Lyon Hockey Club Les Lions (LHC The Lions) was the

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

team of

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

, France. The team currently competes in The French

Ligue Magnus The Ligue Magnus, currently known as Synerglace Ligue Magnus for sponsorship reasons, is the top men's division of the French ice hockey pyramid, established in 1906. The league operated under a variety of names before taking that of its champio ...

on 13 January 2014 it was announced they will have a partnership with the Tampa Bay Lighting and Syracuse Crunch. In 2019, the professional team was dissolved after bankruptcy.

History

1898–1953: Ice Hockey in Lyon

Ice hockey was played in Lyon as early as 1898 on a rink located on the Boulevard des Belges where today the

Guimet Museum The Guimet Museum (full name in ; ''MNAAG''; ) is a Parisian art museum with one of the largest collections of Asian art outside of Asia that includes items from Cambodia, Thailand, Viet Nam, Tibet, India, and Nepal, among other countries. Found ...

stands. The ''Sporting Club de Lyon'' (Lyon Sporting Club) won the national ''Coupe Magnus'' title in 1905 and 1908 but the rink was converted to a museum in 1909 and Lyon was without a rink and a team for the next 44 years.

1953–1997: The CPL Era

In 1953 the ''Club des Patineurs Lyonnais'' (Skating Club of Lyon or CPL) was founded and in 1956 the Lyon team won France's Division 1 ice hockey championship. In 1963 CPL built the Patinoire Charlemagne that still today serves as the home of Lyon ice sports. In their new home CPL won France's Division 2 ice hockey championship in both 1972 and 1989. Christophe Geoffroy's management forces the CPL to the liquidation in 1997

1997-Pres.: Lyon Hockey Club

Following the collapse of CPL local businessman Christophe Geoffroy founded ''Hockey sur glace lyonnais Elite'' (Lyon Elite Ice Hockey). Teamed with the Lyon Hockey Club Association, an association charged with developing junior ice hockey, the Lyon Hockey Club was born. The new team experienced quick success and twice finished third in France's

in 1997 and 1998. LHC qualified for Europe's Continental Cup in 1999 and reached the quarter-finals before being eliminated. By 2000 LHC had been

relegated Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

to France's Division 3 championship but quickly began to rise through national ranks again. In the 2001 season Lyon reached and won the Division 2 championship and earned a place in Division 1 for season 2002. A poor season in 2002 saw the team return to the second division once again and, despite reaching the final in 2007, LHC remains a Division 2 team in 2008.

Team Colours and Jersey

Logo

The logo of the LHC features a red head of a lion in profile on a white background with the name of the team above (in white on red) and the team's nickname – 'Les Lions' – in white text on a blue background below. Red, white and blue are both the colours of France and the colours of the city of Lyon.

Jersey

The LHC play in red, blue, black and white jerseys. The jersey has changed in recent years from a predominantly white jersey in season 2006 to predominantly red in season 2007 and predominantly blue for season 2008. The front of the jersey features a stylised image of a lion and bears the logo of the LHC's major sponsor, Flunch. The jerseys are provided by equipment sponsor Nike Bauer.

Broadcasters

LHC media partners include Télé Lyon Métropole, the ''Tribune de Lyon'' and

Virgin Radio Virgin Radio is a branding of radio stations broadcast in Canada, France, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Italy, Romania, Turkey, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. As of April 2024, there were over 40 stations globally. The stations ...

Télé Lyon Métropole

LHC matches are a regular feature on Télé Lyon Métropole's Sunday sports review, Dimanche Sports. LHC players are also interviewed frequently for other TLM programs including Lundi Sport.

Tribune de Lyon

The Tribune de Lyon produces a pre-season guide to the LHC each year and reports on matches each week.

Virgin Radio

As well as reporting on LHC matches Virgin Radio provides the

background music Background music (British English: piped music) is a mode of musical performance in which the music is not intended to be a primary focus of potential listeners, but its content, character, and volume level are deliberately chosen to affect behav ...

for matches. While the

playlist A playlist is a list of video or audio files that can be played back on a media player, either sequentially or in a shuffled order. In its most general form, an audio playlist is simply a list of songs that can be played once or in a loop. ...

varies by season current songs on the match-night programme include Sleeping Satellite (Junior Caldera) and No Stress ( Laurent Wolf).

Home Ice

The LHC plays all its home matches at the Patinoire Charlemagne. Commissioned in 1967 and opened in 1969, the Patinoire Charlemagne's distinctive architectural style incorporating concrete, glass and aluminum saw it placed on the

Rhône-Alpes Rhône-Alpes () was an administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it is part of the new region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. It is located on the eastern border of the country, towards the south. The region was named after the river Rhône a ...

' List of 20th century Buildings of Architectural Interest. Since May 2006 more than 3.7 million

euros The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

have been spent to refurbish the arena and stadiu

Patinoire Charlemagne offers many services apart from the ice hockey rink including medical facilities, a bar, a dance hall, meeting rooms and a press centr

The Patinoire Charlemagne is also well known for hosting other ice sports, particularly

figure skating Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, with its introduction occurring at the Figure skating at the 1908 Summer Olympi ...

. Each year the rink hosts the ''Pôle France de danse sur glace'' and world champion figure skaters Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat both train at Charlemagne. The Patinoire Charlemagne was one of the host stadiums for the

2006 European Figure Skating Championships The 2006 European Figure Skating Championships were a senior international figure skating competition in the 2005–06 season. Medals were awarded in the disciplines of men's singles, ladies' singles, pair skating, and ice dancing. The event wa ...

br>
The ice is Hockey rink, Olympic sized (60 metres long by 30 metres wide) and has a capacity of 4 400 spectator

Roster

Updated 8 February 2019.

Past Players

While not considered a breeding ground for great players Lyon has been able to both develop young stars and attract former NHL stars to the Patinoire Charlemagne. LHC alumni have played in the North American

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

(NHL), the French

and on French Olympic teams. Among the most notable of LHC past-players are: * Baptiste Amar – 2002 French Olympic team * / Roger Dubé – 1998 French Olympic team * /

Jean-Marc Gaulin Jean-Marc Gaulin (born March 3, 1962) is a German-born Canadian former professional ice hockey player who played 26 games in the National Hockey League with the Quebec Nordiques between 1983 and 1986. The rest of his career, which lasted from 1982 ...

– Right-wing for the

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

Quebec Nordiques The Quebec Nordiques (, pronounced in Quebec French, in Canadian English; translated "Northmen" or "Northerners") were a professional ice hockey team based in Quebec City. The Nordiques played in the World Hockey Association (1972–1979) an ...

1982–87 * Laurent Meunier – Captain of France national team, 2002 French Olympic team, two-time

MVP MVP most commonly refers to: * Most valuable player, an award, typically for the best performing player in a sport or competition * Minimum viable product, a concept for feature estimating used in business and engineering MVP may also refer to: ...

* / André Svitac – 1992 French Olympic team

LHC Junior Squads

As well as the senior team the LHC competes in six levels of

junior ice hockey Junior ice hockey is amateur-level ice hockey for 16 to 20 year-old players. National Junior teams compete annually for the IIHF World Junior Championship. The United States men's national junior ice hockey team are the defending champions from ...

LHC Moustiques

A team for players aged less than 9 years.

LHC Poussins

A team for players aged under 11 years. The team is coached by LHC player Geoffrey Paillet.

LHC Benjamins

A team for players aged under 13 years. The team is coached by LHC player Pascal Margerit.

LHC Minimes

Two teams – Minimes Excellence and Minime Elite – for players aged under 15 years.

LHC Cadets

A team for players aged under 18 years.

Mascot, Nickname and Supporters

The official mascot of the LHC is Pepito the Lion. Always in attendance at home games, Pepito wears a Lyon hockey

jersey Jersey ( ; ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is an autonomous and self-governing island territory of the British Islands. Although as a British Crown Dependency it is not a sovereign state, it has its own distinguishing civil and gov ...

and a straw hat. The nickname of the LHC is 'The Lions' and relates to the

symbol A symbol is a mark, Sign (semiotics), sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, physical object, object, or wikt:relationship, relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by cr ...

of city of Lyon. The most vocal supporters of the LHC are the Lions Gones. This group of fans are similar to

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

ultras Ultras are a type of association football fans who are known for their fanatical support. The term originated in Italy, but is used worldwide to describe predominantly organised fans of association football teams. The behavioural tendency ...

and share their name with the Bad Gones of the city's

Olympique Lyonnais Olympique Lyonnais (), commonly referred to as simply Lyon () or OL, is a French professional association football, football club based in Lyon, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France. With origins dating back to 1899, they were founded in 1950 and p ...

football team. According to the Tribune de Lyon, despite being a Division 2 team the LHC attracts the highest crowds of any hockey team in France in any league, save for Ligue Magnus teams

Grenoble Grenoble ( ; ; or ; or ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of the Isère Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region ...

and

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine, in northwestern France. It is in the prefecture of Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one ...

Notes

:
Crunch, Senators to hold camp in Lyon
:2.Historique du Lyon Hockey Club. :3.Historique du Lyon Hockey Club. :4.Historique du Lyon Hockey Club. :5.Historique du Lyon Hockey Club. :6.Historique du Lyon Hockey Club. :7.Historique du Lyon Hockey Club. :8.FFHG Division 2 2008–2009 Teams. :9.Les Lions dans la douleur. :10.Et de deux pour les Lions. :11.A l'image d'un derby. :12.Strict minimum pour les Lions. :13.Première défaite des Lions. :14.Avec la manière. :15.FFHG Division 2. :16.Lyon Hockey Club: Nos Partenaires. :17.Lyon Hockey Club: Nos Partenaires. :18. Patinoire Charlemagne. :19.Moustiques. :20.LHC Poussins. :21.LHC Benjamins. :22.LHC Minimes. :23.LHC Cadets. :24.LHC Espoirs.

References

External links

Lyon Hockey Club
– Official Site
Lions Gones
– Supporters Club {{Ligue Magnus Ice hockey teams in France Sport in Lyon