No two teams could have started differently in this CHL season then Djurgården Stockholm and the Vienna Capitals. After two games played, Djurgården are top of Group F with 6 points after 2 straight wins on the road, whilst the Capitals sit at the very bottom with 0 points from two home game losses. The 6-time CHL participants have finished bottom of their group only once – two years ago in the 2017/18 season and even that year they were somehow able to gain 6 points.

Vienna’s season opener against Adler Mannheim in front of nearly 4000 home fans didn’t go to plan and Vienna were only able to score their first goal 5 minutes before the final whistle. The match ended 6-1 to Mannheim, who had double the amount of shots on goal. Just two days later they lined up to face Djurgården and despite the Capitals looking much stronger and goalie Ryan Zapolski pulling off 44 saves and only letting 2 goals into the net, they couldn’t gain a point from the game. Djurgården were much stronger on the night and racked up 3 times more shots on goal than Vienna, won more faceoffs and overall had a much stronger presence on the ice. Vienna’s only goal on the night was actually the first in the game and it came from a powerplay situation. Powerplays could be key in scoring for Vienna, as some of their biggest threats on goal came with an extra skater on the ice.

All isn’t lost though as there are still 4 games to play for Vienna, but after such a bad start, they need to step it up and win a few games on the road if they want to stand a chance of making it to the later stages of the competition. On the other hand, Djurgården just need to stick with how they’ve played so far and soak in the home support in Stockholm.