Suomi hyötyy nollatoleranssista

So why is this happening?

The Finns combine the skills, skating, speed and tic-tac-toe plays of the Russians with the passion and combativeness of the Canadiens. They are like Russians in white and blue jerseys.

But the Finns are even more impressive when you consider that they are the only one of the great hockey nations that has always "played" hockey, instead of "working" or "calculating" the game.

Sometimes the Finns stop skating and seem paralyzed like a mouse in front of a snake--that is particularly prone to happen when they face their archrival, Sweden.

But the Finns have never tried to win games with smart but boring neutral zone trap tactics like the Swedes or the Czechs, and they have never had quite the bruising physical presence of the Canadian teams. That's why they have only won one World Championship gold medal, back in 1995. But they've had the talent to win probably seven others, and maybe even an Olympics or two. You can see that from the World Juniors, where Finland is nearly every year among the runners-up for the title.

The most characteristic Finnish players are Petteri Nummelin and Ville Peltonen. Both were with the World Championship team in 1995, and both are here again. And both played together for the last three years with HC Lugano, the current champions of Switzerland.

They were outstanding on the international stage, they flew over the ice, but they did not win the Swiss championship in 2004 or 2005.

Last November, the Swiss League instituted "zero tolerance" the way it's handled in the NHL and in the IIHF World Championships. Five months later, in April 2006, Nummelin and Peltonen finally won the Swiss championship with Lugano.

Just flying over the ice. The way Finns do it best.

Klaus Zaugg is the hockey editor of the Swiss newspaper BLICK. The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the official views of the IIHF.


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