hannes_ko
Registered User
If one is only interested in NHL hockey, it might come as a suprise that Finnish people love Raimo Helminen and Ville Peltonen as much or more than Jari Kurri or Teemu Selänne. I think that not many North Americans even remember Helminen's NHL career and only few know about his international records. Ville Peltonen is known as a so-so third liner in bad NHL teams, I guess.
If one would ask all 5 million people in Finland which hockey player they admire most I think Helminen would take the crown. He would get great share of votes from those people who are not that much into hockey. I think Saku Koivu would finish second. He gets love from both general public and die hard hockey fans. Teemu would come third. He is loved by my generation (25-35 year old people), but a lot of people think he is too easy going and a bit of a show-off. Some are guite envious and hate Selänne for being famous, rich and just a great guy.
Ville Peltonen would push for the third place and finish fourth. 1995 is a year us Finns will never forget. Ville scored the hat trick to win us our only Championship and that alone will be enough to finish above Jari Kurri. Kurri's problem is that he did his heroics in 80's back when most Finns would not get to see any of that action. He didn't play that much international games and you just can't win Finnish hearts with NHL goals alone.
Then there's of course Juti, our captain Timo Jutila. Great share of Finnish hockey fans hate his guts nowadays, but common man still thinks he's nothing less than a national hero.
Guys like Teppo Numminen and Jere Lehtinen are respected by the hard core hockey fans but have always been more in the background. Players like Jere Karalahti and Jarkko Immonen have cult status or huge local fan base, but can't compete with the big guys. Karalahti is mostly notorious, he is recognized and more of a tabloid celebrity than any other Finnish hockey player. Miikka Kiprusoff we just don't know and Olli Jokinen is more hated than loved.
Matti Hagman, Matti Keinonen, Aarne Honkavaara, Veli-Pekka Ketola and other stars form previous generations would get their share of the votes, but people tend to forget former greats.
So, how is it in Sweden, Russia, Czech and Slovakia? Would Jörgen Jönsson beat Daniel Alfredsson? Is Alexei Morozov more loved than Ilya Kovalchuck? Czech had great national teams in 1996 forwards, I bet some of the players in those teams are more loved than the others. In Slovakia the 2002 gold medal squad must be gods.
If one would ask all 5 million people in Finland which hockey player they admire most I think Helminen would take the crown. He would get great share of votes from those people who are not that much into hockey. I think Saku Koivu would finish second. He gets love from both general public and die hard hockey fans. Teemu would come third. He is loved by my generation (25-35 year old people), but a lot of people think he is too easy going and a bit of a show-off. Some are guite envious and hate Selänne for being famous, rich and just a great guy.
Ville Peltonen would push for the third place and finish fourth. 1995 is a year us Finns will never forget. Ville scored the hat trick to win us our only Championship and that alone will be enough to finish above Jari Kurri. Kurri's problem is that he did his heroics in 80's back when most Finns would not get to see any of that action. He didn't play that much international games and you just can't win Finnish hearts with NHL goals alone.
Then there's of course Juti, our captain Timo Jutila. Great share of Finnish hockey fans hate his guts nowadays, but common man still thinks he's nothing less than a national hero.
Guys like Teppo Numminen and Jere Lehtinen are respected by the hard core hockey fans but have always been more in the background. Players like Jere Karalahti and Jarkko Immonen have cult status or huge local fan base, but can't compete with the big guys. Karalahti is mostly notorious, he is recognized and more of a tabloid celebrity than any other Finnish hockey player. Miikka Kiprusoff we just don't know and Olli Jokinen is more hated than loved.
Matti Hagman, Matti Keinonen, Aarne Honkavaara, Veli-Pekka Ketola and other stars form previous generations would get their share of the votes, but people tend to forget former greats.
So, how is it in Sweden, Russia, Czech and Slovakia? Would Jörgen Jönsson beat Daniel Alfredsson? Is Alexei Morozov more loved than Ilya Kovalchuck? Czech had great national teams in 1996 forwards, I bet some of the players in those teams are more loved than the others. In Slovakia the 2002 gold medal squad must be gods.
, yeah he's high up on the popularity list. It was much higher in his prime but he's still a pretty iconic figure for US hockey. Same goes with Leetch and Chelios who are both rightfully regarded as legends of US hockey. Mullen I don't recall ever reaching a huge popularity like the others.
