GDT: Group A - May 11 - Slovakia vs Finland

[Arto Kilponen]

No doubt, he had a huge impact in establishing hockey as "the" sport in Finland.

Not everybody is a fan of his commentating style, I suppose, but when I was a kid, he had a huge impact on making hockey seem bigger than life.

I remember this call in particular:



I don't really listen to him nowadays but that doesn't take away from how legendary he was, in his day. His "rapid-fire" commentary was unique amongst the usual monotone, dragging Finnish commentators. Unfortunately a lot of people who try to replicate him, just suck at it.

Also he's been there during this whole era that World Championship has been a reality for Finland. All the older people knows him as the play-by-play guy. TV company is selling channel packets using him (you get games for free, but you need to pay extra to get this guy).

 

[Lepardi]

who is going to do the Pasi Nurminen ilmaveivi?

Probably no one. The kids these days are terribly boring with their protein shakes and nutrition plans.

 

[Lepardi]

I don't really listen to him nowadays but that doesn't take away from how legendary he was, in his day. His "rapid-fire" commentary was unique amongst the usual monotone, dragging Finnish commentators.

Ever heard of Raimo Häyrinen? Back in the day people used to mute their TVs and listen to Häyrinen on their radios:





He wasn't always too politically correct though. This kind of commentary would probably not fly in 2019:

 

[Calendal]

Just want to add to this that it's not just "some" drunken Finnish goalie coach. It's the former Atlanta Thrashers goalie Pasi Nurminen. Won the Calder Cup, was the AHL playoff MVP and played over 100 NHL games. Won two WHC medals as well.

Whenever a goalie explains a goal by not seeing the puck, I’m reminded of Pasi’s quote about a goalie having just one job: see the puck.

 

[Calendal]

Also he's been there during this whole era that World Championship has been a reality for Finland. All the older people knows him as the play-by-play guy. TV company is selling channel packets using him (you get games for free, but you need to pay extra to get this guy).

Major sporting events must be shown for free. Olympics and hockey championships fall into the category.

 

[BullLund]

Ever heard of Raimo Häyrinen? Back in the day people used to mute their TVs and listen to Häyrinen on their radios:





He wasn't always too politically correct though. This kind of commentary would probably not fly in 2019:

He wasn't around in my time.

The funny thing is that, according to the standards of his time, those would've been the "proper" words to use, since they were foreign loanwords and sounded more "international" than our Finnish alternatives. People didn't really see them in a negative context back then.

He even said that he went to the local embassy in order to get the names of the African players right, which most commentators probably wouldn't bother doing nowadays.

 

[RorschachWJK]

Kako is great player no doubt. But two goals he scored yesterday he scored after fins were holding the slovak stick....
Slovaks was not worse just not that lucky.
Good luck to both teams in next matches.

That definitely went both ways. I think the Slovaks got away with at least as much.

 

[FiLe]

Got a laugh out of this Jalonen postgame comment.

Reporter: How would you grade Kakko's performance so far?
Jalonen: I'm not big on grading players, but if somebody scores five goals in two games, I'd call that at least a C+.

 

[Arto Kilponen]

Major sporting events must be shown for free. Olympics and hockey championships fall into the category.

That's a different thing. Shown? Yes. With play-by-play from a certain person? Definitely no.

 

[Arto Kilponen]

He's been in that pressure cooker for a while now and nothing seems to affect him. Same as Laine at that age with his nerves of steel.

There's a reason for these: Kaapo Kakosta tehtiin kova ratkaisu Leijonissa

Shortly: Kakko is banned from media interviews for now, team decision.

edit. actually "for now" might have been just after a certain on-ice practice, still. In my opinion a good call.

 

[IceHockeyDude]

Finland's forward group looks decent at upcoming tournaments:

Barkov
Rantanen
Aho
Laine
Teräväinen
Granlund
Kotkaniemi
Borgström
Hintz
Kakko
+Kapanen

 

[FiLe]

Finland's forward group looks decent at upcoming tournaments

+ Haula, Lehkonen, Armia... and Tolvanen and Pulju could still become regulars, and then there are the as-of-yet upcoming Kupari, Lundell, Heponiemi, Lambert...

If the NHL is on board for the 2022 olympics, instead of slotting in every NHL regular we have and then figuring which euro reliables are gonna be filling the remaining slots, we could be looking at a situation where we have guys who are reliable 40pt performers and debating who's NOT gonna make it.