The Lahti Pelicans are garnering a lot of attention these days with their stellar season start. They came out of the gate swinging high this year and finally, The Chicago of Finland team stopped shadowing the results of their sister city's Blackhawks and put up the results the City desperately needs.
It is still early in the season, the wind could start blowing in any other direction any game now, but they are worth mentioning at this stage, in this blog, as well as on Nhl.com it seems. The NHL has vowed to increase its presence in Europe and they are doing so by showcasing a feature called Across the Pond on their website's main page. You don't learn much more there than you would by surfing the hockeydb.com site or deciphering sm-liiga.fi with very low Finnish comprehension but hockey instincts on and odds are M. Meltzer wrote that column from the comfort of his West Chester, PA, home, far away from Vesijärvi (what an original name!). Then again, you don't learn much more on this blog than you would googling for barnyard pornography, so M. Meltzer, hats off to you, nice to see that someone is paying attention, shedding some light on this country as the sun is withdrawing on us, a little further day by day. One question though, why is your one website coattail riding on Mikael Renberg's fame?
One NHL/SM-Liiga related mystery that remains unsolved to me - and most others who have nothing better to do - is the brief stint of Sean Avery in Lahti. During the lockout, he lined up with the Pelicans for 2 games, 3 goals scored, these are the recorded facts. It would make you believe the man was here for a walk in the park and would have stayed around to boost his rather low stocks (at the moment) anchoring the low expectations Pelicans attack and adding a few scraps with the SM-Liiga's best and brightest, namely Shelley and Westcott with Jyp and that Ogre, Pauli Levokari then with Ässät (here is some rare footage of Levokari playing with his son).
But after these two outings, the man disappeared, left without a trace. Breach of contract, never to be seen again. He resurfaced a while later in the USHL but in the meantime, the portrait is shady. Uninformed sources rumour that he has mingled with the wrong crowd, Laotians posing as Thaï masseuses, Kazakh mobsters or long-legged Karelians from the wrong side of the border, who carry lipstick and shaving cream in their hand purse.
Chances are he simply couldn't bear the prospect of a winter in Lahti. I spent, sorry sacrified, 2 of my winters to this god forsaken town and if I had had his options, believe me, I would have fled like Frank Morris. But I would like to have some light shone on this episode. If anyone has more info, please enlighten us (as well as our 3 readers). Please!
Thursday, October 11, 2007
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4 comments:
That would be four readers.
Hello, or hei.
My name is Greg I live in the state of Delaware, USA.
I wanted to thank you for your efforts in putting out an English language blog about Finnish hockey.
I check in every few days, I try to catch games on a YLE feed (I'm embarrassed to say it took a few listenings to realize that the jump from game to game).
I only know enough Finish to get by in listening to the games, but am working on it.
With seven games scheduled today is should be a good day for hockey, actually any day is a good day for hockey.
Cheers
The HIF "cover post curse" starts here.
I don't know whether it's 100 percently true, but at least conventional wisdom in Finland has it that Sean Avery went home because of this cradle snatcher:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Hunter
Another lockout migrant who played well but disappeared all of sudden was Espoo's Krys Kolanos. Also John Madden had a brief stint with HIFK but he was crap, apologised for it and returned to NJ.
Haha, Cover Post Curse, took me a while to get it.
Actually, it works the other way. I badmouth Lahti and they seize first place. I insult Anttila and he has his first (and last) 2 goal game ever. Players and teams and politicians should beg for us to roll 'em in the dirt, don't you think?
Look for Levokari's first hat trick this weekend!!
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