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NHLGamers, Your inaugural eSHL champions have been crowned! Twelve eSHL teams entered, eight progressed to the playoffs, and eventually, we were left with a somewhat familiar-looking matchup in Linköping HC vs. Malmö Redhawks. Both teams are no strangers to winning, with LHC featuring their exact same roster from their most recent ECL Elite victory, and Malmö boasting two players from HAVU as well as four from the Vesa Pompa HC team who won the SCL last Spring. Despite the final series resulting in a BO5 sweep, two of the three games were decided by one goal, and each game felt like it was on a knife's edge. Once the dust had settled LHC emerged as your eSHL champions, continuing their impressive form over the past few tournaments they have competed in. Your new eSHL Champions - Linköping HC / Photo credit: Elias Gammelgård Linköping HC 🏆 Group stage record: 21-1-0 (1st) Round 1: vs HV71 (8) 3-0 Semifinals: vs Leksands IF (4) 3-1 Finals: vs Malmö Redhawks (2) 3-0 GOALIES #72 C. Lundgren @ICappeI DEFENSEMEN #27 A. Loimuvirta @loimmu #40 J. Torro @jtorro1233 #88 J. Virta @SUPERVIRTA FORWARDS #23 N. Tukiainen @NikkeDangles #25 E. Tammenpaa @Eki #44 P. Arontie @PleeMaker #86 J. Paatiala @Juunas After the games were played and Linköping HC had emerged as the champions, our editor-in-chief @jahajaha93 had a chance to talk to @Eki and asked him some questions: You've now managed to secure two titles within a short span of time, what do you have to say about your run as of late? "Obviously a championship always feels great, Cappe did an amazing job setting this up for us so it feels especially great to be able to play for him." Malmo was your expected final opponent for quite some time, did you prepare for that ahead of time? "We expected to meet Malmö in an eventual final. They have a very strong roster and we know their players well, so we didn't actually prepare too much per se since we've obviously met them before and had time to think things over." The eSHL differs quite heavily in character from the ECL for example, what did you think were the biggest differences? "Well, there's quite many but especially the heavily varying level of competition is different. Some clubs went with local talent and it's respectable, but they didn't fare too well in the end. It's obviously a bit of a different mindset going into the game when you're meeting a contender like Malmo versus when you're going up against a team you know you will beat with ease." Finally, how did you like representing Linköping HC in this tournament and what does the future hold for you? "It's been absolutely awesome and the support has been second to none. Linköping is a first-class organization that has really taken care of us players and seen to it that we can perform at our highest level. About the future - our contract term is for the remainder of NHL 20, no talks about extensions have been had yet so that's something that remains to be seen." Eki and all of Linköping HC were all smiles all weekend / Photo credit: Elias Gammelgård NHLGamer would like to congratulate Linköping HC for their championship and thank all of the teams, players and organizations for an amazing first season of the eSHL! Stay tuned for a more detailed season recap later this week.

NHLGamers, We have received the devastating news that a beloved member of the community - Sami @Ampuhaukka Luoma passed away at the young age of 41 this past Friday. Sami was a family man and a long-time community member, who enjoyed spending his pastime playing the NHL series in good company. Over the years several of us had the privilege to play alongside this man and he touched many of our lives in one way or another. To honor Sami's memory, some of his past teammates and friends have shared some of their memories below: - @Tzon93 - @l-Furyan-l - @Lamsa A word from @Kenu on behalf of NHLGamer: I would like to offer our deepest condolences to the family, friends and teammates of Sami in this tragic loss. I was in touch with Sami in early January and he spoke about his plans to build a team together with @pelimies80 and he had some questions around the upcoming season. It's hard to accept that that discussion was the last chance I got to talk to him. I didn't know Sami well, but I did talk a lot of ECL with him throughout the years and also remember trying out for his team back in the day. He was always polite, positive and fun to talk to and I he will be missed. During his career of 227 games as a right defenseman in the ECL Sami racked up 26 goals and 125 assists, totalling 151 points. Aside from the the ECL, he was also active in a lot of our other leagues. You can see his full career stats below. The staff at NHLGamer extends our heartfelt condolences to everyone touched by Sami during his lifetime. Please also share your memory in the comment section if you wish to do so.