Team Finland rocks!
- Thread starter Evgeny Oliker
- Start date
- Status
Finland, Finland, Finland,
The country where I want to be,
Pony trekking or camping,
Or just watching TV.
Finland, Finland, Finland.
It's the country for me.
You're so near to Russia,
So far from Japan,
Quite a long way from Cairo,
Lots of miles from Vietnam.
Finland, Finland, Finland,
The country where I want to be,
Eating breakfast or dinner,
Or snack lunch in the hall.
Finland, Finland, Finland.
Finland has it all.
You're so sadly neglected
And often ignored,
A poor second to Belgium,
When going abroad.
Finland, Finland, Finland,
The country where I quite want to be,
Your mountains so lofty,
Your treetops so tall.
Finland, Finland, Finland.
Finland has it all.
Finland, Finland, Finland,
The country where I quite want to be,
Your mountains so lofty,
Your treetops so tall.
Finland, Finland, Finland.
Finland has it all.
Finland has it all!
The country where I want to be,
Pony trekking or camping,
Or just watching TV.
Finland, Finland, Finland.
It's the country for me.
You're so near to Russia,
So far from Japan,
Quite a long way from Cairo,
Lots of miles from Vietnam.
Finland, Finland, Finland,
The country where I want to be,
Eating breakfast or dinner,
Or snack lunch in the hall.
Finland, Finland, Finland.
Finland has it all.
You're so sadly neglected
And often ignored,
A poor second to Belgium,
When going abroad.
Finland, Finland, Finland,
The country where I quite want to be,
Your mountains so lofty,
Your treetops so tall.
Finland, Finland, Finland.
Finland has it all.
Finland, Finland, Finland,
The country where I quite want to be,
Your mountains so lofty,
Your treetops so tall.
Finland, Finland, Finland.
Finland has it all.
Finland has it all!
Some people may call me crazy, but I think, assuming that Kiprusoff isn't a one trick pony, this team has the second best depth in goaltending.
Kipper has been great all year, Toskala to me is the single most under-rated goaltender in the NHL, and Lehtonen is one of the (the top in some minds) top goaltending prospects in the world.
I'm very impressed by any of the three they can put between the pipes.
Kipper has been great all year, Toskala to me is the single most under-rated goaltender in the NHL, and Lehtonen is one of the (the top in some minds) top goaltending prospects in the world.
I'm very impressed by any of the three they can put between the pipes.
I like the looks of Finland, but I am a huge Finland homer... My family's heritage is from Finalnd (I am 25% Finn) and I went there once and it is truely a beautiful country. They don't have many big stars, just Selanne and Koivu as big names, yet they are tough. I hope they do good.
Teemu08 said:Aw man, put the two Ruutus and Nieminen on the same line. Name em the piss-off line
They better not, an opponent playing against that line runs the risk of murder. :lol
Das Rancor
Registered User
Padawan
Former power tripper
Is it just me but I don't think this Team Finland would go far. I just have a gut feeling about it and there's few players that really don't seem to fit to the team and Summanen, our head coach, had imo better options but he didn't take it. I may be wrong but I guess we will have to see the games to find out.
I think it's a pretty good team. Finland always proved that the key to winning is not a bunch of names on the paper, but the way they play together. And as a matter of fact the Finns always play well as a team. As usual Lehtinen-Koivu-Selanne line will get the job done offensively, and the rest of the team should provide some clutch/much needed scoring.
They can go far but every player needs to show a good effort every night.
They can go far but every player needs to show a good effort every night.
Padawan said:
It's not just you... we share the same gut feeling. It's not just that Jukka Hentunen, Esa Pirnes, Niko Kapanen, Ville Peltonen and Jere Karalahti (he'll be there eventually) are there to steal huge amounts of valuable ice time from the likes of Tuomo Ruutu, Olli Jokinen and Selänne ...or that fast and forechecking guys like Niklas Hagman, Tomi Kallio (or a fresh new name, a self confident youngster we could have seen) weren't picked ...or the fact that the coach, Raimo Summanen, is going to play with a physical strategy with an un-physical team... it's also that the mediocre performance in Salt Lake City is still too fresh in my memory.
Oh, did I mention anything about missing Janne Niinimaas name on the roster by the way...? :lol
ForsbergForever
Registered User
- May 19, 2004
- 3,322
- 2,040
I think their top line should be Jokinen-Koivu-Selanne, with Selanne going back to his old #13 so they could have Olli #12, Saku#11 and Temmu#13. The media could call it the sequential line or something like that, it would add some character and flash to the team.
What I like about Finland is that it's the perfect example that the "paper" means nothing. Nothing at all.
I mean they have like one top scoring line, and even if you look at the stars, Selanne has had a 30-point season!!!
No, I really like this team!!!
I mean they have like one top scoring line, and even if you look at the stars, Selanne has had a 30-point season!!!
No, I really like this team!!!
Preds666
Registered User
- Feb 27, 2002
- 7,325
- 363
wilka91 said:
while I agree that Finland can beat all teams in the tournament, your comment up there is something you should wait to post until after the tournament, no?
Perhaps their hardworking players etc will not be enough, and then in fact more offensively skilled forwards would have been needed.
Oh well..
Finland is usually very good at world championships and Euro tournaments but when it comes to, for example Olympic games or WC they don't show much. Seems like their team is not capable of dealing with teams with many stars. I think this tournament will be no difference and that's why I would rank them below RUS, SWE, CAN and CZE.
TORRUS said:
While I agree that Finland is far from the favorite, I think we've done relatively well in the Olympics and Canada/World Cups lately:
1988 OL 2nd
1992 OL 7th
1994 OL 3rd
1998 OL 3rd
2002 OL 5th
1991 CC 3rd/4th
1996 WC 5th
Nothing spectacular, but pretty decent IMO. Only 1992 and 1996 were years when Finland got severely outplayed by their opponents in the decisive game and 1992 was the only time we couldn't beat at least one of the "big 6/7" (we tied Sweden and were robbed against them later in the tournament though).
TORRUS said:
That's previously been because of laclustre goaltending..
Salt Lake - Hurme
Nagano - Myllys/Sulander
Before that - Sulander/Myllys/Ketterer/Tammi
Now Finland's going into this tournament with the hottest goalie in the NHL, a top notch NHL backup (Toskala) and the best player not in the NHL (Kari Lehtonen).
The old guard is stepping out -> Selänne, Numminen
The new guard is stepping in -> Tuomo Ruutu. Joni Pitkänen
I don't think Selänne will be Finlands star this time, it will be Ruutu isntead, he'll show everyone just what those 37 points in 37 games that he ended the season with were about..
Raimo Sillanpää said:
Ketterer tied Canada and led the team to semis in 1991, Myllys was nothing short of perfect in 1994, Sweden and Canada were beaten in the crease to reach bronze in 1998 and Hurme was as good as any goalie on earth against Russia and Canada in 2002 (and certainly couldn't have stolen the game against the States). I predict no improvement here compared to most tournaments in the past.
Laituri said:
Often you don't need perfection, but need 1 more save to do better.
Say Canada never scored the 2-0 goal, then Hagman ties it to 1-1 in Salt Lake?
Say Myllys stops a Bure breakway in Nagano?
The Czechs won in Nagano because Hasek refused to give the opposition that 1 more goal. When the Czechs led Canada 1-0, it took a massive barrage before Canada could tie it.
Finland with Myllys, woudn't have held that lead. Though bronze form Nagano was excellent, bar the USA game Hurme was excellent, (but in that Russia game, Russia was quite lacklustre)
In the USA game the team was bad, thjey were like Canada against sweden, none of the big ice tricks were there.. the states used the lack of a red-line, and Finland seemed stunned to realise that it wasn't there..
Those performaces were all good, but they were one notch lower than needed to be a serious contender.
Raimo Sillanpää said:
Ouch, please don't remind us of that horrible game, it hurts too much!
I almost felt ashamed of being a finn, although it was all Myllys fault... cause we deserved to win that game. It would have been such a big accomplishment in finnish ice hockey history.
Btw, I agree with Sillanpää here... about the difference now that we have good goalies. Because what hasn't been mentioned here yet is that if the defense knows you have a real good goalie.. well, its pretty obvious they can play with a lot more confidence. The defense always tend to play in a different way if they feel secure with the goaltender, with less desperation, and giving a lot more support to the offense.
Even though Myllys, Hurme etc played better than expected in those tournaments, I think the outcome would have been different with a more trusted goalie. Just look at Calgary right now, they play with a strategy that is based on Kipper only letting in only one or two goals... because they know that they can trust him.
I'd be fairly content with a Hasek in his prime still overachieving guarding the net, but all that doesn't matter because Kiprusoff won't play that well. The difference this generation can make will show only over many tournaments. The performance in this one won't look out of place among those in the past.
I do think that Summanen's most important task is to build a Flames-like cohesive defense system in front of Kiprusoff, but I don't see and I don't want to see some guardian angel standing behind them.
I do think that Summanen's most important task is to build a Flames-like cohesive defense system in front of Kiprusoff, but I don't see and I don't want to see some guardian angel standing behind them.
mikkoz
Registered User
Raimo Sillanpää said:
This time we don't have Niinimaa there giving opponent continious breakaways..
- Status
