scholl
Registered User
I think Columbus will be a top 3 team in Finland
I don't think so. NHL isn't so popular in Finland at the moment compared to for example those times when Selänne was popular but those who follow the game, have mostly already chosen a team to support. Then if we consider potential new fans who are growing up, there are kind of so many other interesting sports that are also popular and in hockey the national team and Liiga teams dominate. Therefore it's very difficult to make a team popular here unless it starts to win Stanley Cups and gets more coverage. Dallas and Carolina currently have that kind of potential because they have several Finnish players and have played quite well. I don't see how Columbus could be popular in Finland in a short term because most people don't even know that a city called Columbus exists. It's probably with Ottawa the most EVVK team right now. The most popular teams in Finland are those ones that have been around for a long time. They either had Finnish players and succeeded or had players like Gretzky or Lemieux that everyone in the hockey world followed. Even Red Wings with that Russian style of play attracted a lot of people to follow them because it was based on skill. It requires quite a lot to get things to change and people suddenly to start to follow a new team.
The problem with Laine is that he hasn't done anything yet that makes him really popular in Finland. He needs to win World Championships or Olympic medal or something like that or at least to dominate the goal scoring statistics in the NHL for a longer period of time. It's not enough that he is fighting for that no. 1 spot for a season and then scores less goals in the following seasons. Especially in this situation where there are so many other Finnish players who do well like Rantanen, Aho, Heiskanen, Teräväinen, Barkov etc. and the national team wins medals and championships based on the team, not individuals. In this situation one player doesn't have a monopoly situation when it comes to fame like it was when Kurri or Selänne played. Especially now when games aren't in Free-TV and they are played at night, the NHL teams don't get very much publicity here. People might know that Laine has scored goals but they don't know whether Winnipeg has done well or not.
For Laine it'd be the wisest choice to move to Florida because Barkov is one of his closest friends, Miami is a destination with flights from Finland, which means that families can have holidays together there when boys or dads want to watch NHL games and they also have a jersey with a nice logo that kids like. In addition to that he likes to play golf and enjoys driving sports cars like also Selänne does. So he would enjoy his life in a warmer climate. In Winnipeg he is just bored because there is nothing to do that he likes to do.