When I was 17, many moons ago, I lived in a small Finnish town called Joensuu, in the eastern part of the country, about an hour from the Russian border. Except that it wasn’t the Russian border, it was the Soviet border, and it wasn’t such a big of a deal. There’s nothing on the other side of the border, anyway, just forest. There’s nothing else in about a hundred mile radius from the city.

There was no Internet, and therefore no YouTube, but there was rock’n’roll so my friends and I spent a lot of time sitting in each others’ rooms listening to tapes and records, and swapping tapes and records with each other.

And trying to learn those first few chords to Smoke on the Water.

(As it happens, still the only chords I know).

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Last week in Sweden, some 600 000 people stayed up or got up in the middle of the night to watch the World Juniors final between Sweden and Russia on TV. The average was 530 000 and by the time Mika Zibanejad beat Andrei Makarov in the Russian net, 600 000 people had tuned in.

And the way the game ended, it was obviously worth losing some sleep.

After the game, Sweden’s Jeremy Boyce-Rotevall said that Zibanejad had told him before the game that he’d "finish this game off." A bold prediction coming from a player who had scored just three goals in the tournament, against Latvia and Slovakia – but he backed it up.

"I [repeated it to Boyce-Rotevall] before the overtime too so it was good to get that goal," Zibanejad said. "You have to decide if you want to win this. In the morning, it was a joke, but obviously it’s not a joke anymore."

No, it’s no joke. And every time we repeat it, it becomes a little more of a truth until it becomes a true legend.

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Longtime German national team player and national coach Xaver Unsinn passed away on Wednesday, January 4, 2012, in his hometown of Füssen at age 82. With 107 games at World Championships and Olympic Winter Games as a coach he was the coach with the second-most international games behind only legendary Soviet coach Viktor Tikhonov.
– IIHF.com

One September morning in 1977, I was in a rush to read the sports pages of the Helsinki morning paper, even more than usual, because the Finnish SM-liiga had kicked off the night before. I turned to the back of the newspaper, and saw a headline about Lauri Mononen scoring a “Canadian hat trick”.

I had never heard of such a thing, but I learned that it was not just a regular hat trick, but a double one. Six goals.

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Hockey’s pretty much a year-round sport these days. Finnish teams, for example, play their first exhibition games already in early August when the rest of the world is still at their barbecues. Today, the players seem to be in shape all the time, August or April, they’re no slackers, and the Mario Lemieux kind of training – “not ordering the fries with my sandwich” - has gone the way of the Bobby Hull toupee.

I’m with Mario, always have been, but still, summer always feels like a new chance to get in shape. I don’t seem to succeed, but every summer, I still try. I even do some of the old conditioning drills back from when I still could. And when nobody’s watching, I try to run up a tree. I always have to get at least three steps up the trunk to feel good about myself.

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Sidney Crosby’s return to NHL action after his ten-month long sick leave due to a concussion was one of those larger-than-life moments. Especially with the way he capped his comeback with a four-point performance. It was one of those highly anticipated games that forced European TV networks to quickly change the schedule, and pick up the Penguins-Islanders games instead of whatever else they had had in mind. (Sorry about that all you local Finnish/Swedish boys).

It may not have been a true once-in-a-lifetime moment, but it sure was a memorable event. There are only so many truly unforgettable moments anyway, and what makes those few truly great is the fact that they are just that: moments.

Paul Henderson’s goal. Crosby’s Olympic game-winner. Kovalchuk’s wrist shot at the Worlds in Quebec. Teemu Selänne hoisting the Cup. Tommy Salo’s goof up at the Salt Lake City Olympics.

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HHOF Treasures* is a fantastic book with great stories by great writers, and of course, with Matt Manor's magnificent photos. I got to be a small part of it with the chapter I wrote about the men and women working behind the scenes at the Hockey Hall of Fame Resource Center. Here it is.



Preserving Hockey’s History

Hockey history is full of important, inspiring, capital “M” moments: the cups, the medals, the records and the milestones — the once-in-a-lifetime scenarios. The physical items immortalized in these moments are what first come to mind when you think of the Hockey Hall of Fame; items like the Stanley Cup, Sidney Crosby’s Olympic gold medal-winning puck and stick, or Jacques Plante’s legendary mask.

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This is apparently what happened: HV71’s Daniel Rahimi and Färjestad’s Czech defenseman Martin Sevc got into an bit of a scrap which ended with Sevc using a racial slur. The linesman heard it, and Sevc was thrown out of the game.

Växjö’s coach Janne Karlsson was upset with a goal that Linköping scored on overtime and he flipped the finger. His defense was that he wasn’t sending any messages to the referee, but to Andreas Jämtin, a Linköping player who Karlsson said had disrespected him.

When Skellefteås Fredrik Styrman visited his former team, Luleå, for the first time, the local fans welcomed him by chanting “Styrman will be taken out of the ice on a stretcher”.

And that’s just last week. Apparently, Sweden’s not all IKEA meatballs and Pippi Longstocking.

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A couple of weeks ago, I found the local hockey club’s new magazine in our mailbox. Our Sollentuna Hockey is a tiny club, with a men’s team in the fourth highest division in Sweden, but it’s also one that is proud to have Mats Sundin as an alumnus. For the first issue they had even got an interview with the man himself.

That, naturally, pulled me in, and as I read the story at the breakfast table, I mumbled that I probably should go watch their games and support the local club. And that maybe Son would like to tag along.

“No, no, I’m not interested in such a violent sport,” said Son from across the table without looking up from his comic book.

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One late May evening eight years ago, Wife and I shook hands on a deal we had just made. She would launch a website for Swedish-speaking parents in Finland, and I, at my end, would try to make the world a better place by launching a hockey publication.

The next few months we sat in our kitchen, facing each other, but both typing away on his and her laptop, with the covers leaning on each other, like we were leaning on each other.

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If you’ve read my hockey blogs before, you know that my favorite players include, among others, Valeri Kharlamov, Marcel Dionne, Theo Fleury, Wayne Gretzky, Sergei Makarov, Vladimir Krutov, Martin St. Louis, Håkan Loob, and Mats Näslund.

With the exception of Fleury and St. Louis, they’re all older than me, and they’re all forwards. So, yes, I was born in the late 1960s and, like my idols, I was a speedy forward in my more active playing days.

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I wrote my first Tuukka Rask story seven years ago when he was a young, up-and-coming goalie prospect. Now he's backing up Tim Thomas in the Stanley Cup Final. Five years ago, another Finnish backup goaltender got his chance to play in the Stanley Cup Final, and I wrote about him, too. Sort of. So, here's one from the archives. From my nhl.com blog:

Monday, June 19, 2006
Streets of Helsinki

Yes, the NHL Final has been completely overshadowed by the World Cup. The World Cup that doesn't have to have the name of the sport in the title. It's just the World Cup. You've all read the stories about the ratings in the U.S., how the Americans apparently prefer professional eating contests and left-handed poker to hockey, so you know what I'm talking about.

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Another JJ story, my last of the season. (From IIHF.com).
- - - -
BRATISLAVA – When Jaromir Jagr made his Czech league debut, one of his teammates was Milan Novy, then 36-year-old forward, a key player on the Czechoslovak team that won back-to-back World Championships in 1976 and 1977. Novy had returned to Kladno a few years earlier after a stint in Switzerland and Austria, and had helped bring the famous club back to the top division, before retiring after that year with Jagr in 1989.

If it feels like Jaromir Jagr has always been around, it’s simply because he started young. He played his first World Championship in Switzerland in 1990 as an 18-year-old, and in September 1991, he was on Czechoslovakia’s Canada Cup team – as a Stanley Cup winner with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

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A couple of years ago I wrote a chapter for a book published by The Hockey News. The book is called The Pursuit of Hockeyness: 99 Things Every Hockey Fan Needs To Do Before They Die. My chapter was about witnessing a European rivalry, or, a Finland-Sweden game, in particular.

Here it is.

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It’s probably the natural grind of a hockey season, and life, that’s made me feel tired of everything. In the line of business that I’ve been in for the last six, seven years, it’s easy to get cynical. The hype around the games, the stars, the general managers, is draining, and in the end, disappointing, because it seems to me that it creates a world that overpromises and underdelivers.

And that’s where cynicism breeds.

I can't remember the last time I smiled while watching hockey.

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Today, I wrote a piece for the International Ice Hockey Federation, about how players returning to Europe sometimes don’t meet the expectations. The transition from one team to another, let alone from one country to another, and from one league to another, can be difficult, and sometimes the high expectations the club management, the fans, and the player himself, aren’t met.

I should know. I was that player once.

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Here's one from NHL.com. Click here if you want to see it as is in the wild, or keep reading below.

Back in the day, when Finns dominated the world’s car racing circuit, an adage was born: "You need a Finn to win." It hasn't been as apt in the NHL, with only seven Finnish Stanley Cup winners, and with the first three earning their rings with the same team, the Edmonton Oilers dynasty of the 1980s.

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I don’t know how many hours I’ve spent playing hockey, and even less, how many hours I’ve spent sitting in a locker room, or in the parking lot, talking to teammates about the games, and … stuff.
Or how many hours I’ve spent watching, listening to, or reading about hockey.

Let’s just say that I started about 35 years ago, and haven’t quit yet.

» Continued

Here's one from the archives, from the pages of Off The Post. A story about Father, Son, and the Stanley Cup.

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Finnish goaltender Antti Niemi is one of the big stories in this year's Stanley Cup Playoffs. I wrote a piece about him for The Hockey News June 7 issue:

"One day, my father called me to tell me he had been at the local rink to see a junior game and had seen a goalie that impressed him," said Markus Lehto, Niemi's Helsinki-based European agent. "My father is no super scout, but he used to be the CEO of another rink and a team manager with Jokerit, so he knows his hockey."
Still, when his father mentioned "Antti Niemi," Lehto thought his dad was kidding. The only Antti Niemi he knew was the Finnish national soccer team's goalkeeper. But Lehto made a note and went to see the kid.

Read the story here (pdf, 3.1MB).

Well, yeah, I guess I can do anything.

It's playoff time and those not playing anymore just have to hit the links.

» Finland Squeaks by Germany

» Nummelin In a One-Man Club

» Born To Be a Goalie

» Russia Starts Road to Gold

» The Little (Red) Engine That Can

» Danish Shock Therapy

Hear the one about Ville Koistinen?

No? See here.

Or, click on, I've pasted my NHL.com story below.

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On Wednesday, September 30, 2009, on the day that the NHL teams had to file their rosters, and make the final cuts, Mats Sundin announced his retirement at the Grand Hotel in Stockholm, Sweden. Grand Hotel is the hotel where the Nobel Prize laureates spend their time in Stockholm when they come to town to collect the award in December. That’s where the stars stay when in Stockholm. Across a small bay, there is the Royal Palace where the King of Sweden has his office.

Some 15 kilometers north of Grand Hotel, there is Edsbacka krog, one of two restaurants with two Michelin stars in Sweden. The inn is in the heart of Sollentuna, next to the Edsbergs castle, which in turn overlooks Edsviken, the Baltic Sea bay, a beautiful public park where Swedes go for picnics, and walks and runs, and, on the other side of the water, a hockey arena.

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Quiet here?

This is why:

Sean Simpson channels Herb Brooks?
Sulander gets belated respect
"No love for Hallenstadion"
"We underestimated them"
"ZSC on top of the world"
For Sulander, it's now or never

And now I'm in Finland, my old country.

Just as this year's Stanley Cup winners are graduating, I found this little speech I've never been invited to give. And never will be. So, you can read it here. (Here's a pdf, to print out and read on the train/bus/hammock).

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Just a reminder: Puckarinen has updated his blog today. It's just under this one, have a look:

Here's this week's "I on Europe" from The Hockey News.

Here, that is.

Instead of calling myself a one-track mind, I just say that I’m focused. I’m very, very focused. I’m goal-oriented, I’m dedicated.

But between you and me? Yeah, I am a hockey nerd.

» Continued

It’s not you, Ovie, it’s me. Really. You’re a fine, no, amazing, wonderful player, and a really knee-slapping funny guy, but somehow, in some strange way, I just don’t feel it.

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Here's my latest from IIHF.com. Click here, or continue reading after the jump.

» Continued

Here's my latest from IIHF.com.



Read it here, or continue reading below.

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Here's one from the nhl.com blog archives. Read here or below.

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There are no real excuses for not updating here. I've been very busy, but still. Here's my latest from IIHF.com. Enjoy.

Back – and in business. Sami Kapanen returned home to take care of business the only way he knows how: full speed ahead.

Read the story here, or continue reading below.

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Here's my latest from nhl.com.

Can you fit a puck in your mouth? I think I still can. I haven’t tried it for a few years – like, say, fifteen – but I have eye witnesses who can testify that I definitely could fit a puck in my mouth in high school. And no, nobody forced it down my throat. It was just a friendly little competition.

Click here or just continue reading below.

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Here's my latest from nhl.com.

Looking at them also gave me an idea for an amazing car game for hockey nerds. You know, a game you play on the road. Not an away game. A car game you play while getting to your road game, a game you can play in the car, on your way to see Aunt Greta, with the kids.

Read it here, or continue reading below.

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Here's my latest on IIHF.com.

The reasons may be deep-rooted in the culture, and the enforcers may also be just a fad. But Finns are a tough people who respect hard work, perseverance, and raw power. The weak will fall on the road of life, a Finnish proverb goes.

Read it here, or continue reading below.

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Had a nice chat with Jaroslav Hlinka the other day.

If I don’t have fun or don’t like to play, hockey becomes just like regular work and you just do it for the money. Money is important, everybody cares about it but I want to have a lot of fun during the season as well.

See the whole story here or keep reading below.

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Lucas, the multitalented hockey dude, has thrown his hat in the ring and composed a new theme song for Hockey Night in Canada.



MacGyver shoots, he scores!

Finns love hockey. Really. I'm repeating myself, I just said the same thing in my latest piece on IIHF.com. Well, read it here, or below.

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Hockey is Canada, and Canada is hockey. Here's a little something I wrote for iihf.com during the World Championship in Quebec City in May.

“The Canadian coaching training is excellent, and Canadian coaches are willing to learn new things all the time. I’m 60 years old and I’m still learning,” adds Goulet, smiling.

Read it here or continue reading below.

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About 15 years ago, the National Hockey League was a dynamic, outward-reaching league that had big plans for expansion. Not only to Tampa Bay, Nashville, and Columbus, Ohio, where it subsequently arrived, but also to the quirky and fascinating place a lot of the players seemed to be coming from.

“Europe.”

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Hey, I just updated my NHL.com blog!

In my mind, I can see a real classic – a true battle, a cold war, if you will – where there’s more at stake than just decent ratings on network television and where retro jerseys won’t be the only thing that makes people talk. Everything must be upped: the rivalry, the venue, the whole meaning of the game.

Click here or read the piece below.

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All of a sudden, right out of the blue, there's another entry on the NHL.com! In the middle of the summer! Excellent. Read it here, or just click below to get to my piece.

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Even with a gentlemen’s agreement between the NHL and the IIHF in place, players find a way to leave Europe. Read my IIHF.com piece here or after the jump.

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Got something on iihf.com today.

The Nordic Trophy, a preseason series between five Finnish and five Swedish teams, might be a precursor to the ultimate dream, a pipe dream if you wish, of merging the Finnish and Swedish leagues.

Read it here, or below.

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Saw this piece of news today:

Maxim Mamin, 20, tested positive in a random doping control on January 2, 2008, following the game Russia – Czech Republic at the 2008 IIHF World U20 Championship in Pardubice, Czech Republic. Both the A-sample as well as the requested test of the B-sample confirmed the presence of norandrosterone, a metabolite of the anabolic steroid nandrolone.

And my mind raced straight to Dave King's book King of Russia...

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Hockey season 2007-08 is now officially over. For my take on Game 6, click here, or continue reading after the jump.

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Last year, Anaheim Ducks won the Stanley Cup with 16 Canadians on its roster and early on, it seemed that other NHL teams were cranking out Ducks copies in an attempt to win the Stanley Cup. And here we are again, with Detroit winning the Stanley Cup, with eight Swedes on its roster, and at least four, five, ok, let’s make it six, fine, seven, in prominent roles on the team.

» Continued

You know I have a soft spot for hockey Dads. I've got one, and I am one.

You know what I mean.