WC: Artyukhin: Prepare for Glory

[broman]

Apart from Ruutu, more or less, Finns aren't dirty players. I remember Russian commentators being very impressed with Granlund. And Leo Kamarov (with his Russian last name). Don't think there is much hate for Finns at all.

Now the Czechs...

My entirely unscientific opinion is that casual hockey observers tend to regard Finns as a hard-checking, hard-working, play-by-the-rules kind of a team that is basically punching above its weight, what with being a tiny nation on the edge of the world, etc. Lutherans On Ice, if you like. Everybody loves the underdog, even so that it's difficult to build up real hatred when you're playing one.