600!

Finnish Flash = The Awesome One

Last night Teemu Selänne scored his 600th goal (which by the way, happened to be the winning goal) and became 18th player to achieve that milestone and only 3rd European to do so. One more goal and he will be tied with Kurri in the Finnish ranking.


I love the reaction from the crowd and the Ducks players. They're really happy for him.

From the 3 Europeans to achieve 600 goals in NHL, 2 are Finns. Not bad for a small nation with only one championship. Suck it Sweden...

I've never been more happier for a personal achievement in hockey. He has had so many injuries and so much bad luck in his career, it's just great to see he could achieve this.

Playoffs!!1 - KHL Edition with old friends

In NHL the regular season is still going on and playoffs spots are mostly wide open for multiply teams. Meanwhile in KHL the summer holiday has already started for those who the playoffs ship left behind. And for Sergei Zinoviev as he needs some operation because Radu kindly ended his season to the Olympics...
Anyways, here are your proud candidates for the Gagarin Cup. With some rather familiar players.

WEST - ЗАПАД

SKA

• Founded in 1946
• Colours: white-blue-red
• Nickname: Soldiers*
  
• Coach: Barry Smith
  
• Alexei Yashin
• Sergei Brylin
• Darius Kasparaitis
  
• Robert Esche

HC MVD

• Founded in 2004
• Colours: blue-white-light blue
• Nickname: Militiaman
  
• Coach - Oleg Znarok
• Martin Strbak

Dynamo Moscow

• Founded in 1946
• Colours: light blue-white
• Nickname: White-blues
  
• Coach - Andrei Khomutov
• Daniil Markov (Say hi to Jagr...)
• Mattias Weinhandl
• Linus Omark
• Jiri Hudler
• Ovechkin's, Afinogenov's Grabovski's & Ponikarovsky's ex-team

Atlant

• Founded... well, depends on who you ask
• Colours: yellow-blue
• Nickname: Atlas
  
• Coach: Nikolai Borshchevsky
• Nikolai Zherdev
• Jan Lasak
• Martin Gerber
• Former team of Aleksandr Semin and Igor Larionov (team had different names back then). Also Ray Emery's ex-home.

Lokomotiv

• Founded in 1959
• Colours: red-white
• Coach: Kari Heikkilä (was fired in February though)
• Richard Zednik
• Alexei Yashin's & Nik Antropov's ex-team

Spartak

• Founded in 1946
• Colours: red-white7
• Nickname: Gladiators/Rad & Whites
  
• Coach: Milos Riha
• Former team of Pavel Bure, Ilya Kovalchuk, Nikolai Borschevsky & Daniil Markov

CSKA

• Founded in 1946
  
• Colours: red-blue
• Nickname: Red Army
  
• Coach: Sergei Nemchinov
• Nikita Filatov
• Green Unit: Vladimir Krutov-Igor Larionov-Sergei Makarov, Viacheslav Fetisov-Alexei Kasatonov
• Also former team of Pavel Bure, Sergei Fedorov & Alexander Mogilny
  

Dinamo Riga

• Founded in 1946 (re-founded in 2008)
  
• Colours: silver-carmine
  
• Coach: Julius Supler
  
• Marcel Hossa
• Martin Kariya
  

EAST - ВОСТОК

Salavat Yulaev

• Founded in 1961
  
• Colours: blue-white-green
  
• Coach: Vyacheslav Bykov
  
• Alexander Radulov
• Sergei Zinoviev (injured... sigh)
• Viktor Kozlov
  

Metallurg Mg

• Founded in 1955
  
• Colours: blue-white-red
• Nickname: Steelers/Magnitka
  
• Coach: Valeri Belousov
  
• Sergei Fedorov
• Evgeny Malkin's, Evgeni Nabokov's & Nikolai Kulemin's ex-team
  

Ak Bars

• Founded in 1956
  
• Colours: green-red-white
• Nickname: Leopards
  
• Coach: Zinetula Bilyaletdinov
  
• Alexei Morozov
• Niko Kapanen
• Ilya Nikulin
• Lockout names: Ilya Kovalchuk, Alexei Kovalev, Dany Heatley, Vincent Lecavalier, Nikolai Khabibulin, Michael Nylander etc.
  

Neftekhim

• Founded in 1968
  
• Colours: blue-white-light blue
• Nickname: Petrochemists
  
• Coach: Vladimir Krikunov
• Denis Arkhipov
  
• Former team of Mikhail Grabovski
  

Avangard

• Founded in 1950
  
• Colours: black-red-white
• Nickname: Hawks
  
• Coach: Igor Nikitin
  
• Jaromir Jagr
• Karri Rämö
• Alexander Perezhokin
  
• Cherepanov's team
  

Barys

• Founded in 1999
  
• Colours: white-light blue
• Nickname: Astana Leopards
  
• Coach: Andrei Shayanov
• Jozef Stumpel
• Vadim Krasnoslobodtsev. Because that's one hell of a last name.
  

Traktor

• Founded in 1947
  
• Colours: black-white-red
  
• Coach: Andrei Nazarov
  

Avtomobilist

• Founded in 2006
  
• Colours: red-black
  
• Coach: Marek Sykora
  

The playoff pairs will be:

• SKA vs. Dinamo Riga
• HC MVD vs. CSKA
• Dynamo Moscow vs. Spartak
• Atlant vs. Lokomotiv
• Salavat vs. Avtomobilist
• Metallurg Mg vs. Traktor
• Ak Bars vs. Barys
• Neftekhim vs. Avangard

*According to wikipedia. Might be correct, might be wrong. Who knows...

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Now isn't that cute?

Before the match I asked him if we were fighting a bit of fun, but he is so bad in English that he thought I asked if I could kiss him. Then he said to me in that case had to do it after the game if we won ... and then it became so, "says Zuccarello.

Seriously, all wins should be celabrated by kissing the goalie. After all, in most cases, he's the one behind the victory so he does deserve some love...

Anyways, back to NHL hockey.

Lightning 4 - Capitals 5

• Two in row! Back on the track, bishes.
  
• Seen Semin? My fantasy team just gave me a "you have a missing player on your starting roster" alert.
  
• Bäckström blocking shots with his body after his stick broke? Hot. And bit scary.
• Why Tampa didn't start Niittymäki? He eats SE teams as a breakfast...

Penguins 5 - Rangers 4 (OT)

• No Poni time :(
• Some #87 on King Henrik action. Go meteor...

All I needed was the goal you scored

Sometimes when I think of your name
and it's only a game
And I need you

Because I'm totally weak my hockey strike will ends as soon as there's first KHL match on TV. Pathetic, I know. I'm still bitter though. And angry.

Listening to the words that you say
getting harder to stay
When I see you

The best part about NHL coming back is that after the Olympics, it really can't get much worse. And if it does, I don't even care because my heart is already broken. It's really a win-win situation.

All I needed for another day
All I ever knew
Only gold

Anyways, Capitals will have their first game on Wednesday against Buffalo and that evil little SOB in their net. I expect that the Russians saved their goals for the NHL instead of, you know, taking the damn gold from Vancouver, so this should be fun to watch. Or then they continue the 3 games losing streak and the game will feel like you'd be watching a train accident to happen in slow motion knowing there's nothing you can do to fix it.

I hate you but I love you

The past and the future

You guys just had to pull the fighting gear on in the bronze game, didn't you?

I'm still majorly pissed of by the USA game and will probably never get that horror show out of my head. I also still feel that for overall trying Slovakia would've been more worthy to get the bronze. But yet, after seeing the highlights of the bronze game and the players celebrating the bronze after a match that likely was last national team game for many many of them, I couldn't help feeling happy and even slightly proud of their achievements over past years. At the same I was wondering what if they had played the USA game properly? What if they had got into the final?
Now we will never know. And my last national team memory of Selänne, Jokinen and probably few others will be tainted that disgraceful 1st period. Even the bronze couldn't wash that out.

- - - -

Canada - USA*

I asked only for one thing. Canada to score 6+ goals in the first. Did they do that? Of course not. Did they even seriously kicked USA's collective ass? No. So, thanks for nothing.
This is why Sweden should've got there. They would've psychologically destroyed USA by letting them first score 5 goals and then scoring 6 goals in the 3rd. Le sigh.

*If you want the final score, find someone who cares

Please, please don't leave teh nashunal tiim? I luv you.

Pics from here and here