Fluvannia Hockey League

Fluvannia Hockey League

Current season, competition or edition: 2022-23 FHL season
Sport	Ice hockey
Founded	March 20, 1948 (1948-03-20)
Inaugural season	1948-49
President	Barry Goetz
No. of teams	12
Countries	Fluvannia Dunferm
Headquarters	Appleton
Continent	Abos
Most recent champion(s)	Harrisonburg Highlanders
TV partner(s)	Arena Sportsnet
Relegation to	Premier Hockey League
Official website	http://www.fhl.fl.co

The Fluvannia Hockey League (FHL; Vinn: Kolmemaatan jääkiekkoliiga; Bergwieser: Fluvanniener Eishockey Liga; Umitaku: ふるばにやホッケーリーグ) is a professional ice hockey league in eastern Abos, comprised of 12 teams -- ten in Fluvannia and two in Dunferm. It is often considered one of the premier hockey leagues in the world, if not the premier league. The FHL is the most-watched sports league in Fluvannia in terms of television viewership, and the wealthiest sports league in Fluvannia in terms of revenue. At the conclusion of the regular season, the top eight teams play for the Union Cup.

The FHL was formed in 1948 in Appleton, and eight teams played in its inaugural season of 1948-49 during a period of 18 weeks. The FHL was suspended between 1975-1984 as a result of the Third Great War. The league resumed in 1984 and has remained in operation since.

Historically, the FHL was a closed league, operating using the franchise model. Beginning with the 2022-23 season, the FHL entered into an agreement with its own minor league, the Premier Hockey League to adopt a promotion and relegation system between the two leagues.

History

Predecessors

The Fluvannia Hockey League was founded March 10, 1948, at a working dinner between several owners of the league's charter teams, held at the Chez Laurillac, an upscale Gagian restaurant in Appleton; successive business meetings over the next two weeks at the Hotelliliiton (the Prince's Hotel) in Oshkosh were used to work out the details of the league's operation and determine the other teams that would be invited to form the league as charter members. Prior to the FHL's formation, hockey competition in Fluvannia was on a regional or even local basis. No competition had been organized on that national level of a true "best-on-best". While the FHL is not the successor to any league in particular, several of the regional leagues that existed at the time saw some of their powerhouse teams depart for the new national league.

The Capital Hockey Association was a semi-professional league existing in the Oshkosh-Appleton area, having begun play in 1904. This league's top three finishers from the previous year -- the Appleton Bears, Oshkosh Lakers, and Omro Raiders -- were invited to join the FHL as charter franchises. Two of the three would showcase the strong state of the Winnebagan hockey scene in the FHL's first year; Appleton would finish first in the league standings, and Oshkosh would capture the inaugural Union Cup.

The Charlottesville Millionaires, Harrisonburg Highlanders, and EHC Wolfshaven were previously members of the Piedmont Amateur Hockey Association, an amateur league in the inland region of Piedmont. The PAHA had begun play in 1911, spurred on by the development of indoor refrigeration technology in order to help keep ice cold through the relatively mild southern winters. However, with half its membership departing for the FHL, the PAHA declared it would cease operations effective immediately (its season having already concluded by the time the FHL was founded in March 1948).

The Metropolitan Hockey Conference was a semi-professional league (trending towards full professionalism at the time) in the Rochester area. Because it was a league that paid an increasing amount to an increasing number of its players, thereby attracting top talent, it had begun to develop a reputation as the premier among Fluvannia's leagues in its time. However, the most recent MHC season at the time had not been played since 1938, as the league had paused play during the Second Great War. As that league's "reigning" champions (lack of recent challenge notwithstanding), the Rochester Royals were extended an invitation. However, the lack of recent play by the MHC outweighed its previous status as the premier league in the country, and thus the Royals were the only MHC team to receive an invite. This invitation was not without controversy, and critics were able to point to the Royals' poor performance in the FHL's first season as evidence the Royals were "old news". These arguments were countered by others who pointed out that this was the first time the nation's top teams had played each other to determine the best club in the country. Even though the Royals' days as a Rochester-area dynasty were pre-war, and those victories were in a vacuum, they managed to make a stronger case for their inclusion in the league over the coming years, and would eventually come to form one of the members of the so-called "Original Five" era (see below).

The Manitowoc Admirals were previously an independent amateur team; initially comprised of students and faculty at the Royal Fluvannian Naval Academy in Manitowoc, the Admirals were a "barnstorming" team throughout the 1920s and 1930s. However, to comply with Fluvannia Intercollegiate Athletic Association rules regarding amateur status of student-athletes, the Admirals were forced to exclude the students from the team in order to join the FHL. In their places, the Admirals franchise, initially formed as a non-profit under the aegis of the RFNA, was forced to supplement the roster with professional players. In future years, the number of Naval Academy faculty on the roster would dwindle, and in the summer of 1961 the team's identity and personnel would be sold to a for-profit business enterprise, ending the official involvement between the RFNA and the Admirals team.

Trophies and awards

Teams

Union Cup

The Union Cup

The Union Cup is the championship trophy of the FHL, awarded after every season of play since the league's foundation. A silver chalice atop a highly-decorated base of silver and maple, the Union Cup is adorned with the names of teams who have won it most recently. Unlike some sporting trophies, a new Cup is not made every year. Rather, the winning team holds it until the next year's Union Cup Playoffs begin. Multiple traditions, anecdotes, and superstitions have come to surround the Cup over the decades of its existence. Chief among these are that the captain be presented the Cup by the FHL's President following the conclusion of the Final, that each player be permitted to hoist the Cup and skate it around the ice, that the winning team drink fortified wine from the chalice in their locker room following the Final, and that each player on the winning team get to spend a day with the Cup in their possession over the course of the following year. These days usually occur over the summer following the team's championship, and have seen the Cup travel to a wide variety of destinations, some exotic, others low-key.

Prince's Trophy

The Prince's Trophy is the trophy given to the regular-season champion of the FHL. Some decades newer than the Union Cup, the Prince's Trophy was created after the FHL resumed play following the Third Great War, and was first awarded following the 1988-89 season. One major superstition of the Prince's Trophy is that teams usually will not hoist it in celebration, preferring instead a simple acceptance ceremony. Many teams refuse to even touch it, as some players maintain to do so brings bad luck upon the team's playoff chances.

Media coverage

Fluvannia

Arena Sportsnet holds rights to broadcast the FHL at the national level in Fluvannia, doing so since the network's inception in 1987. Prior to this, the Fluvannia Broadcasting Corporation was the national broadcaster for FHL games, with radio coverage since the league's inception and television coverage starting with the 1952-53 season; before this time, no FHL games were televised in any capacity.

Additionally, each team has a local broadcast partner, often the local FBC or RBN affiliate, which have rights to broadcast those games not shown on Arena.

International

Starting with the 2021-22 season, FHL games were available for international customers on streaming service Blockbuster.

International competitions

FHL teams have occasionally played games against teams from other countries, as well as games against FHL opponents in foreign locations. Some of these foreign-held games between two FHL teams have been exhibitions, often occurring as part of the league's preseason. Others have been regular-season matches, with points in the standings on the line.

See also

• Sport in Fluvannia