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Finland's status and reputation in the hockey world (merged)

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1998 Bronze
2002 6th place
2006 Silver
2010 Bronze
2014 Semi Final.

They have been consistently good in the Olympics when NHL players participate.
 
As a member of this pessimistic nation, I didn't have much faith in this team before the tournament with all the injuries. Now that I have faith, we have to play the swedes, so I'm back to beginning. Sweden is our biggest cryptonite. At least they don't have Sundin anymore. :)
 
No country performs better than they should, on paper, more consistently than Finland. The definition of a hockey team.
 
They've always been a top team IMO. They play very fundamental hockey and it shows when they can stop lines of pure talent. Not to mention they've done this without a lot of key players this year.
 
Not on paper but yes, Finland seems to always find a way to be in the semifinals. Incredible team spirit, team work, coaching and goaltending can achieve that even when they're missing their top 4 centers. Too bad they always run out of gas and are not able to win it all. I'm afraid that will happen again this year. Finland-Sweden game will be similar to the wjc-final this year.
 
How could Finland not be a top 4 country?

Most medals in best on best olympics and already in the top 4 of this tournament as well. Ranked #2 in IIHF ranking for 3 years straight and has not dropped out of top 4 at least since 2007 (I don't have the earlier rankings at hand).

Results matter, not rosters.
 
Finland is successful in part, because they don't ice a traditional All-Star team. They ice their best top 6 forwards and their best BOTTOM 6 players and as a result, they play playoff style out there. If teams underestimate them, they'll get burnt.
 
This couldn't be more obvious. Finland is ranked number 2 in the world, beating out Canada, USA, Russia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
 
Finland basically lost a decade of juniors to "social hockey", it is very surprising that they still can compete. Our team was even worse than normally this time with the loss of our best NHL players, but the small skill difference between NHL and euro league players can be overcome with great coaching.

I am very happy with a top-4 result in this tournament, but we have been lucky with the opponents too. Before the tournament I thought USA and Canada would be nearly impossible to beat with the tactic we play and Sweden would be very difficult too, Russia plays a style that the finnish game counters well.
 
Scrobble said:
Too bad they always run out of gas and are not able to win it all. I'm afraid that will happen again this year.
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It will. Out of the big countries Russia was the dream opponent for team Finland at this stage of the tournament. For some reason Finland has a pretty good record against them and once again managed to squeeze out the win. Of course, Sweden hasn't lost a game yet - and everyone knows that you can only win the tournament if you lose one game at the group stage, so a medal is a possibility. :D
 
Esko6 said:
Finland basically lost a decade of juniors to "social hockey", it is very surprising that they still can compete. Our team was even worse than normally this time with the loss of our best NHL players, but the small skill difference between NHL and euro league players can be overcome with great coaching.

I am very happy with a top-4 result in this tournament, but we have been lucky with the opponents too. Before the tournament I thought USA and Canada would be nearly impossible to beat with the tactic we play and Sweden would be very difficult too, Russia plays a style that the finnish style counters well.
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What does this mean?
 
Have My Baby Pierre said:
I mean, there's really only 5 teams that have a realistic chance at Gold these days- Canada, Sweden, US, Russia, Finland. Not really a stretch to say they are top 4. Russia is better on paper but the whole stereotype that they are more individual players does seem to be true.

The top 3 in my mind in order is definitely Canada, Sweden, US. The US is close to Sweden but they lack the star power.
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And how many have a chance to win at Basketball?

Soccer World Cup?

The best of the best in the world is always a pretty small number, though Finland has reminded us again that it's not THAT small.
 
redgrant said:
Hockey is really only a 6 nation sport. So top 4 in itself puts you in the middle percentile.
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Not really.

Canada, USA, Sweden, Russia, Finland, Czech's and Slovakia are all good teams that have chance to win the tournament. Switzerland are slowly getting there too.
 
Actually you can go one further back..

1994 bronze
1998 bronze
2002 nothing
2006 silver
2010 bronze
2014 medal game

incredible run.

Hockey is a TEAM game, Finland is far better at being a TEAM than other nations. That makes up a massive difference - that's our secret sauce.
 
Esko6 said:
Finland basically lost a decade of juniors to "social hockey", it is very surprising that they still can compete. Our team was even worse than normally this time with the loss of our best NHL players, but the small skill difference between NHL and euro league players can be overcome with great coaching.

I am very happy with a top-4 result in this tournament, but we have been lucky with the opponents too. Before the tournament I thought USA and Canada would be nearly impossible to beat with the tactic we play and Sweden would be very difficult too, Russia plays a style that the finnish game counters well.
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I think for Finland, the general rule is that the more KHL players (especially if they have no experience of playing in NA) you have, the less you want to face Sweden, the USA or Canada in a tournament like this. Some of those players just can't keep it together against those countries, and I think the main issue is that the opponent is so unknown to them. As a general rule, you want to counter an NHL heavy team with plenty of NHLers of your own if at all possible.

Russia's a good opponent for Finland because the KHL players are familiar with the opposing players, and then you combine that with the fact that the Russians can't usually keep it together and play a disciplined team game.
 
sokocanuck said:
What does this mean?
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I wrote something about this in an earlier thread:

There is an organization called "Nuori Suomi", Young Finland. Their aim is admirable, to make sure more kids play sports. They also want to make sure even the less skilled kids get to play. They had a long partnership with the Finnish hockey federation and the hockey bosses here followed their instructions, for example the maximum number of training games kids can play. The federation leader Kalervo Kummola even got an award from the organization.

When Finland won the WJC this year, Kummola stated that our junior programs had many awful years because of the "everyone plays and Nuori Suomi-mentality", he said that the hockey federation was to blame for not realizing that while Nuori Suomi had a great goal they were also holding back the most talented young players. Kummola stated that removing some of the Nuori Suomi guidelines had started in 2010 and that Finnish junior hockey was starting to revitalize.

Kummola is a very stubborn man, there has to be some truth behind it if he admits making a mistake.
 
Esko6 said:
I wrote something about this in an earlier thread:

There is an organization called "Nuori Suomi", Young Finland. Their aim is admirable, to make sure more kids play sports. They also want to make sure even the less skilled kids get to play. They had a long partnership with the Finnish hockey federation and the hockey bosses here followed their instructions, for example the maximum number of training games kids can play. The federation leader Kalervo Kummola even got an award from the organization.

When Finland won the WJC this year, Kummola stated that our junior programs had many awful years because of the "everyone plays and Nuori Suomi-mentality", he said that the hockey federation was to blame for not realizing that while Nuori Suomi had a great goal they were also holding back the most talented young players. Kummola stated that removing some of the Nuori Suomi guidelines had started in 2010 and that Finnish junior hockey was starting to revitalize.

Kummola is a very stubborn man, there has to be some truth behind it if he admits making a mistake.
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Granlund has the personal drive to overcome a lot of that, as seen by his night and day improvement this year in the NHL over last. ;)
 
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