[GDT] Mens Hockey, Sweden vs Finland at 5:00 AM Mountain

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Sune76

whats with your hatred of sweden?

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

1) We have played in a division that causes us to hate many Swedish players (Forsberg, Sedins, Naslund)

2) Canadians tend to like the Finnish team, so we hate you because you are their biggest rival.

3) We were also force fed the Sundin and Allfredssen (Leafs/Sens) rivalry by CBC so there are two more Swedes to dislike.

4) 1994

5) IKEA and the guy in their commercials

Feel free to ship more of your women this way though.

Pretty much this, except for the IKEA one. Living in Norway doesn't help much either.

I think though that the vitriol really amped up between the 2002 and 2006 Olympics. If anyone will recall, Sweden was considered by many heading into 2002 to be untouchable in large part because of their amazing new "torpedo" system, that promised to stun the opposition into total submission. Canada played—and lost badly—in their first game of the tournament to Sweden, and of course, the media played it up like this was some sort of indicator of Sweden hockey superiority.

I also tend to think that Sweden—not Russia—is Canada's truest rival in this sport. They have actually tied with Canada for the all-time medal count in men's hockey, and since the beginning of NHL participation, they and the Czech Republic are the only other teams than Canada to win the gold medal. Since the dissolution of the USSR, they are the only other team to have won two gold medals.

[Tsawwassen]

Originally Posted by Voodooman

While you can't fault Lehtonen in any way for the loss, you'd have to think the Finns would have been more confident with Rask between the pipes, and the result may well have been different.

Stupid commies even botched their bio-warfare strategy, and gave Rask the flu 3 days too late. Of course, with how awful the Russians were, I think Kipper could have come out of retirement and beat them without even taking a warmup....and with a smoke hanging out of his mouth the whole time.

This tournament should dispell once and for all the conversation about who the best defenceman in the world is. Karlsson's been a freaking god in this tournament, while Subban has been benched. It'd be funny if it wasn't so sad. Yeah, Norris Trophy winner my ass.

I gotta say that Lehtonen did play well and you're right that the team would've been better if Rask was healthy. Still, the Finns could have played better if Niemi was in net instead of Lehtonen, their other Stanley Cup goalie. I like the rest of your post, especially the Kipper stuff.