NEWS
(Updated Mayl 2nd 2007)

Season begins with Helsinki Wolverines

Butchers will visit Helsinki Wolverines on May 5th at Finnair Stadium. This is a regular season game that is played with EFL-rules regarding imports in order to get a good game before the international games starts for both teams the very next weekend. Wolverines will face the reigning Eurobowl champion Vienna Vikings in Helsinki and Butchers will fly to Norway to face the talented 1814s team.


The game is also a rematch of 2006 maple bowl that Butchers dominated with a clear result 41-22. However, both teams have improved a lot and the game will be very interesting also from that perspective. Butchers has never lost to Wolverines or at Finnair Stadium and Wolverines are surely doing everything they can to change the fact.


Wolverines have big expectations for EFL-season and have a very impressive roster to back the goals up. They have about 15 new faces with a lot of talent. They have brought over 3 Americans, one Canadian with Jamaican and one Canadian with Polish passport. In addition to that they have 8 new national team players to improve their overall talent. However, the biggest steal is TE Klaus Alinen who will be with Wolverines at least till the Vienna game. Alinen ha a couple of years under his belt with Berlin Thunder and he was in training squad with Atlanta Falcons last season. Also coaching staff has gained a lot of experience with having Tuomas Heikkinen as their defensive coordinator. Heikkinen is clearly the most experienced coach on defensive side of the ball in Finland and that should help the Wolverines team a lot. So to summarize Wolverines 2007 is definitely not a team to look down and they are also one of the favorites to win the Maple Bowl this season.


Butchers has chosen a little different path to get ready for 2007. Most of the faces are same = 29 guys returning past 2 seasons and 8 new guys including 3 new Imports (Schleusner was with the team in 2003). There are some guys who decided to leave the team and biggest difference is of course QB Petrus Penkki whose absence will change the offense a lot. However, the team is solid and experienced in playing together so there should be no reason why this team should start losing in Finnair Stadium.