212 replies to this topic

[Drake_Marcus]

Finnish players have more heart and they work harder.

Start wearing goofy suits made from old curtains and you're well on your way to becoming the Finnish Cherry.

[Finnish Wing]

To me, and apparently most of the other posters in this thread, saying Finland hockey is not a sufficient way to refer to the Finnish national team. Most of the people here (and in NA as a whole) focus on the NHL more than international play. Therefore, a reference to Finnish hockey is taken into context as players in the NHL or the development leagues there. Communication is only clear if others perceive it to be.

What star players did the US World Championship team have? Backstrom, Selanne, Koivu's, Hagman, Flip, etc are all top-two line players in the NHL that played in the 2010 Olympics. Finland also has some of the best goalies in the world. Please don't act like Finland has the talent of the Swiss when they are clearly superior to most of the teams at IIHF events. The US has recently made great strides in developing teams for the IIHF junior (U20, U18) events and it is showing in the results.

Have you ever played organized hockey? Please don't assume that the US is not at a disadvantage when their players play in the IIHF events irregularly. The European countries (the rosters iced at non-olympic events) spend much more time playing as a team. This is an advantage, as team-work>skill when the skill difference is small. The larger ice presents a disadvantage to the players and coaches. There is a different style of play, and the adjustment period is likely longer than the few practices the NA teams have. The US has the advantage of skill on paper, but the European teams have ice-size, practice time, team-work, etc on their side. These should not be overlooked. Please do not correlate under-performance and heart. Saying that Finnish players have more heart than US players is too overarching and incorrect (ignorant). You can make specific examples (for both sides), but please refrain from these unprovable blanket statements.

If you would like to continue this discussion, please feel free to PM me or start a new thread. Also, HFBoards has a section for this type of debate. http://hfboards.com/...display.php?f=4 I think we have derailed this topic too much with our banter.

Did I say "Finland hockey"? No. I said Finland and USA.

If I say Finland plays like this and USA plays like that and Germany plays like that how am I not referring to the national teams? To what am I referring then? I think the international games show perfectly what kinda identities different countries have. Czechs don't play like Canada in the international games because they've got different type of players. It may change slightly when the players or coach change, but the identity stays there still. Finland has always have much common with Canada in their style of play.

Please don't act like Saku Koivu or Niklas Hagman is a STAR. You obviously know that USA has much better material on the paper. There's no need to even argue that. Hagman and Saku Koivu wouldn't even make the USA team. I doubt Selanne would either. Also, like I said there can only be one goalie in the net at a time so having depth there won't help much in international tournaments.

How has team Finland any more time to practice than Team USA? Anyway, to blame the ice-size isf****** ridiculous. You lose to Germany and Denmark and go to the qualifying games with the best material of the group. Of course the ice-size matters but it doesn't matter much at all when looking at the big picture. If we compare Team Finland and Team USA the ice-size is pretty small advantage when you think about the material of Team USA. And no matter how big the ice is, it's pretty pathetic that Team USA is qualifying.

well name me off some hard-working Finnish plays with an infinite amount of heart and effort bud.

"So you're saying that guys like Mikko Koivu, Saku Koivu, Tuomo Ruutu and Teemu Selanne have less heart than Brett Lebda?"

Start wearing goofy suits made from old curtains and you're well on your way to becoming the Finnish Cherry.

You know that in that sentence by "Finnish players" I meant "players of Team Finland". I can't find any other major reason for Finland playing better than USA in international games for the past years than working hard and having more heart.

I'd also like to add that there are only TWO countries in the world where ice-hockey is the number one sport. The other is Canada...

Edited by Finnish Wing, 23 May 2010 - 07:22 PM.

[Bring Back The Bruise Bros]

Did I say "Finland hockey"? No. I said Finland and USA.

If I say Finland plays like this and USA plays like that and Germany plays like that how am I not referring to the national teams? To what am I referring then? I think the international games show perfectly what kinda identities different countries have. Czechs don't play like Canada in the international games because they've got different type of players. It may change slightly when the players or coach change, but the identity stays there still. Finland has always have much common with Canada in their style of play.

Please don't act like Saku Koivu or Niklas Hagman is a STAR. You obviously know that USA has much better material on the paper. There's no need to even argue that. Hagman and Saku Koivu wouldn't even make the USA team. I doubt Selanne would either. Also, like I said there can only be one goalie in the net at a time so having depth there won't help much in international tournaments.

How has team Finland any more time to practice than Team USA? Anyway, to blame the ice-size isf****** ridiculous. You lose to Germany and Denmark and go to the qualifying games with the best material of the group. Of course the ice-size matters but it doesn't matter much at all when looking at the big picture. If we compare Team Finland and Team USA the ice-size is pretty small advantage when you think about the material of Team USA. And no matter how big the ice is, it's pretty pathetic that Team USA is qualifying.

"So you're saying that guys like Mikko Koivu, Saku Koivu, Tuomo Ruutu and Teemu Selanne have less heart than Brett Lebda?"

"Haha.So Brett Lebda is the basic American player in your opinion?You're so frikin stupid that its not worth the time to try to even argue with you."

[WorkingOvertime]

Did I say "Finland hockey"? No. I said Finland and USA.

If I say Finland plays like this and USA plays like that and Germany plays like that how am I not referring to the national teams? To what am I referring then? I think the international games show perfectly what kinda identities different countries have. Czechs don't play like Canada in the international games because they've got different type of players. It may change slightly when the players or coach change, but the identity stays there still. Finland has always have much common with Canada in their style of play.

Please don't act like Saku Koivu or Niklas Hagman is a STAR. You obviously know that USA has much better material on the paper. There's no need to even argue that. Hagman and Saku Koivu wouldn't even make the USA team. I doubt Selanne would either. Also, like I said there can only be one goalie in the net at a time so having depth there won't help much in international tournaments.

How has team Finland any more time to practice than Team USA? Anyway, to blame the ice-size isf****** ridiculous. You lose to Germany and Denmark and go to the qualifying games with the best material of the group. Of course the ice-size matters but it doesn't matter much at all when looking at the big picture. If we compare Team Finland and Team USA the ice-size is pretty small advantage when you think about the material of Team USA. And no matter how big the ice is, it's pretty pathetic that Team USA is qualifying.

As I said, if you would like to debate this further with me, please start a new thread or PM me. You've dug yourself a hole by saying, and attempting to defend, that Finish hockey is more like Canadian hockey than US hockey is. The consequential jump to saying US players have less heart is particularly ignorant/offensive as it was an overarching and overreaching statement. You are entitled to your opinion, but you won't find many people who will agree with you on this point. Lets try to keep this topic on Huds, and debate international hockey elsewhere.

[Finnish Wing]

As I said, if you would like to debate this further with me, please start a new thread or PM me. You've dug yourself a hole by saying, and attempting to defend, that Finish hockey is more like Canadian hockey than US hockey is. The consequential jump to saying US players have less heart is particularly ignorant/offensive as it was an overarching and overreaching statement. You are entitled to your opinion, but you won't find many people who will agree with you on this point. Lets try to keep this topic on Huds, and debate international hockey elsewhere.

That's mostly because there are more American than Finnish people on this planet.

I can say I haven't dugged any holes recently. If you've watched international games for the last 20 years you'd see that USA have played no where near to where they should when you look at the material and the biggest reason have been lack of working hard enough.

Anyway, that first post was a reply to a post which said that "there is only European and North American" hockey - meaning that hockey in Finland and hockey in Czech Rep. is all basically same - which is total bulls***. Team USA doesn't play as well as a team as Team Finland does and they don't defend as good as Team Finland does.

USA is only 6th at the world rankings (Finland being 4th and 3rd before the latest tournament). Their material is top3 however. What is the biggest reason for playing under expectations if it's not working hard enough? Size of the rink? International rules? Bad luck? Those sound more like excuses to me.

Many times I see the Team USA play they remind me of the good ol' times when they used to just come to WC to have a nice vacation in Europe. It just somehow shows that hockey isn't as big there as it is in Finland or Canada. To me it's lack of heart.

[Zeowingsfan]

How the hell did this go from Hudler to Finnish players?

[Tr!PoD#19]

How the hell did this go from Hudler to Finnish players?

Finnish Wing being a ****** homer, as he usually is.

[Bring Back The Bruise Bros]

How the hell did this go from Hudler to Finnish players?

Dumbass from Finland made a comment about American hockey which we,naturally,took offense too.

[Finnish Wing]

Finnish Wing being a ****** homer, as he usually is.

Had this been a Finnish hockey forum, I think there would be most people agreeing with what I said.

Dumbass from Finland made a comment about American hockey which we,naturally,took offense too.

I'm sorry. Hockey just isn't as big there as it is in here. Hockey doesn't mean as nearly as much to Americans as it means to Finns.

[Bring Back The Bruise Bros]

Had this been a Finnish hockey forum, I think there would be most people agreeing with what I said.

I'm sorry. Hockey just isn't as big there as it is in here. Hockey doesn't mean as nearly as much to Americans as it means to Finns.

Of course a Finnish forum would agree with you,but this isn't a Finnish forum,is it?

[Opie]

How much heart was shown by the USA in these past Olympics?

Just admit you made a slip of the fingers on your keyboard.

You call people out for saying Ollie is the representative of Finnish heart, and then yourself use Lebda, well lets see how many more international games does Ollie have under his belt compared to Lebda? Who is more of a representative of Hockey for their country?

You listed what 5 Finnish players with Heart, and one of the Koivu brothers I would say has part time heart, but that is my opinion.

I can list 5 US born players under the age of 25 with heart, I get your per capita argument but that is just a shovel you are trying to use to dig out of your hole.

OH BTW you definitely dug yourself a hole!

Are you sure you would have more supporters on a Finnish board, as it is I don't see many Finnish fans coming to your aid here!

Your statement was a blanket statement that you should have used qualifiers on, you didn't now you look like DRW02(for the old school LGWers) and Mindfly, admit you made a dumb statement, happens to the best of us and the worst of us!

Back on Topic,

I welcome Huds back with open arms, he will provide secondary scoring which was sorely lacking at times this season.

I think he and Holland both knew something along these lines would happen, I think had the Wings not been under cap problems Huds would have never gone to the KHL, as he did say before leaving the only team in the NHL he wanted to play for was the Wings.

But I am kind of gullible and until I have a reason usually take people at their word.

[SweWings]

On topic: YAY HUDLER!!!

On Finnish Wing topic: Looking at the World Championships since 2010, the US has consistently under-performed while Finland has over-achieved. Their respective records speak for themselves. But boiling the "why" down to which national team plays with the most heart is the hight of single-mindedness and, looking at this thread, brings out some serious douchebaggery.

[SouthernWingsFan]

MY COUNTRY'S BETTER THAN YOUR COUNTRY!!! NANNY NANNY POO POO!!!

Sorry, I'm not good at this trash talking bit. I'm also not good at trying to make jokes.

*shrugs*

Edited by SouthernWingsFan, 23 May 2010 - 10:18 PM.

[SweWings]

MY COUNTRY'S BETTER THAN YOUR COUNTRY!!! NANNY NANNY POO POO!!!

Sorry, I'm not good at this trash talking bit. I'm also not good at trying to make jokes.

*shrugs*

Made me smile at least. But then again it is quite erm late over here.

[titanium2]

The message that I'm getting from this thread is:

We are Finland and our penises are bigger than yours. Vittu Joo!!!

[55fan]

The message I'm getting is that Team Finland plays a more similar style to Team Canada than it does to Team USA, (or maybe it plays a more similar style to Canada than USA plays to Canada- I'm not sure on that) and that this means that since the members of Team USA are neither Finnish nor Canadian that they (USA) play differently.

USA and Canada have stars- many of whom are hard workers. Finland has no stars, just regular guys who happen to be good at what they do, but not as good (individually) as many of the guys on USA or Canada. Since Finland has had success, and since that success can not be directly attributed to greater talent, it can be inferred that Finland's strength is hard work and heart, which is not to say that the other teams have none, just that Finland must rely on it more than the aforementioned teams do, and that Finland has enough to win many, many medals that are not gold.

Now to get this on topic, someone needs to post a nice pic of the Finnish Olympic team (let's say 2006- good year for them) and make it into one of those "Hudlers are laughing at you" pics.

[Drake_Marcus]

You know that in that sentence by "Finnish players" I meant "players of Team Finland". I can't find any other major reason for Finland playing better than USA in international games for the past years than working hard and having more heart.

I'd also like to add that there are only TWO countries in the world where ice-hockey is the number one sport. The other is Canada...

So you're saying I can't convince you to dress up like Cherry? Man, no one is going to buy into my new clothing line.

Finnish Wing being a ****** homer, as he usually is.

... diplomatic.

Dumbass from Finland made a comment about American hockey which we,naturally,took offense too.

The good thing is you posted this right after the guy above so you ended up sounding polite.

[SouthernWingsFan]

The message that I'm getting from this thread is:

We are Finland and our penises are bigger than yours. Vittu Joo!!!

They'd also kick everybody else's butt in a Boggle Tournament!!!

[55fan]

They'd also kick everybody else's butt in a Boggle Tournament!!!

Only because they have a lot of vowels.

[Hockeytown0001]

So um, hey, Hudler is back.