GDT: Gold Medal Game - May 26 - Canada vs Finland

[Arto Kilponen]

Nevermind

 

[Rcknrollkillnmachine]

So proud of these guys. Very emotional. Hyvä Suomi!

 

[Newsworthy]

Ain't this hilarious. We are not only arguing about whose prospects, teams and players are better or the best but also whose are in comparison the absolute worst! HFBoards, you beautiful beast.

So, here we are arguing who have thus name rights to the usage of the term "miracle". Or which national team was blessed with the biggest miracle... Okay, fair enough, maybe we can rephrase it as to who has overachieved the most as a team and individuals.

But still, we want to
refer to a miracle, not just to something plain and ordinary like overachieving (and/or underachieving). And that is the very point. We want something to be so very exceptional it is clearly above and qualitatively/categorically different from an ordinary even if very or relatively rare event. It must be unique, incomparable, touched by god, or at least "generational" - and come from the promised land of America. We, not all of us. But some NA posters here. Peace.

I get the national pride stuff and all though.
Who really cares what the Finnish media is calling the team(s)?
The underdogs win again. Maybe now they will move up in international rankings. The 1980 Miracle on Ice team isn't a miracle either. It's something the press created for the ultimate underdog winning story.
Does the media have any original ideas anyways?

 

[Arto Kilponen]

I think it is very interesting how underdogs have got final spots and even championships recently. 2018 Germany in Olympics the #1 national team, 2018 World Championships Switzerland silver, 2018 Stanley Cup finalists Vegas Golden Knights, 2019 SM-Liiga champions HPK, 2019 World Championships Gold Finland. I understand that those happens every now and then, but this is too many to just label all as "accidents". There's some trend now.

 

[TannedBum]

I wouldn't say "run through", but definitely out-worked both teams.

Semantics.

 

[Newsworthy]

There were no quarters in the 1980 Olympics. It was successive round robins.

And the final game wasn’t even the USA vs the Soviets.

After the miracle game, they’re was still another day of games to played which saw the Soviet Union beat Sweden 9-2 and the USA beat Finland 4-2.

But none of those were miracles. The miracle happened the day before when a team of amateur part time students beat a Soviet team which had won every tournament from 1964 to 1980 and won convincingly.

This Soviet team was was one year removed from crushing the NHL (Canada plus others) in the 1979 challenge cup and a year away from beating Canada in the 1981 Canada cup final by a score of 8-1.

No upset in sports has come close since. Anything you can think of, Greece winning Euro 2004, Leicester winning the premier ship. Nothing even close. Those teams and thus Finnish team were still professional athletes. It wasn’t random kids beating one of the most powerful teams in the history of the sport. It wasn’t even winning gold per-se that was the miracle in 1980. It was the difference on the levels of the teams in that one particular game.

And Russia had crushed the Americans weeks earlier

 

[Albatros]

I would say the only rosters the USA could definitely claim to be better than in 1980 were Romania, The Netherlands and Japan.

Germany and Poland arguably at the same level.

You do realize that Team USA had more future NHLers (13) than any other team in the tournament? Obviously they were still not nearly as good as the Soviets, but other than that they had one of the strongest rosters, much more comparable to Canada or Sweden than Germany or Poland.

 

[crowi]

Semantics.

Whatever you want to call being shit in hockey works for me.

 

[koyvoo]

And Russia had crushed the Americans weeks earlier

They played a few exhibition games in the lead up and usual, won by alarming scorelines. As they did for years before and years after that single game.

 

[koyvoo]

You do realize that Team USA had more future NHLers (13) than any other team in the tournament? Obviously they were still not nearly as good as the Soviets, but other than that they had one of the strongest rosters, much more comparable to Canada or Sweden than Germany or Poland.

The only guys that were touted as possible NHLers before the miracle happened were Morrow, Christian, Broten, and Ramsay. Afterword plenty of them got a chance not the only one aside from those four who managed to play more than a season or two was Mark Pavelich who played about 5 seasons. And at the time, they had an average age of 20-21.

As I said, it would be as if a junior team won this tournament, if this tournament had one of the strongest teams in the history of the sport involved as well.

 

[albator71]

I just want to say congratulation to Finland for winning the gold, its truly amazing what you just accomplish! Defeating Sweden, Russia and Canada back to back to back thats incredible. Way to go Finland enjoy it. and very proud of my boys for finishing 2nd, no shame in that. great job guys!

 

[DoubleGold]

I feel like I'm in a dream. Just so many Hollywood clutch/sisu moments in this tournament.

 

[Newsworthy]

I think it is very interesting how underdogs have got final spots and even championships recently. 2018 Germany in Olympics the #1 national team, 2018 World Championships Switzerland silver, 2018 Stanley Cup finalists Vegas Golden Knights, 2019 SM-Liiga champions HPK, 2019 World Championships Gold Finland. I understand that those happens every now and then, but this is too many to just label all as "accidents". There's some trend now.

Personally I think it's players care about the money in pro sports and winning and sacrificing the body has become secondary. No great coached teams or true leaders. No surprise that Finland showed the biggest heart in the entire tournament.
I'm happy for them and congratulations to an awesome team. Great story and hopefully this sends a message to the rest of the hockey world.
This should open up coaching and management positions for Finnish personnel in NHL.

 

[DoubleGold]

Jalonen said after the game that Finland needs its talented NHL players and was confident that they'll show up after all the contract stuff is over. JJ is already eyeing another gold .

 

[DoubleGold]

It was Miracle-on-Ice in the Finnish hockey history, and absolutely nobody can that deny if we just call it that.

Nobody believed to this team. Nobody gave good prognosis for the tournament.

And here we are.

Indeed. No one can take this away from us!

 

[DoubleGold]

Also, can someone please extend Jalonen's contract? Just chain him behind the bench! I never want him to leave.

 

[Merya]

I want to thank Swedish media and people for supporting us in the semi and final. It really shows we are brothers. Tack so mycket!

 

[crowi]

Indeed. No one can take this away from us!

They do try so hard, harder than cheering for their own teams. Bunch of ........

JOKE IS ON THEM THOUGH, WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS, THEY ARE THE LOSERS

 

[Lempo]

Last time Finland won gold I was in the army and people went AWOL
This time i'm on night-shift and i'm scared that the morning workers are not gonna be here on time. Can't leave work till they are here.

Some guy told in media about his 1995 and how he called his boss late that night to enquire about the possibility of him not showing up for work in the morning.

"I for one won't ****ing gonna be there!", his boss had answered him.

 

[Stubu]

Semantics.

A bit nitpicking but no. Semantics is the branch of linguistics that studies the meanings of words (and other language constructs). You just meant "poor choice of words".

 

[Blue Line Turnover]

As a Canadian, I'm happy for Finland and will cheer for them in every tournament (except for if they ever allow NHLers in the Olympics again).

 

[leeroggy]

Yes. Watching these two teams, amy of the top 6-7 teams in the top division, talent is close enough not to be totally noticeable.

The actual miracle saw a team that could barely skate beat a team that looked like magicians or aliens compared to them on the same ice surface. This was the big difference. There hasn’t been such huge sporting upset since then, not only on hockey but in no sport thst I can think of.

Some people compare Greece winning Euro 2004 or Leicester winning the premier league in 2016 to the miracle on ice, but even in those cases, it was pro players upsetting better pro players. Not part time amateur students beating one of the strongest teams in the sports history.

Francis Ouimet over Harry Varden and Ted Ray was an even bigger upset. Look it up.

 

[DoubleGold]

Mörkö probably needs to consume at least 12 beers shotgun style to get a little buzz .

 

[koyvoo]

Francis Ouimet over Harry Varden and Ted Ray was an even bigger upset. Look it up.

1913 huh?

Well I can’t claim to know too much about golf 105+ years ago, but from what I can’t tell, he was a full time professional as well. He was playing with fellow pro’s. If his neighbor and part time amateur player did it, it probably would be on the same level from what I can tell.

 

[Incognito]

It is. Annoys me when canadians try to say otherwise. Most popular sport in the country.

Canadians only say otherwise because it's true. No other country can make a claim to the sport of hockey the way Canada can. Hockey was born and raised in Canada, and Canada is the top hockey country in the world, both historically and currently.