The best World Championship site is iihf.com, so check it out. I’ll just throw here these two previews that have been posted, and will post some more behind-the-scenes stuff here in the future. Like how I saw a young woman interview Team Russia’s assistant coach, interrupt the interview for a second, lean towards the coach, and wipe his cheek clean from bread crumbles, then continue with the interview.
But here are the previews:
Finnish Lions and Tre Kronor.
Hockey fans of the world are making their way to Canada for the IIHF World Hockey Championship. I was sitting next to a German fan on the plane on my way to Quebec.
Stereotypes are based on something, and I now know whom the stereotype of Germans is based on. It’s a hockey fan with a long hard rock hair, leather pants, an oversized national team sweater, and a posse of five.
At the passport control, the immigration officer asked another German fan to delete the photos he had snapped a few seconds earlier. Unfortunately, the language barrier had no Checkpoint Charlie. Fortunately, he, too, had his posse close at hand, and everything was settled in a peaceful manner.
One of the people in the group then blurted, “don’t worry, he’s Finnish.”
Funny, I used to say my misbehaving friends were Swedes, until I married one.
From now on, they’re German.
Ok, it’s World Championship time. Taking off early on Wednesday, ready for a few weeks of hockey.
As ready as I’ll be.
The Finnish league has its awards gala tonight. I’m there. Not blogging.
Here’s my latest blog entry on nhl.com.
Hopefully, Avery’s initiative is an inspiration to other NHLers, wondering what to do when there’s no need to hang around the rink anymore. And, well, here are a few suggestions for internships that might be a great match.
Read it here or after the jump.
Today, at the coffee shop, there was a lady in front of me getting a cup of coffee. She turned her purse upside down looking for small change, so that she wouldn’t have to charge her ice cream and coffee on her card.
I heard her mumble about having it in there somewhere, and told her that I had the ten krona she needed.
“I have it here, if you need it,” I said.
“No, no, I’ll just put it on the card,” she replied, and waved her VISA.
“Thanks, anyway,” she said.
“Sure,” I said, and put the coin back into my pocket.
It was probably the “if you need it” that did it.
Here I am again. Me and the babies. And their mothers of course.
This is the number one mother-baby cafe in town, and the town is Helsinki.
Only, this time, it’s also a grandpa-dad-son-grandson cafe.
Here’s a piece I wrote for The Hockey News a couple of months ago but forgot to post here. Anyway, this is Victor Hedman. Don’t worry, you’ll hear that name again in the future, many times.
Click the image to get the pdf.
Back in the rowdy 1990s, I worked at the Canadian Embassy in Helsinki, helping Canadian companies to find business partners in Finland. Sounds glamorous, I know. And it was. Oh, those forestry seminars in Brussels. I wish I could tell you about them but it’s still too early for that.
Anyway, working for Canada was great. They even made me an honorary Newfoundlander after I passed the initiation rite: drank screech and kissed a cod. In that order.
Can’t wait to see what it takes to become an honorary Quebecer (or Quebecois).
Cough, cough. Dusting off the old archives again. The Bruins took the Habs to Game 7, so I’d better get this one out while I can.
Without further ado: “Maybe not this year, but Koivu will return to glory” on ESPN.com in May, 2006.