland. A tour of the city in each respective city was also part of the meeting.  During the last meeting, the meeting’s participants drove a total of 2428 kilometers (1508 miles) in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France and Lichtenstein in the span of four days.

• Report and interview: Steven Reinprecht
• Report and interview: Uwe Krupp
• Report and interview: David Aebischer

At the beginning of the Avalanche’s regular season, the Fan Club launched its third sister website – Story.Eurolanche.com. Its main purpose is to showcase the history of the Fan Club and its 10 years of existence in simple form. Brand new sections and columns quickly became part of the newly-launched website. One of the main columns consisted of a 25-part series about selected Eurolanche members, which didn’t only focus on their passion for Avalanche hockey, but on their other interests and achievements as well. The website also consisted of other sections summarizing the 10-year-existence of the Fan Club – an infographic about Eurolanche’s biggest achievements and successes, its up-to-date history (both sections are also available at Eurolanche.com), a series about interesting facts from the Fan Club’s history and 60 most memorable Eurolanche photos.

Eurolanche also launched its fifth website the past season on the occasion of the NHL announcing two games between the Avalanche and the Ottawa Senators, which will be played in Sweden in November 2017. Thanks to the GlobalSeries.Eurolanche.com website, Eurolanche members had the opportunity to sign up for the fan club’s trip to Sweden and to buy game tickets among the very first fans. The Fan Club also announced its plans for the Eurolanche Raid 2017 trip, with a record-setting 52 members from 10 different countries and two continents scheduled to take part in it. The GlobalSeries.Eurolanche.com website will be gradually updated with content and will serve as an everlasting tribute to the Avs’ historic trip to Europe.  Furthermore, the website will be the main source of up-to-date news about both the trip and the Avalanche-Senators games during the entire Eurolanche Raid 2017.

The Eurolanche League, the Fan Club’s betting competition continued with its seventh installment, with the prizes being as attractive as never before. The three top-placed competitors will receive their prizes in August. Eurolanche members had the chance to compete for various souvenirs and memorabilia during the entire season, with the most valuable prize being a Colorado Avalanche jersey. Fan Club members only needed to upload their photo to a special gallery of the biggest Avalanche fans at Story.Eurolanche.com to enter the competition.

Eurolanche.com readers had the opportunity to read news about Avalanche hockey on a daily basis. The website published at least three articles on a daily basis in either Czech or Slovak, making Eurolanche’s website the world’s most active fan website about an NHL team. The content included regular stories in English language and other languages too. Game summaries were updated with player ratings, with the players being rated by the readers themselves. Based on the aforementioned ratings, we published the results of the very first Eurolanche Awards.

Fourteen exclusive interviews with players or other people connected with the Colorado Avalanche were part of the coverage available at Eurolanche.com, with the amount of exclusive interviews being the second highest since the 2013-14 season. Aside from interviews with three former Avalanche players, you had the opportunity to read interviews with this year’s first overall draft pick Nico Hischier, Sven Andrighetto, Tyson Jost, J.T. Compher, A.J. Greer and Mikko Rantanen. The majority of these interviews, as well as parts from other exclusive articles found their way into a number of European and North American media, which have been citing Eurolanche for years.

In November 2016, the Fan Club announced the date of the anniversary meeting, which will be the culmination of Eurolanche’s 10^th anniversary celebration. The meeting will take place from August 10 until August 13, 2017, in the High Tatras in Slovakia, with Eurolanche celebrating its 10^th birthday on August 12.

The complete history of the Fan Club will be part of the book, which will be published in both Slovak and English in late 2017. More information will be made public in the near future and will be also available at Story.Eurolanche.com.

Selected interesting facts about Eurolanche (as of July 25, 2017):

• Number of registered members: 763
• Number of countries represented among Fan Club members: 43
• Number of organized Eurolanche Invasions: 9
• Number of Eurolanche Invasion participants: 54
• Number of attended Colorado Avalanche games: 56
• Number of member meetings: 8
• Number of meetings with players in Europe: 10
• Number of social media followers: 6680
• Number of published articles in Czech/Slovak since June 10, 2011: 6144

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