The World Cup is underway and Finland opened 5-0 against Norway at the newly built Nokia Arena in Tampere.
Almost as crowded and lively as in Lulea and Karlstad during the Swedish Championship qualifiers.
For the World Cup in Finland, it is just as much about the fans as it is the home favorite.
Finland The World Cup on our soil was described not only because the Finnish Lions are the favourites and the Olympic champions of the tournament recently.
It was almost about the newly opened plaza in Tampere, the newest plaza in Europe.
A giant building in the center of Tampere, which is the center of Finland when it comes to hockey.
The host team Tabara won the league gold this season, while the second city team Elvis finished third. Both play in the new arena, which seats 13,455 in a city of 250,000.
It is as if a globe-sized arena is being built in Sweden’s fourth city, Uppsala.
This says something about the interest in hockey in Finland.
Finland winning the World Cup premiere doesn’t require a master’s degree to figure it out, although the Finnish Lions had suffered four losses in a row prior to this tournament.
Be curious about the photos in the arena
There were three losses in a row at the Beijer hockey games last week and I’ve rarely seen a lion tamer.
But maybe they already had the World Cup championship in their heads, I think.
Now it was 5-0 against Norway at the end and the match isn’t much to write home about.
I was most curious about the pictures from the largely crowded plaza swimming in blue and white.
This week has been all about fan parties here at home too after the fantastic Swedish Championship final between Lulea and Faristad.
There was concern that hockey fans were so drowned out in TV sofas during the coronavirus pandemic that they would never return to the stands again.
Nothing could be more wrong after the Swedish play-off which turned out to be a great crowd party.
The same suction also applies to the restroom.
At least when you play Finland.
There were more than 11,000 spectators at this premiere, despite the fact that the cheapest tickets cost almost 1,500 SEK.
No decibels for Lulia measurements
But despite the exorbitant ticket prices, audiences flock when the Native Nation plays and the playoffs are long sold out.
There may have been no decibels for Lulia’s metrics at the premiere, but what to throw against a team like Norway.
It is not a directly inherited enemy.
Not even the slightest threat.
Although he was slow with the scorer for a long time, Toni Rajala eased all the nerves, crushing Finland 2-0 in the middle of the match.
Then it was released and it became the big win that everyone expected.
But in five days, Finland and Sweden will meet in the same arena.
Then I think earplugs are required.
The United States started with their victory over Latvia after a strong start and took a 3-0 lead already in 11 minutes in the first half.
Star defender Seth Jones showed why the Chicago Blackhawks were awarded a new eight-year contract worth a total of nearly NZ800m – or 100m a year.
He put himself 2-0 and then played until 3-0 after just one minute and then the match was over.
The United States is a small outsider.
Aside from Seth Jones, they aren’t the biggest names in the NHL, but they still have twenty players from the best league in the world.
Slovakia beat France 4-2 and Olympic star Juraj Slavkovsky provided two direct passes at the premiere.
He was named the most valuable player of the tournament in Beijing after his seven goals in many matches.
At seventeen years old.
Now he’s 18 (March 30) and it looks like he wants to play a leading role in the World Cup as well.
Canada beat Germany at its premiere and won 5-3.
And here I want to raise a giant warning flag.
The Canadians went home with a gold medal at the World Cup in Riga last spring after a final victory over Finland and with a team far worse on paper.
Then they started having a nightmare and they were lucky enough to take them to the quarter-finals.
I have Canada as my favorite for the gold medal this time as well.
The 23-year-old Winnipeg star, Pierre-Luc Dubois, scored twice and could be one of the biggest names in this tournament.
It was already 5-1 after two stints, before Rogley and now Detroit’s successful defender Moritz Ceder played 5-2 and then made it 5-3.
But they never came close to that.