From: tvartiai@vipunen.hut.fi (Tommi Vartiainen)
Subject: Re: Finland/Sweden vs.NHL teams (WAS:Helsinki/Stockholm & NHL expansion)
Nntp-Posting-Host: vipunen.hut.fi
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
Lines: 51

In <1993Apr16.195754.5476@ousrvr.oulu.fi> mep@phoenix.oulu.fi (Marko Poutiainen) writes:

>: FINLAND:  
>: 
>: D-Jyrki Lumme.......20
>: D-Teppo Numminen....20
>: D-Peter Ahola.......13
>: 
>Well well, they don't like our defenders (mainly Lumme and Numminen)...

About 25 is correct for Numminen and Lumme.


>: R-Teemu Selanne.....27
>: 
>Compared to Kurri, Selanne's points are too high, lets make it 25 or 26.

No, Kurri's points are too low. 27 for Kurri and 28 for Sel{nne.

>: well in the Canada Cup and World Championships largely due to the efforts of
>: Markus Ketterer (the goalie), 3-4 or the players listed above and luck. There's
>: presumably a lot of decent players in Finland that wouldn't be superstars at
>: the highest level but still valuable role players, however. My guess would be
>: that the Finnish Canada Cup team would be a .500 team in the NHL.

>Wow, now, it looks like you don't like our players? What about guys like:
>Nieminen, Jutila, Riihijarvi, Varvio, Laukkanen, Makela, Keskinen and (even
>if he is aging) Ruotsalainen? The main difference between finnish and North-
>American players is, that our players tend to be better in the larger rink.
>The Canadian defenders are usually slower that defenders in Europe. 
>And I think that there was more in our success than Ketterer and luck (though
>they helped). I think that the main reason was, that the team worked well
>together.


That's true. Game is so different here in Europe compared to NHL. North-ame-
ricans are better in small rinks and europeans in large rinks. An average
european player from Sweden, Finland, Russian or Tsech/Slovakia is a better 
skater and  puckhandler than his NHL colleague. Especially defenders in NHL
are mainly slow and clumsy. Sel{nne has also said that in the Finnish Sm-league
game is more based on skill than in NHL. In Finland he couldn't get so many 
breakaways because defenders here are an average much better skaters than in
NHL. Also Alpo Suhonen said that in NHL Sel{nne's speed accentuates because
of clumsy defensemen.

I have to admit that the best players come from Canada, but those regulars
aren't as skilful as regulars in the best european leagues. Also top europeans
are in the same level as the best north-americans.(except Lemieux is in the
class of his own). 

Tommi
