World Cup of Hockey '04

[Tingkai]

When I played street hockey as a kid , there would always be a car coming by every once in a while. So if you saw a car, you'd yell CAR and the game would pause, you'd move to the side of the street, the player with the ball would keep possession. After the car would go by, someone would yell, GAME ON.

Years later in Hong Kong, if I'm with a bunch of Canadians and I want to get their attention, all I have to do is yell CAR, and everyone freezes and looks.

[Pekka]

AAAH NOW I get what you meant.. YEAH, absolutely.. we yelled CAR too and game stopped. Yeah, weird I didn't get what you meant first. Yeah we had exactly same rule and words.

Funny though, street hockey really is good for you if you're developing as a young player. On asphalt, it's little different game to handle a ball or what ever you have, it's a lot more difficult, adn when you run etc, it's pretty difficult to get passed someone, so you develop great stick handling plus also we allowed contact (I mean moderate, but you know how it is with hard headed kids, it always gets too rough at some point), so it really prepares you good, you get a lot tougher too. When you give and take checks without protective gear, fly to the gutter and asphalts, you're good to go in rink. Of course no running and checking someone, more like few steps and check type things. So you can't overrun people.

We'd play so long, that we couldn't even see the ball it was so dark and it would get lost even when there weren't many places it could even go. But that was the power politics of those times, who you play with etc. Also I had this friend who lived on the same street (everyone who played in our games were from the same streets, we wouldn't even allow anyone else to come, even if they were our friends, no one could play except us in our game, it didn't even matter if you had too few guys to play, and some other guy wanted to come in to make the game so everyone can play, no no no.. then they just resulted doing something else)... and we'd play a lot adn we developed great chemistry, so it carried to the rink as well.

We were so fired up playing, it got heated up sometimes, and just imagine like 10 year olds rolling on asphalt and shouting insults, we were swearing like sailors so the adults would open their front doors 'STOP SWEARING!'

[Pekka]

Did you ever draft players like 'I'm Gretzky!' 'No you were Gretzky last time! It's my turn!' 'Ok I'm... Yzerman!'... And then we'd imitate their moves and style. And when someone was dominating too much on one day, there was alwyas the excuse 'well you got to be Gretzky!'. We didn't get NHL on TV those days, but we read every magazine so it was like a whole study area back then, and we'd compare knowledge, it was huge competition. It was hockey 24/7.

[Ben Kenobi]

Yeah, I used to play on a ball hockey team.

First two years we played, I ended up being the goalie.

I did okay, but my worst moment is when the puck got flipped towards me, and I had no clue that the puck was even heading my way.

I have rather poor vision, (but good style), so I had no defense against a puck I couldn't see, and it went into the net.

Everybody wanted me off the team, but when no one else stepped forward to be the goalie, I got to stay.

The year following, we did much better, and I got to play as a checking forward. (given that I'm all of 5'6'' and maybe 135 lbs, that's ludicrous. Didn't have an assist until the final game, which won us the championship let alone a goal.

[Flubber]

Game day

In honor of Kipper, I am cheering for Finland. . .. but I still fear that the Americans will pull it out


" CAR" That brings back memories.

wasn't there even a Canadian beer commericial where an impromtu street hockey game broke out and there was a call of "CAR"

Our street also had a little brook next to it -- water only about a foot deep and no more 3 feet wide-- we had special rules for that as well --- sometimes we played in a big meadow but it was a lot harder to shoot

Our biggest fights were before we had nets and we used two rocks--- was the shot was "in" or "over the post" ?

[Fake Boris]

I feel torn today... an American defeat would be satisfying, and thus I could be hoping for a Finnish victory... otoh, it would be cool if we served America a lesson on our own...

[Pekka]

Flubber, oh yeah, the rocks.. or how about 'our goal is wider than yours!!11'.

Everyone who doesn't cheer for Finland is a bad person. We are doing our best, and hopefully we can get our best game so we can see how we pair up with the best of the US. I just hope we bring A-game. If we lose, we lose, I just want our team to play hard and with passion, and give their best and not some lazy BS.

4th line changes, J.Ruutu-Hahl-Nemo .. That's like 2 of our biggest bastard in the same line ... I can guess who is playing against this line.. it has to be Tkachuk-Modano-Guerin.. Guerin and Tkachuk will lose their nerves with these guys, and that's exactly what we want them to do, because then they are not scoring, but chasing them. I want them to chase our guys rather than play hockey.

It'll be exciting! I'm really hyped and fired up.

[Pekka]

I think we will be strong, fast, aggressive and hopefully euphoric through getting some luck and good vibes, effort being paid off.

What US team doesn't understand is how much this means to us. Of course this means a lot to ANY team to be playing in top 4 for the best tournament quality of the world. It's huge. But, for our team, this is bigger than life. The country is behind them. We support them and want them to do their best. They know they won't get a bad rap if they lose. They know they will be living legends if they win. For us, this is the number one sport. Chance of a lifetime. Let me quote Teemu Selänne from the official WCH website:

So, how big will it be exactly, Teemu?

"It'll be like summer carnival in Rio," said Selanne. "This is important for us as a country especially after the Olympics; we were so bad. We're a small country, so we are like a big family and this is very important."

And this is true. When they won 95 world champs, and 100 000 people gathered to Helsinki to celebrate. Now, 5 million people, 100 000 comes to celebrate in Helsinki. That's a lot from our perspective, and nothing else has ever drawn people EVER to the streets like this. But its' only world champ games, think about this, this is a whole lot bigger... I have the arrogance to say we want this more. We appreciate this more. And if we are able to execute teh strategy well, we will take it tonight.

There are no Finns in the crowd tonight, but even our magazines have doctors tips how to be able to stay up a night so that you can watch the game, starting 2AM our time. Anyone who I asked is going to stay up and watch this game LIVE. Even my father, who always goes to sleep like 10-11PM. No way we're going to miss this live, even though rerun starts 7.00AM. Everyone will watch this and our country is up this time. The bars will be empty. It's huge. The biggest thing in when it comes to sports, bigger than Olympics. This is it, this is our time, this is our day, and we will run over the yanks!

[Chemical Ollie]

Originally posted by Pekka
I think we will be strong, fast, aggressive and hopefully EU -phoric

GO, Lions GO! You are the only hope we have left!!!

[Pekka]

Chemical Ollie, thanks for your support ..

WEll, we have everything to gain, and they have everything to lose being defending champs. The team seems to be rather happy and excited than afraid the offensive power of the US team. That's a great sign, it promises relaxed and 'happy' hockey, we'll see how it goes.....

Also the team today talked about things we never hear our teams talk. Like 'we believe' and stuff like that.. they even have a running theme that is 'our day'. The philosophy goes, 'if we can make this our day, we can beat anyone'. So it's just a matter of making it our day. They seem to be really happy and charged up, like little kids. This is the best sign before game I have ever seen from our team. But then again, we'll see how they play. I hope they play good, even if they drop out.

[Flubber]

Time to head home and get ready to see the game


GOOOO KIPPPPPEEERRRRRRRR

[Pekka]

!!!!!

I'm heading to my friends house in.. 15 minutes to watch the game

[Asher]

I'm in Waterloo w/o a TV, so I'm just watching the tsn.ca "live scoreboard"...

2-1 Finland in the third.

[Asher]

2-1 Final, USA is Eliminated.

Kipper. Niemenen with a point.

[Pekka]

So Tingkai.. Nemo is useless aye?

He didn't do much dirty, and he gave few bombs too, big hits. We were down 0-1 and then in the third turned it 2-1. I'd also like to say, physical game, we DOMIANTED AND OWNED! The 'tough' guys were picking up their gear as we gave soem big hits So they lost that game too

Now Canada do your job and see you in the finals!