/cleartk-examples/src/main/resources/data/3news-bydate/test/rec.sport.hockey/53722
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- From: MLINDROOS@FINABO.ABO.FI (Marcus Lindroos INF)
- Subject: Finland/Sweden vs.NHL teams (WAS:Helsinki/Stockholm & NHL expansion)
- In-Reply-To: tervio@katk.Helsinki.FI's message of Thu, 15 Apr 1993 09:39:37 GMT
- Organization: Abo Akademi University, Finland
- X-News-Reader: VMS NEWS 1.24
- Lines: 120
- In <tervio.40@katk.Helsinki.FI> tervio@katk.Helsinki.FI writes:
- > Now what if the two teams were merged (this has been proposed in Tampere
- > with Ilves ( =Lynx) and Tappara ( =Axe). The fans wouldn't take it !
- > They rather see their teams out of the playoffs most of the time or even
- > relegated than merged. It's not that difficult to understand, it's just
- > like here in Helsinki. You *grow up* being either a Jokerit- or HIFK -fan.
- > The other team is the last team in the world you would support. I'm not
- > talking about 'hate' but about extremely deeply rooted rivalry.
- "Deeply rooted rivalry?" Ahem, Jokerit have been around since 1967 and joined
- the top flight only in the early '70s. Helsingfors IFK have been around since
- 1897 but fans only started taking hockey seriously in the 1960s so I think
- you're exagerating here.
- > However, it's been proved that both fan groups can cheer the same team
- > - that's "the Finnish national team". Maybe that's how you could set up a
- > huge franchise in Finland. No one has ever said that the team must be
- > called after one city or play all its games on one arena. Just one Team
- > Finland and Team Sweden in the NHL just wouldn't make any sense - we have
- > way more talent than 1/24th of the total of North American talent. After a
- > couple of seasons you would never see the cup going anywhere outside the
- > Nordic (presuming that our teams would have the advantage in drafting
- > local talent, as prooposed).
- That's a rather bold claim, in the light of how successful the Canadian &
- American Olympic teams have been . . . and they've had to play according to our
- set of rules and on international ice. The 1992 Olympic teams contained about
- as much talent as your average expansion team. Canada had Eric Lindros, Sean
- Burke, Joe Juneau and Chris Kontos. Another four or five have been deep subs in
- the NHL. As for the Yanks, Keith Tkachuk, Scott Lachance, Bret Hedican, Shawn
- McEachern, Steve Heintze, Ted Donato, Joe Sacco and Bill Guerin have been
- 3rd/4th line players in the NHL, while Robb Stauber has done well for the
- Kings in goal. Nothing more. In fact, I'm sure that an All-Star team assembled
- from the best Finnish League teams would do no better in the NHL than Hartford
- or Tampa Bay currently are doing.
- ---
- But what happens if _all_ top-class Finnish & Swedish players gradually end up
- with Helsinki & Stockholm as the North American-based ones gradually retire and
- no Canadian/American team is allowed to draft new players from Scandinavia?
- Here is what THE HOCKEY NEWS scouts think of our NHL-based players:
- (28-30=superstar)
- (23-27=star)
- (18-22=NHL regular+)
- (13-17=NHL regular)
- ( 8-12=role player)
- FINLAND:
- D-Jyrki Lumme.......20
- D-Teppo Numminen....20
- D-Peter Ahola.......13
- C-Jari Kurri........25
- C-Christian Ruuttu..16
- R-Teemu Selanne.....27
- L-Esa Tikkanen......20
- (Obviously, Selanne's ratings would be higher today than they were in January)
- SWEDEN:
- D-Ulf Samuelsson....21
- D-Fredrik Olausson..20
- D-Niklas Lidstrom...18
- D-Calle Johansson...18
- D-Kjell Samuelsson..17
- D-Tommy Sjodin......13
- D-Tommy Albelin......7
- C-Mats Sundin.......26
- C-Thomas Steen......18
- R-Thomas Sandstrom..22
- R-Ulf Dahlen........18
- R-Michael Nylander..13
- L-Per-Erik Eklund...18
- L-Johan Garpenlov...16
- L-Mikael Andersson..15
- L-Jan Erixon........14
- This would be interesting. Clearly, Finland's top five players (Winnipeg's
- Selanne & Numminen, Vancouver's Lumme, Los Angeles' Jari Kurri and New York's
- Tikkanen) are right up there with any five-man unit Pittsburgh & co. have. But
- I have my doubts about the home-based Finnish players - the national team did
- well in the Canada Cup and World Championships largely due to the efforts of
- Markus Ketterer (the goalie), 3-4 or the players listed above and luck. There's
- presumably a lot of decent players in Finland that wouldn't be superstars at
- the highest level but still valuable role players, however. My guess would be
- that the Finnish Canada Cup team would be a .500 team in the NHL.
- ---
- Sweden is easier to judge because they have more players in North America.
- Their points total (16 players) is 274 - seven more than Ottawa's 22 top
- players combined! If we estimate there are six more NHL regulars back home in
- Sweden, an all-Swedish team would assemble about 350-360 skill points.
- Deducting some points from Pittsburgh, NY Rangers and other teams that rely on
- Swedish players, the Swedish team would finish in sixth place - about as high
- as Boston, Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal on paper! So, the "dynasty" talk
- isn't completely unfounded here. An all-Finnish/all-Swedish team might have an
- advantage because the players would be playing at home half of the time,
- won't have to adapt to a foreign country and a foreign language, and presumably
- play the wide-open European variant of hockey rather than have to learn the
- North American checking game. However, if free agency becomes a factor the top
- Scandinavian players still might end up playing for large-market teams after a
- couple of years the same way Edmonton's "dynasty" crumbled in the late '80s.
- Some fringe players likely will be drafted by other NHL teams as having an
- exclusive talent pool might be a bit unfair after all. I'd settle for a
- compromise, prohibit all European teams from signing a North American during
- the first two rounds but allow them to keep their top two players. After this,
- the amateur draft should be open to anyone.
- > -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- > J O O J O O J O K E R I T ! ! ! Finland over Czech in the Final
- > B R U I N P O W E R ! ! ! Bruins over Blackhawks in 6
- > -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- MARCU$
-