NHL Games to be Played in London in September
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The NHL are beginning have opened talks with the British Elite League with the possibility of staging two NHL Games in London's O2 Arena on September 29-30 this year. The matches would be the Anaheim Ducks v Los Angeles Kings.
Britain does have an Elite League, and its current champions are the Belfast Giants. Theoren Fleury played for them after his retirement from the NHL.
Despite smaller arenas (only about 10,000 in the Elite League), they are regularly full, and the sport has good following in the cities that Elite League teams are present.
The Mighty Ducks played the Canucks in 1997 in Tokyo, and this would be the NHLs first foreign excursion since then. They will follow the example of the NFL, that will stage a game at the new Wembley in 2008.
The British Ice Hockey team is awful, on the world stage. It is way down on its European counterparts, and out of the 45 ranked IIHF Nations, it is ranked in 31st position.
If such a move comes off, it would be a good move for raising interest in the international game. Since a team would only lose 1 of its home games, it will not be such a problem due to the length of the season.
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