PGT: WJC Gold Medal Game | Finland Win Gold Over USA 3-2 | Part II

[ijk]

But how many so called promising players burst in NHL ?

”I had awesome sex last night!”

”Yes, but will you have a baby in the future?”

This is a team sport in an event where scouts evaluate individual players.

Canada will always produce the most quality and content, but these figures are quite telling in some ways, at least to those who cheer the team. It is kind of like downplaying the Miracle on Ice by pointin out that few of the US. players ever amounted to anything, while the Soviets had many all time greats in their team.

Who really cares?

A win is a win.

And to your point, relative to prior years of awful player development, Finland has actually produced much more quality players than they did during the drought years of 2000-2012. So the golds show that, the same applies to the U.S.

”But Canada will beat a Rest of the World team even if they had the Oilers Old Boys Club acting as team management, and with Gretzky as their coach.”

Canada loses close game to rest of the world 2-3.

”But how many of the Rest of the World are as good as Crosby and McDavid in the NHL? Hahahaha!”

 

[JoVel]

Was this the same arena where the USA trounced Finland at the olympics 9 years ago? At least the same city so one can say that this was a payback.

Don't know but that was probably the most embarrassing thing I've watched as a hockey fan... 6-0 after the first in the semi finals of the f***ing Olympics. Thank god we at least got the bronze which somewhat eased the pain. Canada would've beaten us in the final anyway.

 

[tuozzi]

Football is not more popular, not even close. Everyone plays Hockey at winter and Football at summer when they are kids, then they quit football. For some time, football serves as good thing to do when there is no hockey. No need to lie here, because thats the way it goes. Getting to football League doesnt make you a living. If it looks like you wouldnt make it to the Liiga or close to it, then you select football because its easier there. Thats the way it always goes for most, what you said is just wishful thinking of football people. Of course everyone plays football when they are kids, daa, wheres the news.

Hockey is the sport you want to play in, because there is hundreds of spots in the homeland league that pay you diploma engineer payout or better, but its not like absolutely dominant, of course football still gets alot of players and skiing and all the other sports. Its not like 50% just play hockey. Also today hockey might be becoming too expensive for poorest families to support, and probably is.

If you'll read the post I responded to, it clearly implied that hockey is most popular in terms of people playing it. That is simply not true, not even close. Sure that may be because hockey is expensive but that's completely irrelevant to the point, as is it's popularity as a spectator sport.

 

[ijk]

The Canada is Hockey ideology also led to the most asinine tournament in hockey history: World Cup 2016.

The mighty nations of Canada, USA, Sweden, Finland, Czech-Republic, Russia and.... Europe and U-23 North-America.

Maybe next year if we are lucky we can truly have a best on best with Team Canada A, Team Canada B, The Soviet Union (includes Europe also) and The Toronto Maple Leafs.

Maybe then we can finally know who is the best.

And if the Europeans lose, meaning they do not win, it truly must mean that they suck while Canada is teh GOAT for all mankind.

 

[FinPanda]

Is there a big news in Finland now?

Yes this gold is the biggest news. We have an article about who is the nicest player on the team, about their girlfriends.. a lot of news. Pictures of naked finnish people at the marketplace.. so yes this is huge.

 

[tuozzi]

It depends what you mean by popular.
If we mean only registered players, then sure soccer is the most popular.
However it's because hockey is so expensive that most families can't afford to support their childrens hockey.

Overall hockey is clearly the most popular sport in Finland.
Most fans, best paying pro teamsport etc.
From the people i know maybe 10-20%
Is soccer fans.
But pretty much everyone is a hockeyfan.
Atleast from males.

It's not even close. Hockey is the national sport in finland.

I think the guy I replied to established the kind of popularity we are talking about pretty clearly.

Also, you sound like you live in some sort of a hockey bubble. In your experience there are, what, 5 times more hockey fans? Sorry, but that's laughable.

 

[canswetoxic]

”I had awesome sex last night!”

”Yes, but will you have a baby in the future?”

This is a team sport in an event where scouts evaluate individual players.

Canada will always produce the most quality and content, but these figures are quite telling in some ways, at least to those who cheer the team. It is kind of like downplaying the Miracle on Ice by pointin out that few of the US. players ever amounted to anything, while the Soviets had many all time greats in their team.

Who really cares?

A win is a win.

And to your point, relative to prior years of awful player development, Finland has actually produced much more quality players than they did during the drought years of 2000-2012. So the golds show that, the same applies to the U.S.

”But Canada will beat a Rest of the World team even if they had the Oilers Old Boys Club acting as team management, and with Gretzky as their coach.”

Canada loses close game to rest of the world 2-3.

”But how many of the Rest of the World are as good as Crosby and McDavid in the NHL? Hahahaha!”

Its 1 goal game, nothing to go home about. Lucky bounce and you win.

 

[canswetoxic]

Yes this gold is the biggest news. We have an article about who is the nicest player on the team, about their girlfriends.. a lot of news. Pictures of naked finnish people at the marketplace.. so yes this is huge.

Show us some pictures? Can imagine if Ice hockey is the biggest sport in Finland.

 

[FinPanda]

Show us some pictures? Can imagine if Ice hockey is the biggest sport in Finland.

I am traveling atm so I can't really right now but you can found a lot in:
Is.fi
Iltalehti.fi
Mtvuutiset.fi
Yle.fi/urheilu

 

[Garbox]

It depends what you mean by popular.
If we mean only registered players, then sure soccer is the most popular.
However it's because hockey is so expensive that most families can't afford to support their childrens hockey.

Overall hockey is clearly the most popular sport in Finland.
Most fans, best paying pro teamsport etc.
From the people i know maybe 10-20%
Is soccer fans.
But pretty much everyone is a hockeyfan.
Atleast from males.

It's not even close. Hockey is the national sport in finland.

But when talking about player potential it's pretty much those registered ones that matter.

And about the talk about which nation has better chances to get the best possible talent into hockey, I don't think the % means nothing when we're talkin about 70k vs 600k in quantity. I mean, most likely USA and Canada could have gathered two or three teams that would've been almost as good, Finns and Swedes etc. not so much. That's where the big difference is. We may have our best of the best team close enough to win, but we don't have as many of those players as the big ones. And of course we don't, otherwise those big ones would be doing quite a bad job as they must have bigger quantity in talent.

Anyways, was a great game to watch. After that 2-0 I kinda expected the comeback for Team USA, but was really hoping our guys could get back in form after that.

 

[Matti_A]

Great win, well deserved, would never have guessed after the round robin.

A couple insanely exciting games in the playoffs once again that were almost too much for the poor old heart.

For once team Finland had the hockey God's on their side in this tournament.

Not to take anything away from the Finns who displayed great attitude but it is so often forgotten how big a part plain old luck plays into the end result in the sport of hockey.

The margins between victory and defeat are incredibly small at this level. It could have easily ended in another disappointment for team Finland in the quarters like last year when the Finns weren't so lucky and lost in the shootout to the Czech's.

But fans and media tend to ignore these things when building their narratives and story lines of character, grit, winning mentality, dynasties and "wanting it more".

 

[FinPanda]

"Ennen Kanada-peliä puhuttiin, että nyt alkaa uusi turnaus, eikä aiemmalla ole väliä, Luukkonen kertoo."

"Before the game against Canada we talked about how it will be a new tournament and it doesn't matter what happened in the preliminary round."
- U-P Luukkonen

 

[clevelandcane]

Congratulations to Finland. I thought the game was well played and even for the most part.

Silver is a great accomplishment too.

Way to go, Team USA!!!

 

[Matti_A]

The Finns also played their best in the knock-out stage when it mattered the most giving themselves every opportunity to succeed.

 

[Matti_A]

I hope this will be remembered 20 years from now just like "Teppo Winnipeg" is still remembered. There are even clothes honoring that golden Anssi Kukkonen moment:

I hope somebody makes Blackhawks jerseys with the number 28 and "Harkiyoohoo" on the back.

That is gold!

"Teppo Winnipeg", one of the all time classics along with "Stiiv Jatserman"

Cherry had a good one last night too: "Packa-jammie" for Kotkaniemi.

 

[thebigbea]

Great crowd overall for the tournment, cheer for all teams when they score even when Canada is out.

 

[Newsworthy]

But how many so called promising players burst in NHL ?

Who cares?
We are not talking about the NHL. There are several other professional hockey leagues around the world and this is a junior tournament.

 

[Newsworthy]

Congrats Finland. You are truly a great hockey country.

 

[member 305909]

If Finns somehow started to be a bit more successful at soccer perhaps then soccer could challenge hockey in terms of pooularity but until that happens hockey reigns supreme.

 

[Bruce Granville]

Yes the number of finnish NHL-Players are rising. Incl. Top-Players. 4 Finns in All Star game. That s never happen before. The future is bright!

Actually it has.
In 1998 Jari Kurri, Teemu Selänne, Saku Koivu and Jere Lehtinen paricipated in the All Star game.

 

[Urbanskog]

Unfortunately nowadays it's getting hard to play hockey outdoors because the winters are becoming shorter and shorter, with many more 0 degree days than proper negative temperatures that we used to have when I was a kid (every winter = meters of snow and -20 C almost every day from end of Nov until early April). It might show up in the amount of Finnish hockey players in 15 - 20 years from now.

A complete exaggeration.

 

[ijk]

Its 1 goal game, nothing to go home about. Lucky bounce and you win.

This is true, which made the Canada and USA games much more entertaining than the 6-1 beating Finland gave to Switzerland. Honestly, I was disappointed to stay up until 3 am to watch a tight match and then see Finland get a 4-0 lead in like six minutes of play.

We are all here for drama and entertainment.

Team USA was really good and could’ve won. Hughes is really good, although he didn’t score, unlike Kakko who to me was underwhelming besides the GWG.

But all in all, I watch these games for entertainment. The junior games are high-paced and energetic, so that’s why I ruin my normal life by becoming a nocturnal creature.

But yeah, I don’t know what I’m responding to anymore.

The Finns won two tight games and ultimatelt won the tournament.

Such is life

 

[Newsworthy]

Well, that's an interesting angle for sure... But also quite delusional angle because you do realize the size of the population has a lot to do with this. The bigger the population the bigger the pool of athletes and in hockey's case, the bigger the pool of players.

There are differences on how to count and various ways to count registered players but these figures probably give a pretty good idea about of the difference.

Canada 637,000
United States 562,145
Czech Republic 120,920
Russia 110,624
Finland 73,374
Sweden 62,701
Switzerland 27,528

Ice hockey - Wikipedia

Despite the numbers and population not really though.
Canada has no excuses not to produce the best players and best teams. Canada is hockey nation. No one can compare. It is Canada's game so when they lose its usually upsetting or a big upset. Being eliminated on your own soil without medaling hurts. I'd go as far as to say embarrassing. No different than the US losing a tournament in basketball. They expect to be the best.
USA may have the largest population and second largest participant rates but these kids seem to play more for the fun. I feel Finland, Russia, Sweden, Canada and the like have a true passion for the game. Really love hockey and display it in victory and defeat. Obviously those Americans that play at the compete level are passionate about what they do but for the majority it's not so much.
US just seems to be distracted by the many other sports and the majority of the country doesn't really care much about hockey. It's kinda disappointing. Hopefully more Americans realize how great hockey is and learn the game in the future.

Not taking anything away from how great Finland is at hockey. It's clearly hockey's version of baseball's Dominican Republic. Pound for pound Finland may even be better. That's truly impressive.
Finland are the Champs again and well deserved.

 

[NyQuil]

The Canada is Hockey ideology also led to the most asinine tournament in hockey history: World Cup 2016.

The mighty nations of Canada, USA, Sweden, Finland, Czech-Republic, Russia and.... Europe and U-23 North-America.

Maybe next year if we are lucky we can truly have a best on best with Team Canada A, Team Canada B, The Soviet Union (includes Europe also) and The Toronto Maple Leafs.

Maybe then we can finally know who is the best.

And if the Europeans lose, meaning they do not win, it truly must mean that they suck while Canada is teh GOAT for all mankind.

Why the heck is the World Cup Canadian?

Bettman is American. Most of the NHL Governors are American.

Most Canadians hated the 2016 World Cup which is evidenced by the lack of people watching and the lack of tickets sold.

Canadians didn’t want to see their best player on a different team. I’m sure fams of the USA was annoyed by having half their strength on the U-23 team.

 

[Mestaruus]

They should ask how he scored it in the dream

Kaapo dreamed of a 'räkämaali' (=dirty goal). I'm sure.