GDT: Semifinal - May 25 - Russia vs Finland

[notDatsyuk]

Anti-hockey?

No other team in this tournament has played as entertaining games as Finland.

I wouldn't go as far as that, but their games have been very entertaining, especially this one, unless you are one of those poor people who only see goals, and miss the hockey game.

 

[notDatsyuk]

Russian media and players just said that Finlands hockey is bad for the game.

Yes - some Russian media and players (and fans) are in full denial mode. Anything but admit that they were outplayed.

 

[moropanov]

This is more like Canada's D team versus Finland's B team.

Canada is the better team and should win comfortably tomorrow. That said, in a one game elimination tournament, anything can happen.

Definitely not Finland's B team its like D or E team

 

[notDatsyuk]

Really? I thought that for once international Russian hockey was taking a step forward, it almost looked like it.

I would almost understand this if Finland would have played some kind of passive game, but that is just blatant excuses and lying.

Shame, damn shame. It was a great game but character is not something you can just have without building it yourself. Embarrassing if they really said that, super embarrassing.

Same in the NHL: when a fan says another team is using 'the trap', it almost always means "my favorite player isn't getting as many scoring chances as I want".

 

[Faterson]

Max Vasmer either does not know Russian properly or he is deliberately trying to manipulate you into believing some anti-Russian stories. "Mir" (мир) means both "world" and "peace" in Russian. In this case, "mir" means peace.
"Great" in Russian means "Velikiy" (великий) and not "mir".
Another name with "Vlad" is "Vladislav", "slava" (слава) meaning glory. So, "Reigns in glory".

Sometimes it's better to keep silent than to embarrass oneself with amateurish folk etymology:

Vladimir (name) - Wikipedia

 

[Gsus]

Canada is the better team and should win comfortably tomorrow

Just like Tampa

 

[notDatsyuk]

I did and it has like two or three articles concerning this match, none of them have much to do with "praising the finns". What you quoted originally from ovechins wife translates as follows, "Meidän on oltava ylpeitä maanmiehistämme, jotka ovat miljoonien ihmisten epäjumalia ympäri maailmaa ja toimivat esimerkkinä nuoremmalle sukupolvelle !!! Sinun täytyy pystyä hyväksymään riittävästi tappiota ja arvostamaan muiden ihmisten työtä! Kaikki hyvä, onnea huomenna, "- kirjoitti Shubskaya Instagramista."

"We have to be proud of our countrymen who are false gods to millions of people around the world (?) and act as an example to the younger generations. You have to be able to accept accept defeat and appreciate other people's work. All is good, best of luck tomorrow (refererring to the bronze medal game). Whoopdiduu

I think the questionable part makes more sense if you replace "false gods to" with "idolized by". The usual problem with a literal translation.

 

[Stubu]

This is more like Canada's D team versus Finland's B team.

Keep it simple, it's the B team for both. ("C team" is the one you already shot into the sun.)

Canada's roster would be all-star in whatever counts as the Liiga-esque domestic league in Canada. Both teams have plenty of better options held hostage in the NHL. Hence, B for both.

(I'm talking only rosters, ignoring the elusive synergy/chemistry aspect of "team", and Coach-Fu.)

 

[Jaska]

This is more like Canada's D team versus Finland's B team.

Canada is the better team and should win comfortably tomorrow. That said, in a one game elimination tournament, anything can happen.

Who would you have on Canada's A, B and C teams?

 

[RorschachWJK]

Gratz to Finland the team that was doomed to fail before the tournament by all ppl who claims to know hockey

Yes, that includes me Happy to eat crow.

 

[hyperion]

He's 11th forward in average TOI. Don't know if that really helps his case. I'm not saying he's a bad player in that role but come on. If that qualifies him as someone who "didn't get a fair shot at the NHL" that list contains hundreds of players.

And then there's the part of the story that Anttila is definitely a late bloomer. His first try in KHL didn't really work out at all in 2013, nor was his start in his Jokerit stint instant success. Don't let the fact that his Jokerit seasons have very consistent scoring on a season level fool you. Anttila was struggling in KHL in the the beginning of 2016-2017 season as well. So, essentially Anttila's game has been on this level only after he turned 30 years of age - and I would say that regarding NHL chances it goes the same for every other +30 y.o. late bloomer. It has to do with the player as well, typically players of this age aren't ready to accept a two-way contracts and go and show what they can do. 20-year-olds are happy to do that.

 

[Johno]

Gord Miller just said that the Russian team had 212 NHL goals this season. Finns had 0 NHL goals this season.

Amazing.

Well Henrik Lundqvist has more career NHL points than all the Finnish players combined so...

 

[Ingvar]

Nice to see that whatever happens, you can still count on Finns being sore winners.

 

[karhukissa]

This is more like Canada's D team versus Finland's B team.

Canada is the better team and should win comfortably tomorrow. That said, in a one game elimination tournament, anything can happen.

Yeah your message is pretty clear already. Also it's funny how you first say that tomorrow you'll see how well coached NHL team beats Finland, but in second post you already give yourself an alibi by saying "in a one game elimination tournament, anything can happen"

So basically if Finland wins you can always refer to that, "but look guys i wrote anything can happen!"

 

[RageQuit77]

Haha. Something isn't "normal" when fans of WHC finalists try out-yell each other whom roster is marked with later letter of the alphabet.

 

[BlitzSnipe]

Yes - some Russian media and players (and fans) are in full denial mode. Anything but admit that they were outplayed.

Oh, as a fan of Team Russia I'll admit they maybe weren't "outplayed" in all aspects of the game, but certainly the Finns forced the Russians to play their game, and never let the Russian team play their own form of hockey. In terms of the battle of the coaches, Vorobyev got fully outplayed.

 

[BlitzSnipe]

I did and it has like two or three articles concerning this match, none of them have much to do with "praising the finns". What you quoted originally from ovechins wife translates as follows, "Meidän on oltava ylpeitä maanmiehistämme, jotka ovat miljoonien ihmisten epäjumalia ympäri maailmaa ja toimivat esimerkkinä nuoremmalle sukupolvelle !!! Sinun täytyy pystyä hyväksymään riittävästi tappiota ja arvostamaan muiden ihmisten työtä! Kaikki hyvä, onnea huomenna, "- kirjoitti Shubskaya Instagramista."

"We have to be proud of our countrymen who are false gods to millions of people around the world (?) and act as an example to the younger generations. You have to be able to accept accept defeat and appreciate other people's work. All is good, best of luck tomorrow (refererring to the bronze medal game). Whoopdiduu

That's a bad translation. Not "false Gods" but "role models". The Russian word кумир (kumir) means both things.

 

[BlitzSnipe]

Just no. Please don't ever write something like that again.

First of all, level of entertainment is absolutely a subjective matter. Any random poster on these forums is thousand percent within their logical rights to write a post declaring Team Finland's hockey the most entertaining of them all. You can't take it away or deny it. Entertainment not really a measurable and quantifiable object, nor is there a objective singular truth for level of entertainment of one teams playstyle. For some people absolutely simply just the underdog premise is enough to make a game entertaining. Rocky wasn't that great a boxer based on what he seemed to be doing in the movies, but quite many were entertained by them, right? Others might get their kicks out seeing a system prevail over individual virtuosity. Individual virtuosity is cool and all, but ice hockey does happen to be a team sport. In case someone is purely interested in individual skills, there might be better sports out there for those people (hint: Individual sport - Wikipedia). In hockey, there are 6 guys in the rink and 15 other guys at the bench for a purpose. And quite easily for some home-brewn academics and kitchen psychiatrists, the battle of head coach vs. head coach might be the best thing ever - never mind the players. Or for some others something weird like seeing Malkin or Ovechkin cry at the end of the game might be the most entertaining thing on the planet in 2019. And so on.

Second of all, something that so many people might actually miss. Ice hockey's primary purpose is not to be entertaining. Ice hockey is a sport about the result. Primary purpose of teams in the rink is to win a game, not to be entertaining. Understanding this is the key to having a meaningful conversation about the matter. There are pure entertainment-based 'shows' out there, and for people looking just entertainment it just might make more sense to try to look for these things in the oh-so-wide offering of prime time procrastination available to us today. NBA game Warriors vs Trail Blazers is about the result. Whatever Harlem Globetrotters decide to do next is about entertainment. UFC is a sport about the result, and WWE is entertainment. And so is ice hockey a sport about the result. It's totally OK to just like the entertainment stuff, but people should not be watching WWE and UFC with the same criteria. Don't bring entertainment to the front row - if you don't like the sport of ice hockey, it just might make most sense to follow something else.

Third, respect the sport. While definitely the worst thing in your message is the phrase "universally entertaining hockey" (read item #1), also the statement like "strangling better teams" is just really really bad form. While the underdog situation definitely can exist, it's just a premise and when a game has ended and a result is drawn, premise should be forgotten. There is no other way to measure betterness between teams than playing a match of the sport in question. Finland did not strangle "a better team" today. Finland was the better team (read item #2 in case it's unclear how this is true), and that result remains as a fact ad infinitum.

Well, Finland didn't make pretty plays and their goal was not a Soviet-style, beautiful passing play and perfect shot in the top corner kind of goal, but their style is very effective and their team is extremely organised. It's commendable how little room they left for the Russian offence. I'll agree that "entertainment value" is subjective, but to be honest, obviously old Soviet-style hockey or things like the "Russian Five" are more fun to watch. But that's not what it's about these days, right now no teams really have the skill to play that style of hockey anymore and what we have is a mixture of North-American and European hockey, so everyone just plays for the result. So it doesn't matter in the end what style you play, if it gets you the win, it's legitimate.

 

[Husqvarna]

Finnish commentator Antero Mertaranta

Anttila Goal


Last 40 seconds

Even saw a couple of Swedes(!) in their yellow Tre Kronor-jerseys jump up'n'down in the crowd after the Anttila goal - crazy world nowadays ain't it ...

 

[karhukissa]

Even saw a couple of Swedes(!) in their yellow Tre Kronor-jerseys jump up'n'down in the crowd after the Anttila goal - crazy world nowadays ain't it ...

Yeah, it's been really pleasant to see Swedes rooting for Finland. And it should be like that, two small nordic countries against big opponents.

Also if something is bringing Finnish and Swedish fans together, it's a game against Russia.

 

[Nosferatu]

Russia was pretty bad and played like little bitches. Only way they were able to stay in the game was the bad refereeing and an amazing goalie.

 

[Murky]

Yeah, it's been really pleasant to see Swedes rooting for Finland. And it should be like that, two small nordic countries against big opponents.

That has been going on for years. It is just some - not all - Finnish fans not wanting to acknowledge it. Go browse the old WHC Olympic etc. threads and see for yourself how many - not all - Swedes always cheer for Finland when Tre Kronor are out. Most of my Finnish friends automatically cheer for Sweden if Finland is out - unless Team Canada has brought in too many of their favourites from their NHL franchise.

 

[BL92]

Well, Finland didn't make pretty plays and their goal was not a Soviet-style, beautiful passing play and perfect shot in the top corner kind of goal, but their style is very effective and their team is extremely organised. It's commendable how little room they left for the Russian offence. I'll agree that "entertainment value" is subjective, but to be honest, obviously old Soviet-style hockey or things like the "Russian Five" are more fun to watch. But that's not what it's about these days, right now no teams really have the skill to play that style of hockey anymore and what we have is a mixture of North-American and European hockey, so everyone just plays for the result. So it doesn't matter in the end what style you play, if it gets you the win, it's legitimate.

I don't think it's a question of skill, but practice. The Soviets we're able to refine their game due to the same team training around the year.

 

[Namba 17]

Russian media and players just said that Finlands hockey is bad for the game.

You lied, they didn't. The only thing that can be interpreted this way is one Sergachev's sentence he said in warm blood obviously right after the loss.

 

[BlitzSnipe]

Vladimir (name) - Wikipedia

I remembered it to be Great Power and wiki confirmed. Go make the correction then.

Dude, Wikipedia can say all it wants. Don't you know that you can't just trust Wikipedia as a source? I'm telling that to you as a native speaker of Russian, and you can check a dictionary on what "mir" means. By the way, although Vlast (власть) means power, vlastvovat (властвовать, verb) means to reign, that's why it's "reigns in peace" for Vladimir.