i love watching the Olympics while at the local diner,very relaxing and great atmosphere

...so how come USA and Canada arent kickin ass in the ice hockey?
do they not have the best players?
arent their leagues the most competitive?
can they only field amateurs in the olympics?

whats the craic?!?

i wasnt aware that other countries are on a similar level, it seemed to me that ice hockey is a game mainly played on the other side of the atlantic. ice hockey is played locally, the Belfast Giants are about to secure the league title again, but compared to ice hockey in the states and canada our teams are the equivalent to accrington stanley!

explainations please...

Both USA and Canada had lots of old veterans and lacked a solid teamplay. In the very very short time they just didn't have time to form a good team.

Globally USA, Canada, Russia, Czech, Sweden, Finland and the challenging Slovakia are the top countries with 97% of NHL players in their teams. The skill is pretty even here in that respect. Sure USA and Canada have the most of big stars, but they don't work miracles.

Finland is playing with the same team as in the World Cup ´04, the motivation is high and teamplay is superb. Next up: The Russians are good, very good. They scare the hell out of me. But the Finns are out for blood!! We'll beat the big red giant.. again.

Holy shit!!! Amazing icehockey final once again.
Finland - Sweden
It won't get any better than this

I foresee the Swedish hockey team getting their ass kicked hard.

We were at a canadian bar to see hockey, there was about 30 finns and 10 russians, lot of fun! Now I got to figure out where to watch the final. I'd rather watch it with swedes hahaha. It is going to be a tough match. Even finland kicked everyones asses totally this far it will suck to lose against sweden. And kicking ass is not an alien thing for them either.

We were at a canadian bar to see hockey, there was about 30 finns and 10 russians, lot of fun! Now I got to figure out where to watch the final. I'd rather watch it with swedes hahaha. It is going to be a tough match. Even finland kicked everyones asses totally this far it will suck to lose against sweden. And kicking ass is not an alien thing for them either.

It's fun here, since Sweden is just a stone throw away from where I live Back in 1995, everyone got into their cars and hung some Finnish flags and drove around Haparanda, a city in the Swedish side, which is basically connected to Tornio here.

3 years ago I saw finn-swede game at a pub in kensington, it was PACKED with both nationalities, and it was just hilarious. I'd go to Haaparanta too if i had chance.

That was great, we haven't seen some hockey on french TV since the last olympics I guess... and won't probably see hockey again until next olympics... Unless people liked that and ask for more, but the french hockey team is not really the best out there so... (I don't like football, or soccer depending of how you name it.)

Nice final, the last seconds at 6 Vs 5 were quite intense, and amaizing save from Lundqvist or however you spell his name^^.

I'm surprised they don't use ultra high-speed cameras (as in F1, even if it's useless). This would be really cool with hockey.

Same here, unless I stump out £!0 a month, I'm going to be waiting a wihle for the next decent level of hockey coverage...now it's all over, it's made me miss my hockey past so much

I foresee the Swedish hockey team getting their ass kicked hard.

I'm known to have been also mistaken.

did sweden win?

I'm sad

Olympics are over now and should not be talked about ever again. I went to a swedish bar after the game...

I'm sad

Yep, same here..

NEVERTHELESS, Team Finland played a great tournament and 2nd place is pretty good too It wouldn't hurt this much though, if it wasn't the Swedes who beat us..

Sweden rules again, damn the third period was a true nail biter!! But I must honestly say it could have gone either way. Respect to Finland for playing great throughout the whole tournament (which Sweden truly didn't).
However I'm happy that the old players got to win the gold medal, probably their last chance in the Olympics.