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National Team Rivalries

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Raimo Sillanpää said:
very much so, many years when I was a young boy I met an older Czech man who claimed to have been in the team who beat the soviets in the word championship final after Prague Spring
He said it was pure emotion. Afterwards they were afraid of what the Soviet’s would do to them, and were scared of going back home..
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Perhaps worth noting that Czechoslovakia won at home in Prague in 1972 and there was no final at the time. Czechoslovakia did beat the Soviets in 1969 as well, but the Soviets won gold regardless.
 
Albatros said:
Perhaps worth noting that Czechoslovakia won at home in Prague in 1972 and there was no final at the time. Czechoslovakia did beat the Soviets in 1969 as well, but the Soviets won gold regardless.
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This is a recollection of a discussion in the early 90’s, could have been just a big game they won, timeline wise 69 makes more sense
 
Eye of Ra said:
Erik Ryman, Jonas Norgren, Mattias Holmstedt, Mattias Livf where swedes playing for Norway. Thought this was early 00s. There was also the finns kaunismaki and eerikki koivu. Nowdays its only Tobias Lindström. Actually im suprised there is not more swedes in the Norway NT. There is many swedes in the Norway Leauge.
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Correct! Important note is that Koivu, Livf and Holmstedt only played in one tournament each, and were not key/star players. Ryman and Norgren played in more tournaments, again as a role player/backup goaltender. Kaunismäki was a defensive defenceman and probably the only here who was sort of a mainstay.
 
GotTheMovesLikeJagr said:
Correct! Important note is that Koivu, Livf and Holmstedt only played in one tournament each, and were not key/star players. Ryman and Norgren played in more tournaments, again as a role player/backup goaltender. Kaunismäki was a defensive defenceman and probably the only here who was sort of a mainstay.
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Tobias Lindström is a key player thought?

What is the plan for Kristian Jakobsson ?
 
Finland-Sweden is often mentioned, but i feel like nowadays Finland-Russia has overtaken it as a sports rivalry both for the players and spectators.

There is a ton of animosity in every game and i think even more than Sweden, no player wants to lose to Russia.
 
Luolis said:
Finland-Sweden is often mentioned, but i feel like nowadays Finland-Russia has overtaken it as a sports rivalry both for the players and spectators.

There is a ton of animosity in every game and i think even more than Sweden, no player wants to lose to Russia.
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I don't think Russia sees Finland as a rival. A frustrating opponent for sure. I do think Russia would rather play against Canada than Finland to win though.
 
For Latvia its probably Belarus.
1. Similar path - both are the only (excluding Russia) post-soviet countries who were able to maintain high hockey level after the collapse of USSR. Maybe Kazakhstan also, but they still are a tier below.
2. Geopolitical reasons - neighbours with a lot of tention between them.
3. In the KHL, both Riga and Minsk are on relatively same level (yeah, yeah, Riga plays horribly last years, but its no like Minsk is a contender) and in the same division, so the rivalry continues for the whole season and not just during the international tournaments.

Yeah, for most Latvians the biggest foe is Russia, but can you really call it a rivalry when Latvia can win like, 1 in 10 games at best?
 
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Canada vs Russia is el Classico of ice hockey

A proper intercontinental rivalry, though in recent years we haven't seen that much of CAN v RUS in the best-on-best format
 
For Finland the main rival nowadays has been Russia. We dont give a damn if they see us worthy rivals or not. We have had many great matchups with each other, usually in semifinals.
 
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Vikz said:
For Latvia its probably Belarus.
1. Similar path - both are the only (excluding Russia) post-soviet countries who were able to maintain high hockey level after the collapse of USSR. Maybe Kazakhstan also, but they still are a tier below.
2. Geopolitical reasons - neighbours with a lot of tention between them.
3. In the KHL, both Riga and Minsk are on relatively same level (yeah, yeah, Riga plays horribly last years, but its no like Minsk is a contender) and in the same division, so the rivalry continues for the whole season and not just during the international tournaments.

Yeah, for most Latvians the biggest foe is Russia, but can you really call it a rivalry when Latvia can win like, 1 in 10 games at best?
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Adding to this. They beat us in the last game for the spot in the Nagano OG even thought we were big favourites in that game. The past haunted us even 8 years later when we were in a quite similar situation 2-4 down with 6 minutes to go in the game against Belarus for the right to play in Torino OG, but then the miracle and the 98 OG blunder was forgotten.

Can't forget about the disallowed goal in the WHC in Belarus, which cost Latvia the QF and Belarus made it instead.

Every game against Belarus brings out the "nasty" Latvian hockey community in the comment sections on the local sport web page, really don't know if the Belarus feels the same against us. If I had to guess, I wouls say no.
 
JohnWillow said:
Adding to this. They beat us in the last game for the spot in the Nagano OG even thought we were big favourites in that game. The past haunted us even 8 years later when we were in a quite similar situation 2-4 down with 6 minutes to go in the game against Belarus for the right to play in Torino OG, but then the miracle and the 98 OG blunder was forgotten.

Can't forget about the disallowed goal in the WHC in Belarus, which cost Latvia the QF and Belarus made it instead.

Every game against Belarus brings out the "nasty" Latvian hockey community in the comment sections on the local sport web page, really don't know if the Belarus feels the same against us. If I had to guess, I wouls say no.
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Sure, history of beating each other in important games and fighting for the same QF or OG spots deffinately adds to the tention. But I dont think that there is some bitter hatred. Its just the lack of proper moderation of comments on the biggest news websites. When the news are about our NHL guys, the comments are all about them being fourth line plugs, when the news are about Porzingis, they always write something about Doncic, and when the news are about Dinamo Riga, all hell breaks loose. And the political moments of games with Belarus and Dinamo Riga sure heat up the discussion and attract trolls. But these comments do not reflect the feelings of general hockey fanbase. Belarus probably feels the same way - who, if not Latvia, is the main rival for them?
 
For Finland Sweden always Sweden:
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Back in the 70's Finns even threw out their TV-monitors out the balcony when they lost to Sweden in Finnkampen - and Finnkampen is an annually track and field(!) competition held between Finland and Sweden since I don't even know when.

Bad blood, bad blood ...
 
Finland-Sweden
Finland-Russia (Finland once was part of the Russian Empire)
Canada-Russia
Canada-USA
USA-Russia
Germany-Switzerland
Austria-Germany
Czech Rep.-Slovakia
Czech Rep.- Russia (little brother/big brother, best teams in the 80s)
 
Bon Esprit said:
Finland-Sweden
Finland-Russia (Finland once was part of the Russian Empire)
Canada-Russia
Canada-USA
USA-Russia
Germany-Switzerland
Austria-Germany
Czech Rep.-Slovakia
Czech Rep.- Russia (little brother/big brother, best teams in the 80s)
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Not sure how other countries see this, but for Russia the one and only rival is Canada
 
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