ESPN hockey, where your favourite sport meets xenophobia

ESPN started it's KHL broadcastings today with Lev vs. Dynamo Moscow game (which in North America seems to better known as "Team Chara vs. Team Ovechkin" game). Now, I didn't see their broadcasting but  judging by the quotes that are going around Twitter, I'm actually happy about this. The game was announced by Barry Melrose and Steven Levy, who apparently were more interested to share their views of Europeans, European hockey and NHL players playing in Europe than to actually do their job as announcers and be aware what is going on the ice.

"Stereotypes are stereotypes and most of them are true."* 

Now, there are so many things wrong with that I don't even know where to start. To keep it short:

1.  Stereotypes are exaggerated characteristics, that work in jokes but should not be taken seriously in real life. Yes, where you grow up/live affects on how you behave and states have the tendency to promote certain qualities as "national" so it's possible that people from same country have some similarities in how they identify themselves. States also have/had the tendency to label other nations (usually enemies) with less admirable attributes so it's understandable that these stereotypes are in our heads. However, none of these means you can just label people under same category without leaving room for individual qualities. Whether or not you like it, we're individuals and saying a person is this and that because of their nationality is an insult to rational thinking and quite frankly rather racist. When I get to know someone knew, I'll make sure I'll base my judgement of them strictly on who they are as a person, not what stereotypes I might have about their nation. And I'd really hope people do the same for me. 
2. If you use stereotypes as an fact, you should probably stop for a moment to think about what stereotypes other nations have about yours, because based on this logic, they're true as well. But then again, I assume Mr and Mrs Stereotypesforever don't really care about other's opinions of them because hey, they're only lousy foreigners with weird habits, what do they know?
3. This is downright unprofessional. Don't like Europe or Europeans? Fine. But your opinion of the continent nor its hockey has nothing to do with your job to announce the game. The habit to be arrogant toward others and treat them like they presented a lower form of life is nothing new, but it would be nice if we could over that at some point and develop an ability to appreciate others' achievements instead of sticking with the "We're the best, anything we have is top quality and if you have something similar, it's just some bush-league attempt" way of thinking. 

Other things you could learn from the game:

• Soviet Union apparently still exists
• I'm actually currently in Russia and I can assure you, it's really Russia, not Soviet Union.
• This sounds a lot like an old man's attempt  to refresh his Cold War feelings and bring up old hostilities - maybe out of despise toward his current job. NHL rocks and Europeans don't even know how to play hockey, right? 
• NHL:ers shouldn't play in Europe because it's against their union
• Maybe you shouldn't be announcing this game?
• bothering to learn to pronounce the players names even somewhat correctly is not an option
• You're an announcer, you're paid to tell people what is going on the ice and you decide it's unnecessary to learn anything about the players or even how their names are pronounced. Now, this pronunciation thing is annoying even with NHL broadcast but when you're doing European games, it's extra ignorant not have the decency to respect the players enough to even make an attempt to learn their names. 

*Quote via @wraparoundcurl

NHL lockout guide to Europe - all-round view of European hockey leagues

Europe according to Americans

As both parties in the quarrel seem to be more focused on acting like spoiled brats than actually getting somewhere with the negotiations, we are facing another lockout - whether or not it lasts the whole season.

This being the situation, hockey fans have to turn to other leagues if they wish to get their daily doses of excitement, tears and joy. In North America there are plenty of junior leagues where to choose from (I’ve been told), but as I’m a European, I have no idea what is going with those so I shall focus on what I know best – Europe.

With the exception of KHL, European hockey leagues are national, so each of “top” hockey countries in Europe has their own league. The less merited hockey nations have of course their own leagues as well but to keep this simple, these posts only deal with KHL, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Germany.

Reasons why Leafs fans should love Leo Komarov

Pretty sure that beard has its own will

Note: I think everyone should but the chances are that he will piss off the opponents if given ice time - which incidentally is also one of the reasons for Leafs fans to love him...

• He can grow a magnificent beard (as pictured next to this)
• Small bruises won't stop him
• He can smack talk opponent to the edge of rage - fluently in multiply languages!
• He can create a nice hustle at the net, thus improving scoring chances
• He can score
• He brings energy to the ice - always trying to win battles
• Blue & white suits him rather well
• He can throw some lovely hits

Bonus! - Reasons why this makes me sad

• If Leafs play well - no Komarov to Worlds
• I might spend some time in Moscow during next season so this kind of screws my chances at seeing him to play...

IIHF, Belarus & human rights

I generally believe that sports and politics should be kept as far apart as possible. Now obviously it is not possible to keep them  completely apart as every country use the PR brought by sport success to both build an image of successful and magnificent country to show foreigners and to strengthen the nation-building proses (new/relatively new countries) or to raise/keep up the general feeling of nationalism and fellowship (old, established states) among their citizens. This of course has both pros and cons. Nation states need citizens who believe in their fellowship and sports are rather non-violent way of polishing the ever so glorious nation myths. But what if it goes too far, and the "yay, we won" turns into a serious belief of "we're better than others"? And what if the sport is used to showcase an authoritarian state and in a way legitimise the current power?

So what is this about?

In 2009 IIHF granted Belarus the right to hold the 2014 hockey World Championship tournament. The arguments supporting Belarus' case were strong support for hockey among the Belarussian, excellent buildings (Minsk-Arena as an example) for holding the tournament, and it probably didn't hurt that the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko* is, among other things, known for his love for hockey. This has raised some amount of controversial since it has been said that Belarus isn't the right place to held international tournaments and for example an Ukrainian group FEMEN protested against it in Switzerland, near the headquarters of IIHF.

U20 Worlds: Finland 8 - Slovakia 5

IIHFHockey IIHF

Finn Aleksander Barkov became youngest player to score at World Juniors with 16 years, 4 month, 0 days. 21 days younger than Crosby in 2004.

Finland will next face Sweden and will probably be disaster but at least we will have that Barkov thing...

This game was all kinds of craziness as the final score shows. Not great for goalies but hey, GOALS FOR EVERYONE.

The Granlunds scored (obviously)and this Pulkkinen person was being useful too.

Team Finland for U20 Worlds

Goalies:

1 Ullberg Richard, SaiPa
30 Aittokallio Sami, Ilves
31 Gibson Christopher, Chicoutimi

Defencemen:

2 Määttä Olli, London Knights
3 Riikola Simo-Pekka, KalPa
4 Mäkinen Konsta, Ilves
5 Ristolainen Rasmus, TPS
7 Hakanpää Jani, Blues
8 Hovinen Miro, Jokerit
12 Pokka Ville, Kärpät

Forwards:

6 Pulkkinen Teemu, Jokerit
9 Ruuttu Alexander, Jokerit

10 Armia Joel, Ässät
11 Granlund Markus, HIFK

• Talented and able to score some breathtaking goals. I guess those things run in his family...

13 Hännikäinen Markus, Jokerit
14 Hämäläinen Roope, SaiPa
15 Aaltonen Miro, Blues
16 Barkov Aleksander, Tappara

• 16 years old and already playing in the Finnish Elite League and scoring them goals (youngest player ever to score in the league). He might be interesting to follow at the games.

20 Granlund Mikael, HIFK

• You all remember the goal, right? The kid can do magic if everything goes well.

22 Salomäki Miikka, Kärpät
27 Donskoi Joonas, Kärpät
28 Kuronen Mikael, Ilves
29 Paajanen Otto, HPK


Basically, too many Jokerit players for me to enjoy this.... But hey, luckily the broadcasting of the national team games is nowadays so fucked up, I don't have to watch these games because I'm not a freaking millionaire who can pay shit load of money for 3 or 4 different channel packages so that I could follow hockey. So fuck Finland and its stupid, greedy Tv channels. I hope you burn in the deepest corner of hell in case such a place exists.

9-year old kids ending their hockey game with a brawl...

So this kids' hockey game in Kazakhstan got a rather unusual end...

(Translation of an article from Aftonbladet. You can see the original text and a video of the fight here.)

40 nine years old in huge brawl

Here the ice transforms into a battleground.

The match was over, teams were shaking hands.

Then a huge fight broke out.

NHL? Eliteserien?

No, 9-years old boys.

This strange, to say the least, scene took place in Kazakhstan, between teams from Burabya and Astana. The game was over, Astana had won 5-3 and the teams were standing at the centre line to thank each other for a good match.

But suddenly emotions burst.

Hot emotions

A player of the victorious Astana said something mocking that got the team Burabay to heat up. One of the Burabay players didn’t hesitate to throw the gloves off when a Astana player challenged him to a fight and suddenly the tumult was a fact.

About 40 hot-blooded 9-years old were in full swing while the judge and adult leaders made ​​their way onto the ice to calm down the atmosphere.

When the dust was settled, the fighters were strangely enough hailed with whistles and applauses from the audience.

Player safety - you're doing it wrong

Here's a Swedish news article about Johan Sundström (19, year old, 2nd round draft by Islanders), who suffered a serious concussion during a Elitserien game in Sweden after taking his team mates shot to his head (the article includes video of this). He was helped out of the ice but for whatever reason allowed to continue the game after getting 8 stitches. This happened on Thursday. On Saturday he played another game for Frölunda. The concussion was only diagnosed by national team doctor after Sundström had arrived to the training camp for upcoming Juniors national team, and he was immediately banned from playing. According to the doctor, the Swedish Ice Hockey Association has a rule, which requires player to be symptom free for 6 days before being allowed to train.

After all the talk about concussions lately, one would think that some progress has taken place, but this doesn't sound very good. Either he magically didn't have any symptoms before arriving to the camp or he did have the symptoms, but the team (Frölunda Indians) chose not to care about them.

NHL outdoor game in Sweden?

Aka, how everything will be turned into Sweden vs. Finland battle....

Apparently NHL has some kind of plans of bringing an outdoor game to Europe and here's a Swedish take of the subject by Expressen.se & Linus Hugosson.

"NHL wants to play outdoor game in Stockholm"

NHL's move to make outdoor game Winter Classic a yearly tradition has been a major success. The games are huge crowd and TV successes and the fact that prestigious HBO does now reality-TV of it for the 2nd year in a row haven't reduced the PR-success for NHL.
When NY Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers meet at the baseball arena Citizens Bank Park in Philly January 2nd 2012, the entire hockey world will watch.
Now it's been reported that NHL will take the concept abroad. To Sweden and Stockholm, to be be precise.
According to TSN's scoop-master Darren Dreger the plans are already been put into action.
-Don't be surprised if the NHL is considering an outdoor game at the new arena north of Stockholm, says Dreger on the program Inside Trading on October 27th.
-The arena has retractable (sliding?) roof and has the capacity for over 50 000 viewers.
The arena Dreger is referring to is most likely Swedbank Arena in Solna - football (soccer) team's new home castle, which will be ready for use during 2012.

As the organizer of the recent premier weekend at Globen, Live Nation has worked closely with the NHL and according to promoter Jay Seitsema there's an ongoing dialogue with the NHL.
-We haven't started planning yet, but of course, an outdoor game would be cool, says Sietsema in an email to Pro Hockey.
Sietsema won't say which arena would in the case be actual and adds that it's too early to say how the next year's premier weekend will turn out to be.
According to Darren Dreger it can take 2 or 3 years before an outdoor game in Stockholm will become reality.

***

Wouldn't NHL outdoor game, a Swedish Winter Classic, in Stockholm be a great experience?
I wouldn't say no to that...
To create a solid framework with full crowd it needs two attractive "Swedish" teams - and tolerable ticket prices.
If it happens, I would like to see NHL to go all the way and copy the Winter Classing with a veteran game before the real game. It would be a fantastic trip down the memory lane, unrivalled to be able to see our blue & yellow NHL heroes from past on the ice.
Or why not a game against Finland's old NHL-heroes?
And what do say you Viasat - are you ready for the task of making a Swedish version of "24/7"?

And because clearly my opinions matter, here are my thoughts of this:

• Why does NHL favour Sweden? Last year the games in Helsinki attracted more crowd than the ones in Stockholm but still this year they got 2 games, we just one. NOT FAIR! Besides, Finland totally holds the record for biggest outdoor hockey game in Europe.
• Even though we do live here in igloos with our pet polar bears, the beginning of October might be slightly too warm for outdoor hockey game. Or at least too rainy...
• I have issues with understanding the "there's no Swedes on the team, we don't care"-attitude (same phenomenon happens also here and I fail to understand it too). I mean sure, the Swedes are doing well and are great but there are lots of interesting players in NHL. Like the Russians ;)
• The ticket price issue though is for real. Over 100e for hockey ticket is seriously taking one close to knocking at bankruptcy's door, especially if you have family and need to buy multiply tickets. We like our hockey cheap and jerseys full of adds, okey?
• Sweden-Finland veteran game? Bring it on, our old men are totally better than yours! (PS. Can we bring Selänne even if he still would play in NHL?)

Quest for humanity

I'm not sure if this applies in other countries too, but I've noticed that in Finland, certain part of the media is treating famous people (actors, athletes, royals etc.) more and more like some non-human robot creatures, whose only purpose is to entertain us.

For quite a time now this has applied to relationship tragedies of celebrities - what's one's heartbreak, is news papers sensational headline. This is rather unfortunate but still in some way better than what it has turned into now.

As most of people already know, the entire team of Lokomotiv Jaroslavl died in plane crash couple of weeks ago. I assume the common reaction to the news was something including "god, this is terrible, I can't even imagine how horrible it must be for their family, relative and friends". However, one of the biggest news providers here (and also the company that holds broadcasting rights to all national team games, Olympics excluded) figured it would be appropriate to make headlines that completely ignore the human tragedy. As a result we got headlines with ALL CAPS AND FILLED WITH QUESTION MARKS EXCLAMATION POINTS.

As an example of this I can mention the one that got stuck in my head and is the reason why I have avoided their site ever since - "FOUR GOLD MEDALS GONE??". And I really mean they wrote "gold medals", not gold medalists. Because clearly hockey players aren't human beings.

Another trend seemed to be to only care about Finns, even though none was on the plane. How the Finns close to KHL felt about that and so on. I admit this is somewhat understandable but I doubt former KHL's coach opinion about Russia's aviation safety is more important than the tiny fact that the one survived player was fighting for his life. It is somewhat human to be more effected by tragedies that happen to people you know/like/admire/have some kind of relation to but being mostly ignorant toward the loss of dozens of lives (even when not Finnish or deeply related to Finnish hockey) seems bit cold to me.

Another - though less tragic - example of objectifying famous people here is the way Princess Victoria's (of Sweden) upcoming trip to Finland was handled in tabloids. As she's pregnant, of course the natural way to headline the story about where you can see her during the visit is along lines "You can see the baby belly here". Like she wasn't a person anymore, just a walking belly.

To sum this up, I'm seriously losing my faith in humankind.