How can Suomi be so good?

[Nordic*]

As it's been stated already, that's why you use the numbers for u20 players.

40k for Finland

43k for Sweden

86k for Russia

518k for Canada

307k for US

Looking at those stats, it's pretty amazing how Canada or USA DO NOT win every single international tournament every single year. Speaks heaps of how great Finns and Swedes are.

Forsberg, Lidstrom, Sundin, Naslund, Alfredsson, Sedins, Zetterberg, Lundqvist

vs.

Selänne, Kurri, Koivu, Kiprusoff, Lehtinen, Numminen, Timonen

Theres no doubt swedes has produced easily better players in the past.


In the future its Laine, Puljujärvi, Barkov, Ristolainen, Rantanen, Granlund, Teräväinen, Määttä

vs.

Forsberg, Hedman, OEL, Karlsson, Landeskog, Klingberg, Nylander

Much closer.. I think Finland will have better forwards but Swedish Dmen are same tier as Canada

Yes, your future looks amazing, which makes me really sad!

Sweden also has Zibanejad, who has all the raw talent in the world - but only shows 10% of it. Perhaps that's all he'll ever show, who knows.

Then there's Rakell, who has been Anaheims best forward this season - and Wennberg who's finally showing what he can do. Then we have Elias & Hampus Lindholm, Brodin, Larsson, Rask, Klefbom, Burakowsky, Alex Nylander, Kempe (who was our best forward until it started to....you know...matter...


And.....David Rundblad.

 

[FiLe]

That dominance is only due to absolutely no competition in ringette. It's too small of a sport.

Yet Canada is supposed to pretty good at it, and even they haven't been able to beat Finland in more than a decade...

And it being a marginal sport in Canada should not be an excuse, as it's a marginal sport in Finland too. Susanna Tapani, arguably the world's best player right now, would probably only draw a crowd by the stage if she promised to strip on it.

She's an international level hockey player too.

This gets brought up often, but let's define it, would you guys agree with me these are the Hockey countries of the World where Hockey is #1 sport and no doubt about it?

Canada
Finland
Russia
Czech Republic
Slovakia
Latvia
Belarus
Sweden* (not sure but don't think so)

Right?

You could make a case for all of these, but if the "no doubt about it" part is to be fulfilled, the list only consists of Canada, Finland and Latvia.

 

[Joe MacMillan]

This gets brought up often, but let's define it, would you guys agree with me these are the Hockey countries of the World where Hockey is #1 sport and no doubt about it?

Canada
Finland
Russia
Czech Republic
Slovakia
Latvia
Belarus
Sweden* (not sure but don't think so)

Right?

From my understanding in Sweden hockey is #1 in the Northern parts of the country while football prevails in popularity in the South.

I believe football is #1 in Czech and Russia.

 

[Joel Ward]

Forsberg, Lidstrom, Sundin, Naslund, Alfredsson, Sedins, Zetterberg, Lundqvist

vs.

Selänne, Kurri, Koivu, Kiprusoff, Lehtinen, Numminen, Timonen

Theres no doubt swedes has produced easily better players in the past.


In the future its Laine, Puljujärvi, Barkov, Ristolainen, Rantanen, Granlund, Teräväinen, Määttä

vs.

Forsberg, Hedman, OEL, Karlsson, Landeskog, Klingberg, Nylander

Much closer.. I think Finland will have better forwards but Swedish Dmen are same tier as Canada

I honestly can't articulate how much I want to see those three play together on a line, so much potential there! The future looks very bright for both countries though.

 

[aphyro]

From my understanding in Sweden hockey is #1 in the Northern parts of the country while football prevails in popularity in the South.

I believe football is #1 in Czech and Russia.

Well that is a truth with a modification, since football is way bigger where im from and im from the North part of Sweden geographically middle.

I would say overall Football is Swedens number #1 sport since there is like 1,5million people living in the whole north part of Sweden wich is the biggest part and the other 8million living in the south.

 

[garbageteam]

Looking at those stats, it's pretty amazing how Canada or USA DO NOT win every single international tournament every single year. Speaks heaps of how great Finns and Swedes are.

I'm sure China has a ton of registered football(soccer) players and basketball players, yet they'd get beaten to a pulp by 3 million population Uruguay every single time. So numbers aren't everything.

 

[aphyro]

I'm sure China has a ton of registered football(soccer) players and basketball players, yet they'd get beaten to a pulp by 3 million population Uruguay every single time. So numbers aren't everything.

But you cant denie that have a bigger pol of people to chose from gives you an advantage, if Chine would put same effort in to Football as Germany i bet China would dominate Football more or less because of the deepth they would get out from that hundred of millions players.

 

[perstakli]

One factor that hasn't been mentioned yet is the existence of outdoor ice in most of Finland, especially in the north where conditions allow it for pretty much the whole season. The outdoor rinks are positively buzzing in the winter with plenty of kids getting that invaluable time on the ice in and no doubt it makes a difference if a 13-year old Puljujärvi gets to skate for 40 hours a week or 12.. Except for Canada, I'd imagine most of the population in other big hockey countries live in areas where outdoor ice is quite rare these days, so those registered player numbers might be a bit misleading. More interesting in this regard would be something like total hours on ice by those registered players?

 

[Nordic*]

Soccer is way WAY bigger than hockey in the mid/western parts of Sweden anyway.

I have worked as a phys ed teacher for almost 20 years and there are literally 10 times more kids playing soccer, than hockey. If not more. I don't know a single adult playing hockey, but at least 65-70/ of the people around me (men) have or are still playing soccer.

Despite this we absolutely suck in soccer/football, haha..

Not as badly as Finland though.

 

[Mestaruus]

Looking at those stats, it's pretty amazing how Canada or USA DO NOT win every single international tournament every single year. Speaks heaps of how great Finns and Swedes are.

Next 3 or is it even 4 years WJC tournaments are played in North-America and I got a feeling USA & Canada wins 3 of them if not all 4. Playing in Europe does play a factor and we've seen proof of this many times in the recent years...

To some of the above posters. You forget that basketball is big in Latvia too, so my guess is basketball is tied with hockey there in popularity of fans & registered players.

Say what you want people but my observation is that Russia has soccer & hockey tied in popularity and same goes to Sweden. The registered amount of players doesn't mean everything. It mostly means that it's the best hobby in a country for it's cost and mass attracts more people to play the game when people's friends start to play the same sport. It is pretty close race at least for #1 or #2 sports in Russia & Sweden. I know that many Swedes try to downplay ice hockey's popularity in their country, cause apparently that's the cool thing to do.

 

[Mestaruus]

I'm sure China has a ton of registered football(soccer) players and basketball players, yet they'd get beaten to a pulp by 3 million population Uruguay every single time. So numbers aren't everything.

Exactly. Like i just said in my previous post, when it comes down to soccer registered players numbers. The number isn't accurate because it just means the sport is a good hobby and cheap in costs. Doesn't mean the fans/viewers appreciate it as much as the registered players number is.

 

[Man Bear Pig]

Looking at those stats, it's pretty amazing how Canada or USA DO NOT win every single international tournament every single year. Speaks heaps of how great Finns and Swedes are.





Yes, your future looks amazing, which makes me really sad!

Sweden also has Zibanejad, who has all the raw talent in the world - but only shows 10% of it. Perhaps that's all he'll ever show, who knows.

Then there's Rakell, who has been Anaheims best forward this season - and Wennberg who's finally showing what he can do. Then we have Elias & Hampus Lindholm, Brodin, Larsson, Rask, Klefbom, Burakowsky, Alex Nylander, Kempe (who was our best forward until it started to....you know...matter...


And.....David Rundblad.

Well, my question would be how many of those players are hockey players only, or just play hockey in the winter and switch to a summer sport in the spring? What other sports are popular in Finland? Do Finnish people spend as much time playing basketball,baseball and other sports as we do? What I'm getting at here is Canada isn't the hockey only country it once was. I think it's only a matter of time before other countries catch up, and they already are.

 

[wings5]

It's passion for the sport, same reason as Serbia and Lithuania are competitive in basketball and Croatia in soccer. When everyone loves the sport and plays it and wants to win, great coaching will be developed through the youth levels and there will be proper skill teaching. Will also make the individuals practice more if everyone is doing it.

 

[Bakayoko Ono]

Well, my question would be how many of those players are hockey players only, or just play hockey in the winter and switch to a summer sport in the spring? What other sports are popular in Finland? Do Finnish people spend as much time playing basketball,baseball and other sports as we do? What I'm getting at here is Canada isn't the hockey only country it once was. I think it's only a matter of time before other countries catch up, and they already are.

When it comes to youth participation, soccer is the dominant sport, at least in the Helsinki region. Then you have floorball gaining popularity as a more "accessible" and safer option to hockey.

Hockey's problem in Finland is pretty much the same it is elsewhere: it's an expensive sport that requires a lot of effort from parents - especially compared to soccer. And the soccer infrastructure is getting better and better with old gravel pitches being replaced by quality, heated artificial turf pitches.

 

[FiLe]

I'd still say one shouldn't get too hung up on the number of registered players. One thing that doesn't really matter in top-end tournaments is whether there are 50,000 such players in a country or ten times that - or ten times less. Only thing that matters is how good the best 25 to 50 players are. Because the rest, no matter how good, are still destined to follow the tournament from the sidelines.

And it's certainly possible to find an equally good team from the mass of 50,000 players as it is among 500,000 - or only 5,000. Heck, one could, under extremely extraordinary circumstances, do so even if you only had mere 100 players who take the sport seriously. Such a number is not, of course, enough to constantly succeed, but we've already seen single-event squads that have gone far when the stars have been properly aligned.

 

[Past Considerations]

Pretty weird question right after this tournament, even if OP meant national team results as a whole. For example asking this after the 2014 Gold would have made more sense, since that was more of a team than a talented team. Now we have had both and the junior system probably doesn't stop now that it is finally starting to output talented players instead of 3rd line grinders like in for the past 10-15 years, the dark ages of Finnish hockey.

 

[WarriorofTime]

Is hockey really all that popular in Belarus? They're a decently populous country (9.481 million) but have basically no presence in terms of NHL level players (Grabovski to his credit has regularly competed for Belarus in IIHF competition). Has the infrastructure just been really bad in the post Soviet era?

 

[aphyro]

Next 3 or is it even 4 years WJC tournaments are played in North-America and I got a feeling USA & Canada wins 3 of them if not all 4. Playing in Europe does play a factor and we've seen proof of this many times in the recent years...

To some of the above posters. You forget that basketball is big in Latvia too, so my guess is basketball is tied with hockey there in popularity of fans & registered players.

Say what you want people but my observation is that Russia has soccer & hockey tied in popularity and same goes to Sweden. The registered amount of players doesn't mean everything. It mostly means that it's the best hobby in a country for it's cost and mass attracts more people to play the game when people's friends start to play the same sport. It is pretty close race at least for #1 or #2 sports in Russia & Sweden. I know that many Swedes try to downplay ice hockey's popularity in their country, cause apparently that's the cool thing to do.

Eh no hockey is a popular sport in Sweden but its not even close to be as popular as football 2,8million saw the game between Argentina - Germany in football vs Olympics with 2,5million. And take that in considering that Sweden dident play that final in football aswell.

And when Sweden played Eurocup in poland/ukrain there was 3 million watching it.

 

[Gsus]

So Hockey isn't Finland's #1 sport?

Soccer seems to be more played, but if you ask thru the whole country population of 5,5millions, I think at least 3million would say they're more into hockey. Hockey is just the sport where we can be at our best in all of sports. Almost all the great stories and achievements in finnish hockey are some kinda related to this Sisu (never giving up mentality) and that's the reason why it gathers the people together. For example, in all elimination games we were behind (Canada 2 goal deficit, Sweden 1, Russia 1) and still came back. That has something more than the refs in it.

 

[sooni]

Actually i have to say one thing after all. After all why Finnish teams always are playing so great? Everyone here thinks that Finnish players are not stars and biggest reason for that is regular season points. Reality is not what you see all the way in NHL. Most of players in our country actually have always been pure gold in own end... Players like Mikko Koivu, Jere Lehtinen, Joonas Kemppainen, Leo Komarov etc etc.. we have long list of them. We have always couple Superstars. Teemu Selänne (all time most points Olympic games), Jari Kurri and well even Saku when he was at prime. There is firepower enough to make those couple goals to win a game. Actually you can always win a game if you have good offence, but truth is that Finland have always played big tournaments with great defence. That is why we are so good.

Well i forgot that this time we did something different. We had offence which was pure gold and even that we lacked defensively we won and that is something which everyone in hockey world should scare. Not now in World Cup but in next Olympic games we are gonna have young tremendous Hockey Team,

 

[Jablkon]

Actually i have to say one thing after all. After all why Finnish teams always are playing so great? Everyone here thinks that Finnish players are not stars and biggest reason for that is regular season points. Reality is not what you see all the way in NHL. Most of players in our country actually have always been pure gold in own end... Players like Mikko Koivu, Jere Lehtinen, Joonas Kemppainen, Leo Komarov etc etc.. we have long list of them. We have always couple Superstars. Teemu Selänne (all time most points Olympic games), Jari Kurri and well even Saku when he was at prime. There is firepower enough to make those couple goals to win a game. Actually you can always win a game if you have good offence, but truth is that Finland have always played big tournaments with great defence. That is why we are so good.

Well i forgot that this time we did something different. We had offence which was pure gold and even that we lacked defensively we won and that is something which everyone in hockey world should scare. Not now in World Cup but in next Olympic games we are gonna have young tremendous Hockey Team,

Does only Karpat Oulu play quite a defensive game or is it typical for all finnish teams?

 

[behemolari]

Does only Karpat Oulu play quite a defensive game or is it typical for all finnish teams?

It's not called defensive game but controlled (no mistakes allowed), Finnish teams play a book before everything else. It's way more effective than lets say.. Russian style which prefers freeform attacks and looks fancier.

 

[Merya]

It's because they're so bad at football. Hockey is a very popular sport in Finland.

Go figure.

pffft Litmanen and Hyypiä are better than anyone except Zlatan, that traditional hockey countries have produced. (USSR wasnt a hockey country when Lev Yashin grew up.)

 

[Merya]

You suck it Murica!


So Hockey isn't Finland's #1 sport?

Common Finland, make the Hockey choice - the right choice. Join us Canadians as being the only Hockey nations.

As far as tv spectators go, hockey is by far number one. Only thing that can compete is Javelin throw in Olympics and World/Euro Championships. Oh and the President's independence day reception.

 

[Bakayoko Ono]

pffft Litmanen and Hyypiä are better than anyone except Zlatan, that traditional hockey countries have produced. (USSR wasnt a hockey country when Lev Yashin grew up.)

I'm pretty sure Pavel Nedved is a Czech.