World Cup Final: Sep 14 GDT - Finland vs. Canada

[Augustus]

Dude, everybody did their part, you can't have every individual scoring the big goal, the game is not about offence alone. They both played well and did what they had to do to help the team.

I think it fair criticism to say that Gagne and Heatley were not very useful players for Canada in this great Cup; both are talented and young and have bright futures in front of them. But neither played well in these six games.

 

[Hans Moleman]

I think it fair criticism to say that Gagne and Heatley were not very useful players for Canada in this great Cup; both are talented and young and have bright futures in front of them. But neither played well in these six games.

Which I find odd considering how well Heatley plays in the World Championships.

 

[SChan*]

Our first line was definately our worst line tonight.. they were absolutely horrible at the defensive end I'm very surprised to see Koivu on the all-star-team, he didn't reach his full potential (throughout the tournament), we saw the average-Saku not the ultimate hockey god-Saku we finns are used to see. Teemu... I just hope he wasn't 100% fit 'cause that couldn't have been Teemu at his best...
On the bright side: Our 2nd line was very good especially Olli and Tuomo. Jarkko Ruutu was excellent! Also Väänänen was quite solid throughout the tournament, he has developed a lot in a few years (<---a positive surprise for me).

Congats to Canada (my favourite team after Finland of course )

To all the Finns here : keep your heads up... at least we finished higher than Sweden!

seriously why is that every hockey country hates sweden

 

[s7ark]

I nominate Gagne and Heatley for the all-useless tourney team.

Both are deserving.

Heatley did cause the giveaway that led to Vinnies OT winner last game...

I think everyone did their part. Gange wasn't there for offense. He has that ability but he was there to add good backchecking to Richards and St.Louis who sometimes can be sloppy in their own zone...

There is no point in arguing know as to who was the worst on the team. Everyone was obviously good enough to win the tourney. So what if someone had some bad games (I actually thought Richards was brutal the last two games, but he was fabulous the games before that). The point is the team was still good enough to win. It's hard to argue with results....

 

[SChan*]

oh well congrats finland http://www.hfboards.com/showthread.php?t=103558

 

[mattihp]

Tonnikala surprised me in this tournament and at the moment looks a bit better than Salo to be our #2 defenseman after Timonen when Repo Man retires.

 

[P_L]

seriously why is that every hockey country hates sweden

Why not? give me a good reason.

 

[Thalia]

Great game! Of course the better team won eh.

Kinda was hoping for an OT victory b/c I didn't want the game/season to end so soon.

Glad CaNaDa won b/c I couldn't bear to watch Whine Gretzky cry if we lost. :lol

 

[teme]

Finns finally ran into a team they couldn't outwork. Congrats Canada.

Special mentions: Brodeaur pulling himself together in third (the wrist is still obviously not OK) and Eloranta for going after that puck knowing he was going to get slammed.

 

[chicpea*]

Hey thalia, good to see you're still around!

 

[s7ark]

seriously why is that every hockey country hates sweden

I don't. I quite like Sweden. Before recently they were my 2rd favorite hockey country. Finland passed them this year.

It just seems they have lost some of the passion for the game in recent years. They have prolly the second best talent in the world after Canada but just can't seem to bring themselves to care enough about winning. Back in 94 they were all heart in the Olympics. They seemed to give it all every shift.

I think they'll turn it around though Man Sweden has talent though... Scary

 

[spintheblackcircle]

For a guy that some folks thought shouldn't have been named, interesting how Hannan was out there the last 30 seconds for Canada.

Well done Canada. Easily deserving and quite the future ahead for them.

 

[SChan*]

canada has everything set for long term domination.

 

[God Bless Canada]

Another win for Canada! Further cemented our spot on top of the hockey world. It wasn't easy, but it shouldn't be easy. Finland was a very deserving opponent. This isn't the last we'll see of them. They're churning out great goalies at a pace that's only matched by Quebec. They're producing big, strong, fast, talented players who play a North American style of play. Kudos to Finland on their coming out party.

Back to Canada. We now have men's and women's Olympic gold, two men's world titles, multiple women's world titles, eight of nine U-18 World Cup titles and the World Cup. Have we ever had this much hardward. Five straight years with a WJC medal, we'll win gold this year if we get all our eligible talent.

A definite breakout for several players. Lecavalier and Thornton played the best hockey of their careers. Doan and Draper shut the nay-sayers up. Sakic was his usually reliable self. Lemieux hit and backchecked. Foote cemented his reputation as one of our best international defencemen ever. Niedermayer is one of hockey's all-time biggest winner. Hannan and Regher showed they can keep up.

Scary thing is this: if we go to the Olympics in 2006, almost this entire team could be back. Lemieux may not be around, and Maltby won't return, but with 13 forward spots, I saw 13 deserving forwards at this tournament. The future looks brilliant, too.

 

[Kravitch]

Much congrats to Finalnd indeed. They played with %110 heart and really wanted the 'W'. Finland was the only team to make me crap my pants! Even the game against the Czech's didn't scare me nearly as much as tonight did.

All of Finland should be very proud.

 

[SChan*]

I doubt the best will be in olympics 2006. It's in italy...

 

[chicpea*]

Foote cemented his reputation as one of our best international defencemen ever.

He was our best by far. Niedermeyer was somewhere near the other end.

 

[Augustus]

Scary thing is this: if we go to the Olympics in 2006, almost this entire team could be back. Lemieux may not be around, and Maltby won't return, but with 13 forward spots, I saw 13 deserving forwards at this tournament. The future looks brilliant, too.

Maltby? Do you mean Draper?

They sort of go together in my head also.

 

[Bubbles]

I think Lemieux will be back, it's only another year and a half till the Olympics in Turin, which would make him around 40(?) and with half of this season probably gone, he'll have lots of rest.

Morrow won't be back. I hope.

 

[Thalia]

Hey thalia, good to see you're still around!

Still here; really busy but never too busy to watch All-Star hockey.

I thought the Finns played an awesome tourny and I look forward to watching more of their players in the future.

Still, it's pretty hard to beat a team with likes of Lemieux, Sakic, (mvp imo) Iginla, Brodeur, Thornton, Foote and the kids from TB etc. *drool*

 

[Rob]

This game was good but I think the semi-final win over the Czechs will be considered the most memorable game. Lecavalier's overtime goal is the reason he was named MVP of the tournament.

 

[High flyin' Habs*]

This game was good but I think the semi-final win over the Czechs will be considered the most memorable game. Lecavalier's overtime goal is the reason he was named MVP of the tournament.

I agree. I also think the semi final was much better than the Final.

 

[BAuldie]

This game was good but I think the semi-final win over the Czechs will be considered the most memorable game. Lecavalier's overtime goal is the reason he was named MVP of the tournament.

The same can be said about 1996 and Canada vs Sweden.. was easily the best game of the tourny but its so oh so forgotten.

 

[Kravitch]

It's so nice that those painful memories of 1996 have FINALLY been vanquished!


Now, this Canuck fan here is awaiting the Vanquishing of those painful 1994 memories.

 

[Canuck21t]

Hope that Finish media gives Kipper the same treatment that Swedish media gave Tommi Salo.

Gee, don't forget Finland is playing Canada, not Belarus. You are underestimating us big time.