WJC: Finland Coaching Staff Fired Mid-Tournament. Jussi Ahokas Now Coaching

[Phil McKraken]

Sweden has a much larger population. Finland is an incredible hockey country when you look at the population.

The Province of Ontario in Canada has just under 13 million inhabitants. All of Finland has about 5.5 million inhabitants. I'd say Finland is doing fine when you contrast the size of talent pools.

Finland actually has more registered hockey players than Sweden.

Finland 74 000
Sweden 60 000
http://www.iihf.com/iihf-home/the-iihf/survey-of-players/

 

[LoveNHL]

Sweden has a much larger population. Finland is an incredible hockey country when you look at the population.

The Province of Ontario in Canada has just under 13 million inhabitants. All of Finland has about 5.5 million inhabitants. I'd say Finland is doing fine when you contrast the size of talent pools.

The size of the population is irrelevant argument. India and China would be top nations if only size of the population matters.

 

[Hagged]

Finland actually has more registered hockey players than Sweden.

Finland 74 000
Sweden 60 000
http://www.iihf.com/iihf-home/the-iihf/survey-of-players/

Sweden has more U20 aged players. Over 40 year olds don't really help the talent pool.

 

[JJTT]

Finland actually has more registered hockey players than Sweden.

Finland 74 000
Sweden 60 000
http://www.iihf.com/iihf-home/the-iihf/survey-of-players/

Finland requires every beer league player to register as official player in the federations website. Sweden has a bit more junior players.

Senior

Finland 29,593
Sweden 13,954

Junior

Finland 38,607
Sweden 41,440

 

[Nate070]

If Finland is a top 4 country then why is Finland in the relegation round? Sweden is more constistent in the top.

The top 4 is Canada, USA, Russia and Sweden.

They still are the reigning world champs in both U18 and U20. Come back to me when Sweden does that.

 

[Lollipop]

They still are the reigning world champs in both U18 and U20. Come back to me when Sweden does that.

Once again, if Finland is a top 4 country then why is Finland in relegation round. Come back when Finland is constistent in the top.

 

[Jussi]

Finland actually has more registered hockey players than Sweden.

Finland 74 000
Sweden 60 000
http://www.iihf.com/iihf-home/the-iihf/survey-of-players/

No we don't. Sweden doesn't include rec players in their figure. They have more. They have 3000 more junior players as well.

 

[BB88]

Once again, if Finland is a top 4 country then why is Finland in relegation round. Come back when Finland is constistent in the top.

This is 1 tourney where we had a garbage coach and a goalie. We weren't even dominated in any of these games.

We have 5 17y kids on this roster in key roles, this team could be a contender again next year.

Juolevi, Heiskanen, Vaakanainen, Valimaki, Tolvanen, Vesalainen, Kuokkanen could all return next year.

 

[teravaineSAROS]

The size of the population is irrelevant argument. India and China would be top nations if only size of the population matters.

Are you even trying?

 

[teravaineSAROS]

Finland actually has more registered hockey players than Sweden.

Finland 74 000
Sweden 60 000
http://www.iihf.com/iihf-home/the-iihf/survey-of-players/

Yea numbers is only one factor. Sweden has a lot more arenas and a much better budget to work with which leads to better development opportunities per capita

Edit: also what JJTT and Jussi said about registered players.

 

[Tulipunaruusu*]

Yea numbers is only one factor. Sweden has a lot more arenas and a much better budget to work with which leads to better development opportunities per capita

Finland has over 200 ice halls? You need more ice halls to cover northern Lapland or what is the problem? Even really small towns have built ice halls as they would have built churches in the past.

Finnish ice hockey is placed number one in the picking order of sports and culture so I would not say it is so much of a monetary question as it how you use all that money. For example modern day SM-liiga is build to support the 16 professional teams in the country. Sweden has a league system of 14+14 which I think is far better for the competition and player production alone. This is supposed to be sports after all. Even after they sold the greatness of our league to more commercial interests.

Finland is not a top-5 country in global ice hockey because we possess great structure that supports our ice hockey but because Czech Republic or Slovakia do not have that benefit.

 

[teravaineSAROS]

Finland has over 200 ice halls? You need more ice halls to cover northern Lapland or what is the problem? Even really small towns have built ice halls as they would have built churches in the past.

Ever been to Lapland? I currently live in northern Sweden so I'm very aware of the differences between the two.

To put it this way: You don't need to read history to be able to tell 90% of Lapland got burned down in the Lapland war.

 

[Tulipunaruusu*]

To put it this way: You don't need to read history to be able to tell 90% of Lapland got burned down in the Lapland war.

Well that is great but have you ever travelled bit more south? Infrastructure, as in the number of ice arenas built, would be about the last thing holding Finnish ice hockey back.

Finland and Sweden are very comparable. Sweden is winning this one and Denmark is not doing that bad either.

 

[LoveNHL]

Yea numbers is only one factor. Sweden has a lot more arenas and a much better budget to work with which leads to better development opportunities per capita

Edit: also what JJTT and Jussi said about registered players.

You should also take into account sport rating. Hockey is no 1 in Finland. In sweden even second tier soccer is greater than hockey.

 

[teravaineSAROS]

Well that is great but have you ever travelled bit more south? Infrastructure, as in the number of ice arenas built, would be about the last thing holding Finnish ice hockey back.

Yea I have, it's obviously different there. I was strictly responding to the Lapland part.

 

[teravaineSAROS]

You should also take into account sport rating. Hockey is no 1 in Finland. In sweden even second tier soccer is greater than hockey.

Oh for sure. There's always a lot of cultural factors to these things.

 

[Hockeyfrilla]

You should also take into account sport rating. Hockey is no 1 in Finland. In sweden even second tier soccer is greater than hockey.

What's the 2nd most popular sport in Finland?

 

[Tulipunaruusu*]

What's the 2nd most popular sport in Finland?

Formula One racing.

 

[Confucius]

Once again, if Finland is a top 4 country then why is Finland in relegation round. Come back when Finland is constistent in the top.

This exactly. As has been stated before the nature of tournaments,, any country that qualifies can fluke out a victory. All it means you were the best that day. Nothing else. Do it consistently for a couple of decades.

 

[teravaineSAROS]

This exactly. As has been stated before the nature of tournaments,, any country that qualifies can fluke out a victory. All it means you were the best that day. Nothing else. Do it consistently for a couple of decades.

So you're able to use that argument without realising that missing the quarters one year ever is more of a fluke than winning 2 U20 golds and 1 U18 gold in 3 years?

the gold thing has a pattern to it...


I'll take the team that wins gold occasionally despite some losses than a team that's "meh" every year.

 

[Confucius]

So you're able to use that argument without realising that missing the quarters one year ever is more of a fluke than winning 2 U20 golds and 1 U18 gold in 3 years?

the gold thing has a pattern to it...

A fluke is a fluke, but yeah I do consider it a fluke Finland may not be considered a top 10 country. However I also considered it fluke that Finland actually thought they were the best for more than a day.

 

[teravaineSAROS]

A fluke is a fluke, but yeah I do consider it a fluke Finland may not be considered a top 10 country. However I also considered it fluke that Finland actually thought they were the best for more than a day.

Not sure if being consistently mellanmjölk is a thing to prefer in this case.

 

[QnebO]

Finland actually has more registered hockey players than Sweden.

Finland 74 000
Sweden 60 000
http://www.iihf.com/iihf-home/the-iihf/survey-of-players/

And one of them is me. We register everything, even below, yes, below 3rd div which is the lowest div there is tons of reg players, we registrer all 5 year old kids.

We should look at junior age group masses if something

 

[BusQuets]

A fluke is a fluke, but yeah I do consider it a fluke Finland may not be considered a top 10 country. However I also considered it fluke that Finland actually thought they were the best for more than a day.

Does this mean that Finland is the best Olympic hockey country ever(with pros) with 6 medals in 8 olympics? Since golds don't matter as much as consistency?

 

[RageQuit77]

Does this mean that Finland is the best Olympic hockey country ever(with pros) with 6 medals in 8 olympics? Since golds don't matter as much as consistency?

No, it doesn't mean "best", but consistency is rather good:

5 best on best olympics since: 1998 - 1 Silver, 3 Bronze
3 World Cups since 1996: 1 Silver

Only Canada has better medal record (in total amount of hardware) from these best on best tournaments.

Olympics: 3 Golds
World Cups: 2 Golds, 1 Silver