And then there were eight. Only a little over a handful of teams are now left in the 2019/20 Champions Hockey league to fight for their path to the final – and collect ranking points for their leagues as well.
Left in the competition are teams from the Czech Republic, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland. However, Germany lost two teams in the Quarter-Final stage, Czech Republic one, and Finland saw their only remaining hope in Tappara eliminated.
What’s that done to the League Ranking? Here's how the Top 5 looks for this season alone:
| 2019/20 Points | League | Av. Points per game |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | Sweden | 2.15 |
| 95 | Germany | 2.13 |
| 90 | Switzerland | 2.05 |
| 85 | Czech Republic | 1.71 |
| 80 | Finland | 1.50 |
In order to work out next year's places, we still have to take into consideration the results of leagues over four seasons including this one. The overall ranking then looks like this:
| # | Country | 2020/21 Places* |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sweden | 5 |
| 2 | Switzerland | 5 |
| 3 | Germany | 4 (+1) |
| 4 | Finland | 4 |
| 5 | Czech Republic | 3 (-1) |
| 6 | Austria | 3 |
| 7 | Belarus | 1 |
| 8 | United Kingdom | 1 |
| 9 | France | 1 |
| 10 | Slovakia | 1 |
| 11 | Norway | 1 |
| 12 | Denmark | 1 |
| 13 | Poland | 1 |
*Final allocation of places is not known until after this season's Final.