EHM The Blue Line

I just loved hockey today... Finland played very good against CAN today! The worst thing is that I "mighty" hate hockey tomorrow! If "we" can beat Canada today then why not Sweden tomorow... But I as a fellow Fin know what's at stake in the game. The ULTIMATE final is up ahead,

Well doesn't really matter, if we win we will get drunk, if we lose we'll be even more drunk (this goes only in games against Sweden)

I might actually miss the game because I have to fix my car which has few days before inspection

Jykke wrote:Note to Roster updaters: Write down the name Juuse Saros. This kid is going to be next big thing coming from Finland. Future Vezina winner.

Since I'm updating the Liiga atm: yes, trust me, he WILL be made better when I get to updating the players' CAs and PAs along with other goalies like Husso, Rynnäs and Irving.
I don't have any low respect for Saros, it's just that his current abilities are made up from the season 11-12, so... (I know because I did that too) Also I think that goalie sizes are overappreciated nowadays, just look at Raanta. Okay, he plays in the Hawks so it's easy to play well, but still! Just my personal opinion.

But what a game! I think this was even a bigger surprise than Olympic gold would be, statistically speaking. Last time we were in the finals with World Juniors was in 2001 and Olympic gold was pretty darn close in 2006. I still can't believe we're in the finals. Hats off for Karri Kivi! We saw during last Liiga season that when he gets the flow going there's no stopping him: Ässät was so dominate during the last games of the regular season and the playoffs. Hopefully that happens this time too. Too bad the opponent is so good again that we have to pull another rabbit out of the hat.

Edit: spelling mistake...

Canada should forget the bronze medal. Doesn't look better than yesterday so far.

Wow...Finland's up 1-0 28 seconds in!

Congratulations to Team Finland You guys really deserve to celebrate.
Sweden too but a real tough loss. You did a great job hosting the tournament and Swedish fans really showed up!!
As much as I was going for Canada it's great to see the hockey parity that we are seeing.

Nice goal for the win. At least Finland didn't won since 98 they said, good for them.

I wanted Sweden to win.

I'm so sorry Manimal, but...

I'll just post a more no-nonsense comment later on.

Wow Finland. And no I am not feeling bad for Manimal. I mean he has his Rangers and Lundqvist and Hagelin. Tasku...more drunk or less drunk due to win.

I'm sad Finland played really well in the OT though. Still mad that the refs missed the Elbow to the head on Collberg, should have been 5 + game in my book.

Peter_Doherty wrote:I'm sad Finland played really well in the OT though. Still mad that the refs missed the Elbow to the head on Collberg, should have been 5 + game in my book.

How about all the penalties to Finns in the second period? That was just awful... Referees were very bad and almost cost us our Championship

LOL. It is international hockey...the referees are always inexperienced and horrible.

Saapas wrote:

Peter_Doherty wrote:I'm sad Finland played really well in the OT though. Still mad that the refs missed the Elbow to the head on Collberg, should have been 5 + game in my book.

How about all the penalties to Finns in the second period? That was just awful... Referees were very bad and almost cost us our Championship

Never said they were good otherwise But that guy that elbowed Collberg should have been sent to the lockerroom... You can't possibly deny that?

edit: batdad, thats true... But the ref stood like 2 meters away from the most blatant elbow to the head i've seen this season, he must be blind to miss it.

darn I'm happy now! But yeah the referees were really horrible.

Perkele!

The Swedes had a great tournament but just couldn't get the goals needed.
Hats of to the Finnish team. Teräväinen and Ristolainen were awesome.

The commentators said an interesting thing. The three medal winning teams has most of their players playing in men's leagues as to having them in junior/College

CHicago is going to be good for a long long time. So many young skilled studs, mixed with big bashing silly billies.

I'v never been so depressed during hockey game because of referees.. I totally lost my mood and shut tv off after 2-2 goal even tho I supported Sweden because I don't want to watch Finnish national teams playing 90's Devils hockey for next decade.

Finland has always played defense first. They have always played that way to my recollection. They are close to Canada in terms of skill level and skating and play similar styles...although Canada is more aggressive offensively. Finland is by far the closest Euro team to Canada in terms of style. I have to say for the most part I enjoy watching them play.

batdad wrote:Tasku...more drunk or less drunk due to win.

Not drunk at all. Can't be drunk all the time. Or you can, but they call that alcoholism!

Go Finland!

batdad wrote:Finland has always played defense first. They have always played that way to my recollection.

I'v just had enough of godlike terms "meidän peli (our game)" and "viivelähtö (conservative opening)". You can't watch hockey game in Finland without hearing those.

Okay, a more rational comment about the game now.

I'm really stunned about the fact that we won. Two impossible games in a row and we won both! Gold with the shortest and lightest team is also quite a miracle in EHM terms. Karri Kivi deserves all the appreciation he's getting.
Too bad WJC isn't as big of a thing in Finland as it is in Canada (bigger than the WC I presume), there would be so many people celebrating, now ''just'' about 25% of the WC-win celebrators.

Lazion wrote:

batdad wrote:Finland has always played defense first. They have always played that way to my recollection.

I'v just had enough of godlike terms "meidän peli (our game)" and "viivelähtö (conservative opening)". You can't watch hockey game in Finland without hearing those.

LOL.. Does your country not realize that hockey is OUR GAME....At least 99.9% of Canadians believe it is. You can bet there are calls for changing our system to make us gods in Junior hockey again. How horrible we lost. No way should anyone else ever win. Don't ya know....

Canada supremacy forever!!! Joke.

I also told on the RDS forum to not freaking out and that Canada gave us alot of good performances and medals in the past. No need to freak out for 2 years.

On this note Lazion is just an exception. Sure, many people don't like the conservative openings, but still, gold is a gold. I personally don't know anyone who would hate their national team like that they would support the other team...

ForNever wrote:On this note Lazion is just an exception. Sure, many people don't like the conservative openings, but still, gold is a gold. I personally don't know anyone who would hate their national team like that they would support the other team...

I used to root for Canada, because of how boring the Swedes played back in the 90s