World Cup of Hockey '04

[Serb]

USA!!!USA!!!USA!!!

[Pekka]

we'll see if it works... tonight! very very late at night.. should be fireworks. I see Kasparaitis manhandling few murricans, and it'll be a hot game for sure. But even though they're old, they still have fire in them, and they're now facing Russia again in the same tourney so it's a lot more difficult to defeat them again, and they'll be playing in their home arena. I think it all depends on how the US starts the game, how strong they'll be form the beginning, and if they can't score fast enough and take at least 2 goal decisive lead, in the second Russia will turn it upside down.

[Flubber]

It should be tough for the Russians to defeat the Americans twice but I think they might do it. It may depend how the Americans react to the Brett Hull controversy. I believe the Russians are more talented but the Americans are experienced and it all comes down to who handles the pressure better

[Pekka]

Sweden better step up, 6 minutes left in the opening period and Czechs already leading 2-0 and dominating the neutral zone as well as their offensive zone...

[Flubber]

Any comment on this story Pekka??

Source is http://www.wch04.com/countries/fin/notebook090604.html






Turmoil-ridden Finns will take win
By Risto Pakarinen
Special to WCH04.com
Sept. 6, 2004



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HELSINKI -- One down, two to go.

They say hockey is the fastest sport on Earth, but like life itself, the ultimate extreme sport, can be even faster. Forty eight hours before Monday's quarterfinal against Germany, Finland had clinched the top seed position in the European division, and head coach Raimo Summanen was on top of the world.

Twenty hours later, defenseman Janne Niinimaa had left the team, citing "chemistry problems" with the coach as the reason and 15 hours from that, the rumour around the press center was Summanen might not even show up behind the bench and that there was a revolt in the making on the Finnish team, with several players ready to call it quits.

Well, the coach showed up.

The team? They kind of showed up, eliminating the Germans, 2-1, in a game that wasn't expected to be that close based on Finland's success in the tournament.

Monday's Finland-Germany quarterfinal game in the World Cup was a game of halves.

A half-full arena witnessed a half-hearted Finland play half a game and beat Germany. The level of play was only OK, but it was good enough to take Finland to the semifinals. But if that's the best they can do, the semifinal will be their final game in the tournament for the Finns.

It was as if the halfway point of the game was some sort of a wake-up call for the players. First, Olli Jokinen scored a goal at the 10-minute mark, but it was disallowed for obstruction. Half a minute later, Kimmo Timonen and Niko Kapanen set up Niklas Hagman to score a goal.

And they then went back into their funk. Saku Koivu called it one of the worst games he's played with Team Finland. Only Miikka Kiprusoff's goaltending kept Finland on top of the game.

After Marco Sturm's goal for Germany, the 8,000 people in the stands had to hold their breath for about two and half minutes until Mikko Eloranta deflected Timonen's slap shot past German goalie Olaf Kolzig.

Related Links

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Team Finland roster
World Cup of Hockey 2004
Chat about the World Cup



Exhale.

"The first three games had been preparation for tonight's game, and it's a totally different situation in a playoff game," Summanen said. "It's all mental and that's why this was a huge win. I am very proud of the team.

"It was a weird game, we didn't get our skating going and couldn't even dump the puck and instead gave a lot of turnovers in the neutral zone. But that's the way it is when the stakes are high and the other team plays like Germany tonight."

"We knew it'd be a tough game when they play the trap, and we just didn't have enough speed in our game. However, we have played one perfect game, against the Czechs, so we know we have it in us," said Timonen who set up both of Finland's goals. He is also Finland's leading scorer thus far.

"This is an important tournament for me, to be able to play against the best of the best," he said. "We knew it was in everybody's interests to win tonight, but Germany played well tonight. It's not easy to get through their five-man defense waiting on the blue line. We knew it'd be close, but not that it would be that close."

Obviously, Niinimaa leaving the team and the media attention around it had shaken up Team Finland.

"Hockey is a big thing here and if the same thing happened in Montreal, it would be all over the papers there, too," Koivu said. "The game against the Swedes was very emotional and then there was the [Niinimaa] incident, so we just weren't prepared to play tonight."

He didn't want to speculate more about Niinimaa.

What happened within the team, stays with the team," he said.

Notes -- Germany out-shot Finland 28-24. ... Finland will play the lowest remaining seed in the North American pool in the semifinals. ... Finland travels to Toronto tomorrow, getting ready for the next game.

[Flubber]

errr and Serb-- I appreciate you don't want to jinx things but I think that Russia deserves at least the same chance as anyone else in the poll. Given the results to date, any thinking that says Slovakia has more of a chance of winning this thing than Russia is just dead wrong ( and a good example of what you get with small sample sizes and a skewed pool-- although actually the lack of much stronger voting for the US is, to me, a sign that people were voting based on the teams and not merely from blind nationalism)

[Kassiopeia]

Summanen is provoking a lot of discussion in the local media, yes. They say his style is too aggressive to some players, with insults going down to the personal level. He's also unpredictable, lashing out at people for going solo even if it has paid off well, and having "favourites" inside the team whom he won't criticize half as fiercely.

Also, someone leaving the team in the middle of a tournament is very, very unheard of here, this is the first time AFAIK. The Finnish attitude is "we'll do what we must and sort it out later", this flies directly in the face of it, meaning something's really not right.

Word has it that the Finnish ice hockey organization has been planning sacking him ever since Niinimaa left, but those are mostly rumours. Probably the org will want to leave him be for the tournament and see what happens. That lucky 2-1 goal against Germany probably saved Summanen from a lot of trouble.

[Pekka]

Flubber, it's REALLY difficult to know where the truth is. The tabloids here are making lot of headlines, but they aren't exactly known for their journalistic abilities.

I guess it's true though, that Niinimaa and Summanen do have bad chemistry, and Summanen is a passionate coach who also gives you the negative feedback pretty properly, meaning there are no words saved. I feel that Niinimaa is a professional, and should take it like a man. Then again, I don't know how far Summanen went with his words with Niinimaa. SO it's difficult to say. One thing is for sure, the tabloids didn't respect the team to let it slide until the tournament is over, but started stirring some crap and this affects the team negatively.

As Kassi says, no one has ever left a team, so this is first time in here so it also is heavy in that way. But, the tabloids have made it stupid now already. That's for sure. They could pull these stories when they have done playing in this tourney.

[Pekka]

Czechs win 6-1.. the turned many 2 on 1 and scored. Oh well. At least we are still a go .

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Pekka
Czechs win 6-1..

This does not exactly suprise me-- I said all along the Czechs were a team to worry about. It appears they are back. Looking ahead

Finland plays the lowest remaining seed from North America -- Slovakia if the Slovaks win or the winner of Russia/USA.

Czechs get the highest remaining seed-- Canada if Canada wins or the winner of USA/Russia.


Personally I believe that Canada should get past the Slovaks and then will face a very very tough test against the Czechs.

I predict Finland will lose to the winner of Russia/USA-- -- Sorry pekka-- take it for what its worth-- a prediction from an often-wrong fan

[Chemical Ollie]

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[Kassiopeia]

Originally posted by Chemical Ollie
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I'd imagine this will rank up right there alongside the game Sweden lost to Belorussia in the Salt Lake City Olympics?

As far as I am concerned Finland's tournament is over, we've bested Sweden and that's all we need. Edit: http://www.aftonbladet.se/ - "Outclassed and booed out."

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Kassiopeia


I'd imagine this will rank up right there alongside the game Sweden lost to Belorussia in the Salt Lake City Olympics?

Nope--getting eliminated by Belarus was a huge shock-- getting whipped by a good czech team that had underperformed for a little while is no shock at all

Originally posted by Kassiopeia


As far as I am concerned Finland's tournament is over, we've bested Sweden and that's all we need.

I hope the players take that attitude if Canada gets to face them

[Serb]

As George W. Bush always says- we were f*cked.


Untill next time then.

[Pekka]

Yeah pretty much Czechs are super team, so it's not a surprise they won. I think it was surprising how easily they won. I think Sweden didn't score early enough, and they built up pressure from that very fast in their home arena, and didn't have good goalie to make the crucial saves, and then they had to open up their play to get more scoring chances, which ultimately turned against them because of the skill of Czechs and their devastating 2 on 1's.

Serb, yeah too bad for Russia. It was a good game though. Tkachuck was able to score 4 and that was it. We faced simular fate playing against Russia in last World Cup, Pavel Bure scored 5(!) himself, and we ended up losing it like 7-5 or something like that.. he had 5 breakaways, and scored every single one. Very frustrating to watch.

Well, so we're facing the US, unless Slovakia wins Canada, which is highly unlikely to happen because of the solid game of Canada, I mean Canada won't collapse SO bad, and Slovakia has weak defense and goalie, so their offensive lines are not able to make that kind of impact against Brodeur and their defense.

I feel we have good chances against the US. SUre, they are the favourites. But we had 2 horrible games, both against Germany, when we were the favourites. We always play good as underdogs, plus there won't be ANY attitude problems. Preparations should be 110% and not like last time with Germany.

We play close to the way Canadians play, and if we succeed in AGGRESSIVE forechecking, which has been kind of... we haven't done it enough, but against Czechs we did some of that stuff and it worked good, so if we are able to continue that and be aggressive enough in the physical play, I say US is in for a long night. I know they are not able to take our speed away, but we might be able to takei their speed away. I just hope it happens. We should play with confidence, little arrogance, and extremely physical and aggressive and hit it where it hurts and surprise the US team. We do have the better goalie, US plays a game that allows us good offensive, as they don't play like Swedes or Germany, it really opens up lot of scoring chances for us, just like Canada did to them, and we hope to capitalize on that and keep our defense rock solid and help Kipper as much as possible.

Basically, I think we should put the pressure on oldie US defense lines, and force them to make mistakes and do quick overturns in the neutral zone and their defensive zone with aggressive forechecking and 2 man waves supporting. Little risk playing so arrogantly, but it should pay off.

US has no chances.