RSS Feed
Since 1957, Finland has been a part of the World Championship - and the Olympics - every time, finishing 4th nine times between 1958 and 1987, including six consecutive times between 1970 and 1975.
The Olympic record wasn’t much more cheerful:
1952 6th, 1956 didn’t participate, then 7th, 6th, 5th, 5th, 4th, 4th, and 6th.
At the 1986 World Championship, head coach Rauno Korpi called winning a medal “a dream”.
So when Finland actually won silver in the 1988 Olympics in Calgary - having beaten the Soviet Union in the last game of the tournament, 2-1 - they truly won a medal.
In the five Olympic tournaments since Calgary, Finland has as many medals as Russia, Canada, and the Czech Republic, three, and one more than Sweden. The only problem is that the rest of the four nations each have a gold. Sweden’s both medals are gold. Finland has one silver and two bronze medals.
In 2006, Finland got as close as it can without winning the tournament, when it lost the final against Sweden, 3-2.
The two silver medals bookend Teppo Numminen’s career. In 1988, he was a 19-year-old up-and-coming defenceman star, who had made his Team Finland debut at the World Championship the year before. In Calgary, Numminen collected five points in six games and was one of Finland’s leading players in the tournament.
“The medals bring back great memories. The Calgary medal was the country’s first ever, and it was quite a surprise. Back in the 1980s, Finland came to the tournament to put up a good effort, but after Calgary, we started to believe in winning medals, and then later, even gold,” he told IIHF.com.
“It gave hockey a great boost in Finland. Personally, I probably didn’t understand how important it was at the time, but over the years, I’ve realized what a big deal it was,” he adds.
In Turin, he was the veteran lock of the defence, who gave the disappointment a face when he wept in a live TV interview right after the game.
“I’ve got over it now, an Olympic medal is an Olympic medal, a great achievement,” he says.
“In Turin, we set out to win every game, and win the tournament. We got really close, and I think that of all the tournaments where I’ve played, that was the one where we played our best hockey, all in all,” Numminen adds.
In the 18 years between Calgary and Turin, Numminen saw the progress of Finnish and international hockey up close. The Calgary tournament was played without NHLers, even if Canada, for example, had goalie Andy Moog on its roster. Moog got tangled up in a contract dispute with the Oilers, and played with the Canadian Olympic team instead.
“Back in 1988, the Soviet Union was ‘united and mighty’, and the rest of the teams played for the silver,” Numminen says.
Head coach Pentti Matikainen was quoted in the New York Times after the game in 1988: “When you're capable of beating the Soviet Union in the last game of the Olympics, it's a great thing, and it creates Finnish history. The fact of Russia being so much ahead of everybody else is getting smaller and smaller.”
The Turin tournament was for thoroughbred pros.
“The nature of the Olympics changed in Nagano when the NHL took a two-week break and allowed the players to play in the tournament. The short preparation time made that the teams had to gel quickly and for Finland, that was fine, because we had the same core of the team for ten, 15 years, guys who knew how to play, and how to be, and who made it easy for others to join the team,” Numminen says.
“Everybody could be himself, which is key in a short tournament. Nobody should waste time and energy into thinking what they should or can do,” he adds.
In Vancouver, Team Finland will have to do without defenceman Numminen, who retired after last season due to health problems.
“I never thought I would have such a long career. I never imagined I’d be even playing for Finland, and as I got older, I wasn’t sure I’d be there to play for gold. I remember at the tail end of my career thinking that the Turin tournament was too far in the future for me and that I’d be too old by then,” he says.
Numminen will be helping Team Finland in other ways, such as scouting the NHL players for head coach Jukka Jalonen. He’s also the only one in the team’s management who knows what it’s like to play Olympic hockey in Canada.
“Hockey will be the absolute focal point of the Olympics, which will also add pressure for Canada’s team. It’s going to be a great tournament where one hot goalie can be worth his weight in gold. There are a few teams in the running, and the one that can play best as a team will win,” says Numminen.
Vancouver will mostly likely be the end of the line for a few other veteran players, such as Teemu Selänne, 39, and Saku Koivu, 35, at the time of the tournament.
They won’t be happy with winning just another medal. It’s got to be golden.
