GDT: Quarter Final: Finland Vs United States | 11:30AM EST 5:30PM CET | FIN 1 - 0 USA

[Czechboy]

Justus Annunen will be the Avalanche's goalie of the future. Great game by him.

Hopefully in 3 years... we need Francouz to steal that job for a few years!

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Except if you look at my draft rankings evaluation, it was already baked in. I know its HFboard tradition to call for "overreaction", but one should probably look who is talking...

I think NHL scouts are still very bad at evaluating the effect of chemistry on stats, and then stats on draft rankings. When it comes to the US national development team (if we can call it that), it's more or less of a drafting parade without any form of accountability. Scouts should beware of what appears to be a talented group in individual stats.

How many times did you see these players play pre-draft?

 

[Psych0dad]

I love Finnish hockey but the NHL is the end goal... there are 37 Finns in the NHL not counting goalies. So let's call it 40. There are 221 American's in the NHL (not counting goalies).

There are 5,5 million Finns and 380+ million Americans. Hence no surprise there are more Americans than Finns in the NHL. Location also matters.

Considering the population difference, Finland clearly produces way more NHL players per capita. Hockey is #1 sport in Finland and Canada so no surprise they are at the top constantly.

I do disagree with you that the end goal is NHL. Only in the NHL the end goal is NHL, this is world juniors where people represent countries instead of clubs. All of their future goals are in the NHL, but these tournaments are separate from that.

I'm more interested in olympic hockey than the NHL, for example. Best on best tournaments.

 

[blindpass]

I'm more interested in olympic hockey than the NHL, for example. Best on best tournaments.

Not recently. Because of the NHL.

 

[Czechboy]

There are 5,5 million Finns and 380+ million Americans. Hence no surprise there are more Americans than Finns in the NHL. Location also matters.

Considering the population difference, Finland clearly produces way more NHL players per capita. Hockey is #1 sport in Finland and Canada so no surprise they are at the top constantly.

I do disagree with you that the end goal is NHL. Only in the NHL the end goal is NHL, this is world juniors where people represent countries instead of clubs. All of their future goals are in the NHL, but these tournaments are separate from that.

I'm more interested in olympic hockey than the NHL, for example. Best on best tournaments.

What percentage of American's do you think care about hockey? How many of the 380 million do you think are aware they got eliminated yesterday?

I was once told that Professional Bowling has a higher viewership in the States than the NHL. I do know hockey doesn't even come close in popularity to the NFL, MLB, Nascar and the NBA. The soccer league might have a higher viewership as well.

Poland also plays hockey and has 10X the population of the Czech Republic. Kazkhstan has a bigger popluation than Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, Slovakia and the Czechs. The Germans have over 80 million people.

The Chinese play hockey and have over a billion people.

FTR.. it's amazing how much talent the Finn's produce with 5 million people. You might be third best in the world at NHL hockey players per capita. Canada has about 7 times your population but also about 7 times more NHLer's. Sweden has double your population but triple the amount of NHLers.

As far as end goal... I didn't say (or didn't mean to say) that the end goal was the Stanley Cup finals... but to produce NHL players. I don't think there is any debate that the NHL is the best league in the world for hockey? Eg. last year's Czech team blew out in the quarters but 2 of those players are already in the NHL (Necas and Zadina) and a third didn't go because he was in the NHL (Chytil). This year we got blown out and absolutely no one will be in the NHL in October (Jenik and Lauko were our closest chance and both have nasty injuries to contend with. Not that they were locks anyways).

As a Czech fan sitting on the outside of the big 5 (32 NHLers for 10 million people), I'd feel much better if we could produce more NHL talent on a consistent basis.

I also prefer the World's and Olympics more. Mind you, I'm an Oiler's fan so I have a lot more free time in Spring when the World's begin.lol

 

[blindpass]

I was once told that Professional Bowling has a higher viewership in the States than the NHL

I'm doubting this. But the fact that anyone can watch something so repetitive and without complexity is astonishing. Curling is 1000000x better.

 

[Czechboy]

I'm doubting this. But the fact that anyone can watch something so repetitive and without complexity is astonishing. Curling is 1000000x better.

Hockey ranks 6th in popularity survey: Harris Poll - TheHockeyNews

Must be an old stat. It USED to be behind bowling but has now passed it.lol Less than 4% of Americans.

Hockey was tied in 11th at two percent, also behind pro basketball, auto racing, golf, tennis, bowling and horse racing

There might be newer stats than this one from 2014 of course.

 

[SOLR]

How many times did you see these players play pre-draft?

In most of their respective games.

 

[crowi]

So rubbish translation for E. Erholtz who got checked into the boards by Beecher.

What he says goes as following: "I was worried first. I didn't properly know what got hit but felt it with my tongue". "I felt my my teeth were crooked and there's a lot of blood gushing out."

"Thankfully nothing more serious such as concussion or damage to the neck didn't occur".

"I couldn't predict that hit at all. It came from nowhere. The refs made their calls and I hope the dirty hits in this tournament ended with that one."

"Day after we went on checking how my teeth were. One tooth was too broken to be fixed and few others are still crooked. They will be fixed back in Finland".

When asked about facing Canada: "Both teams play hard and give all they have, still I wish the game to stay clean."

"We have to be physically and mentally ready against Canada like we were against USA. Discipline is heavily required".

 

[BullLund]

What percentage of American's do you think care about hockey? How many of the 380 million do you think are aware they got eliminated yesterday?

I was once told that Professional Bowling has a higher viewership in the States than the NHL. I do know hockey doesn't even come close in popularity to the NFL, MLB, Nascar and the NBA. The soccer league might have a higher viewership as well.

Poland also plays hockey and has 10X the population of the Czech Republic. Kazkhstan has a bigger popluation than Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, Slovakia and the Czechs. The Germans have over 80 million people.

The Chinese play hockey and have over a billion people.

FTR.. it's amazing how much talent the Finn's produce with 5 million people. You might be third best in the world at NHL hockey players per capita. Canada has about 7 times your population but also about 7 times more NHLer's. Sweden has double your population but triple the amount of NHLers.

As far as end goal... I didn't say (or didn't mean to say) that the end goal was the Stanley Cup finals... but to produce NHL players. I don't think there is any debate that the NHL is the best league in the world for hockey? Eg. last year's Czech team blew out in the quarters but 2 of those players are already in the NHL (Necas and Zadina) and a third didn't go because he was in the NHL (Chytil). This year we got blown out and absolutely no one will be in the NHL in October (Jenik and Lauko were our closest chance and both have nasty injuries to contend with. Not that they were locks anyways).

As a Czech fan sitting on the outside of the big 5 (32 NHLers for 10 million people), I'd feel much better if we could produce more NHL talent on a consistent basis.

I also prefer the World's and Olympics more. Mind you, I'm an Oiler's fan so I have a lot more free time in Spring when the World's begin.lol

The amount of Finn NHL players is starting to increase.

In the previous decade, we did not train players with NHL in mind. Being team-oriented was more important than being a great individual player. This contributed to good results in national hockey, but not necessarily in the NHL. Being a goalie was seen as the best position for a Finn to make it to NHL, but there is a much lesser demand for goalies than other types of players. Having a lot of good Finnish goalies did not amount to much quantity.

The training methods for young players have shifted a little bit. Being a bit egotistical and statistics-minded is not seen as a detriment against you any longer. They're more ready for the NHL grind, the style of play there, and don't have as much of a language barrier.

Realistically we should've capitalized on the hype of Kurri, Selänne, Koivu and others who made it big in the NHL, to produce a great generation of players in the 2000's, but it seems like coaches back then were still insistent on playing "our hockey" rather than NHL hockey.

 

[Czechboy]

The amount of Finn NHL players is starting to increase.

In the previous decade, we did not train players with NHL in mind. Being team-oriented was more important than being a great individual player. This contributed to good results in national hockey, but not necessarily in the NHL. Being a goalie was seen as the best position for a Finn to make it to NHL, but there is a much lesser demand for goalies than other types of players. Having a lot of good Finnish goalies did not amount to much quantity.

The training methods for young players have shifted a little bit. Being a bit egotistical and statistics-minded is not seen as a detriment against you any longer. They're more ready for the NHL grind, the style of play there, and don't have as much of a language barrier.

Realistically we should've capitalized on the hype of Kurri, Selänne, Koivu and others who made it big in the NHL, to produce a great generation of players in the 2000's, but it seems like coaches back then were still insistent on playing "our hockey" rather than NHL hockey.

Completely agree. Feels like there is a Finn in the Top 5 every year for awhile now... I'm guessing Finn's hit 50 pretty soon.

 

[KillerMillerTime]

He should've been benched because he shoots the puck around the boards every time he gets the puck. Never looks to make a play. Doesn't have the puck skills to do that.

There were a lot of complaints about Turcotte and Caufield, but they were running a two man line. Their only goal they combined for was when Beecher wasn't on the ice.



He doesn't play that much, although he does manage to find himself on a line with Turcotte and Caufield. He plays PK, no PP, 3rd line at ES, so his minutes aren't very high. He's 8th among the forwards in TOI/G. 3rd liner for this team. Started out as a 2nd liner, and was moved down because he wasn't playing well there. That was one of the few changes the coach made. I would've thought he'd be a good 4th liner for us this year, but the way he played, he didn't even deserve to make the team.

Your take on Beecher was proven to be a lie.
Keep making garbage up.

 

[SanDogBrewin]

Hockey ranks 6th in popularity survey: Harris Poll - TheHockeyNews

Must be an old stat. It USED to be behind bowling but has now passed it.lol Less than 4% of Americans.

Hockey was tied in 11th at two percent, also behind pro basketball, auto racing, golf, tennis, bowling and horse racing

There might be newer stats than this one from 2014 of course.

This still means nothing to US hockey fans that appreciate the NHL, NCAA, CHL and IIHF etc.

Really just a dig at US sports fans nothing more.

 

[Czechboy]

This still means nothing to US hockey fans that appreciate the NHL, NCAA, CHL and IIHF etc.

Really just a dig at US sports fans nothing more.

To be clear, I wasn't taking a dig at anything US. I think US hockey is excellent. I've said forever that we're all in trouble if a few more States get really passionate about hockey.