SM-liiga in English

[Buffalo_1988]

I've read lot of complaints that foreign fans cant find information (news and summaries about their favorite players). I think there isn't foreign media which follows Sm-liiga continually so.. this is thread for foreigners which cant understand finnish and would like to know how foreign players are doing at the highest league in Finland. Jatkoaika is undoubtedly the best hockey forum in this country. Jatkoaika has about 50,000 users and post are under strict surveillance so quality remains high. Do not hesitate to write in english.... as you can see even this first post is probably full of spelling errors. (I Know. there is five times word foreign) :)

Rules:

1. No useless comments and debates .. lets keep it easy to read for everybody!
2. Post mainly about foreing players and finnish prospects (If you want write something about SM-liiga in general, it has to be relevant)
3. Only english in this thread!



If you dont understand finnish fluently.. DO NOT try to acquire user account to this forum because it wont be possible. (until now. There might be some changes)

 

[Fordél]

Good idea for a thread but shouldn´t this thread be there where we discuss about SM-liiga?

 

[Kourujärven Ponnistus]

I'm waiting HardCoreHooligan's contribution to the thread.

PS. Four passes break any defence.

 

[Kuusumu]

Hockey played in the Finnish Sm-liiga is really simple. There are a few principles that every team's playbook consists of:

- Hockey is a momentum game
- Four passes break any defence
- If you can't handle the heat, stay out of the kitchen
- 95% preparation is 50% performance
- Respect the bluelines

 

[Sennin Wakizashi]

Hockey played in the Finnish Sm-liiga is really simple. There are a few principles that every team's playbook consists of:

How many games have YOU played?

 

[Ralph]

Scott Barney, come out, there is a game.

 

[Buffalo_1988]

Scott Barney, come out, there is a game.

No useless comments

what is the point in your post?

 

[Ralph]

what is the point in your post?

My probelm is my bad english skills. I wanted say that Scott Barney doesn't play good hockey right now in Club (Kerho).

 

[Tim Callahan]

Four things that everyone should know about finnish hockey;

- Kiss kiss backhandit forehandit backhandit and puck to the net!
- Win the right games!
- Hockey is a momentum game. The puck didn't bounce our way.
- Hello, Arvi Lind

 

[psychodad]

The obvious problem is, no foreigners will be able to submit their questions without a user ID, and obtaining one will be impossible.

So we'll have to figure out what sort of information would be needed/useful for the random foreign fans trying to find things out.

For my part, I can summarize the foreign players who play for my favourite team, Rauman Lukko.

- Charles Bertrand has been a positive surprise and continues to grow into one of the best French born players to ever play the game. He has great offensive talent and has already displayed that he is ready to compete at a high level. He'll be a key player for the French national team for years to come, and hopefully has a chance to flourish in Lukko for a few more years and become a dominant offensive threat in the league.

- Kris Beech is a great addition to our roster. Most fans were concerned after losing Kurtis McLean, but Beech is showing why he was a high draft pick back in the day and why he managed to put up good numbers in the swedish elite league. He is defensively very sound, and has the offensive tools to be a serious threat in both scoring and passing the puck. His conditioning is not 100% yet and sometimes at the end of the game he might look a bit gassed, but it is a long season and best players are in their best condition when the REAL games start. Overall, probably a more complete player than Kurtis was.

- Mark Bomersback is a goal scorer with surprisising potential. He has the best shot percentage out of all our forwards and for a smaller guy he seems to be an expert in garbage goals. Most of his goals (even before Lukko) seem to have come from short distance and rebounds. A bit invisible at times, but shows up big with some timely goals. Personally I am surprised by his high production, and I hope he can keep it up. Should be easier once the line combinations become more solid (Lukko has suffered key injuries).

- Matt Generous has also been a surprise. Not flashy, but very reliable. He has some offensive upside but so far the power play combinations have been quite uneffective. Defensively sound. Surprising find for lukko scouting, this guy definitely didn't have the most impressive resume, but seems to pan out just fine.

- Bjorn Melin is a world class talent but he has been with the team for such a short time, it's hard to say anything about him yet. I think we'll see massive production from him once he finds his place in a line (with Perttu Lindgren and Lauri Tukonen, both are returning from injuries) and also power play combinations. He's got all the tools.

I'll try to remind myself to write in this thread every now and then, even though I've been constantly reminded by a certain username that I have no english skills. So you'll just have to settle for trying to decrypt whatever it is that I'm writing!

Reminds me of a scene in "Being John Malkovich"....

 

[Northern King]

Well played, guys.

Not sure if too many foreigners even read these forums, but what the heck.

There's a bunch of great foreign players in Finnish league at the moment.
Just to mention a few;

Tomas Zaborsky (Assat)
- He's got 15 goals and 5 assists in 20 games, which is quite impressive.
- It will be intresting to see whether he will stay in Pori or go to KHL.

Ryan Lasch (Pelicans)
- Lasch has been brilliant so far. 19 points in 19 games.
- Rather small player but then again he's a fast skater.

Eric Perrin (JYP)
- Didn't start the season too good
- 19 points in 22 games.

As a fan of Assat I have to say that Kristian Kudroc has improved a lot from last season. Definitely one of the most important pieces of Assat's defence.
His strong start of season gave him a chance to represent Slovakia's national team in Deutchland Cup.

Radek Smolenak started the season strongly, but he's got now a bit of a dry season.

/e: Sorry for the messy layout of this message.

 

[Chiesa di Totti]

If you dont understand finnish fluently.. DO NOT try to acquire useraccount to this forum because it wont be possible.

Why won´t it be possible? We have had few foreign members during the years, in Kärpät-osio was thread for them years ago. And HCH has user account and nobody understands him/her anyway. One can use for example Google translate to communicate with stupid finns, or go to HFboards?=)

 

[Buffalo_1988]

Why won´t it be possible?

well.. it isn't impossible, but we need to ask what admins are thinking about this. And if they'r willing to make some sort of allowance for foreign applicants. i asked permission only to start this thread.

 

[Jaws]

I guess I should try to gabble some English about foreign players in Turun Palloseura (TPS).

Tomas Mojzis
This Czech-born defenseman is a very trustworthy player for us. He is an all-around player, he can play powerplays or kill penalties. Plays high minutes and is definitely one of the best defenders in SM-Liiga. 22 games, 2+10=12.

Ryan Stone
Our player-coordinator Ari Vuori was searching for a first-line-center. After twenty games, we have noticed that he doesn't have enough skills to have that status, but he still is really important player. He is tough and leads the league with huge penaltystats (95 minutes in 20 games). Points are 5+4=9.

Mario Scalzo
Scalzo hasn't played so much yet, so I can't tell about him lot. Everybody knows that he is very skilled defender with puck and he sure can play powerplays.

Tomas Plihal
Plihal is one of my favourite-players, because he has lots of energy and he works much in the trough. He is our first-line-center, but he hasn't done enough points to convince everybody. Plihal has played couple seasons here, and sure is one of our most important players. Tomas has suffered lots of injuries. 22 games, 3+6=9.

Michal Birner
Birner is a very skilled player also. He has "A"-letter on his chest which means he means a lot to TPS. He gets much chances to score almost in every game, but he hasn't done so much goals. That's why we are hoping him to improve more, he is 1-2 lines forward. 22 games, 4+7=11.

Jakub Cerny
Cerny hasn't improved anyone. 22 games and 1+1=2 doesn't leave any excuses. I think we have potential juniors to play in the same role as Cerny is playing. Fourthliner.

Marek Schwarz
Schwarz didn't start so well, and many people were concerned about Schwarz. He has done better nowadays, but TPS has maybe the best goalietrainer in the world (I am not kidding), Urpo Ylönen, so I am 100% sure he will be "upgraded" to a whole new level. Our another goalie, Aleksis Ahlqvist, has played well so they have shared the games almost fifty-fifty.
3,23 GAA and save-percentage 88,65. (don't confuse, our defending hasn't been so good...). Schwarz has played in 14 games, started about 10, if I remember right.

I hope this was clear, I know there is some mistakes (sorry for those).

 

[Vanhapuuma]

I'm not quite sure why should we be discussing only about the foreign players that are playing in SM-liiga? If this is so just because the non-finnish hockey fans want to hear how their natives are doing in here, I get it, but as I've read from other forums I've got the notion that they're also wanting to get to know a bit about SM-liiga in general, and maybe about the future finnish prospects, the style of play ("Our Game" and the rapists of hockey) and so forth. Just a thought.

But I'm not gonna go into this discussion, yet, cuz it's about time for me to go to bed. Don't gonna let the bed bugs bite. Those damn evil creatures, which I hate and fear more than anything. Kinda hate that saying too, I would've never got any sleep if my mom or dad would've said something like that when I was younger. Sorry for the ot. Tired.

 

[psychodad]

but as I've read from other forums I've got the notion that they're also wanting to get to know a bit about SM-liiga in general, and maybe about the future finnish prospects, the style of play ("Our Game" and the rapists of hockey) and so forth. Just a thought.

If you find some specific questions then that would be a good place to start. Put them here and people will reply. Just guessing what they would want to know is going to produce one massive thread with loads of useless information and all the needed info would be buried somewhere in there.

I remember some foreign fans being able to ask questions here before, so they must have had access (this was about 2 years ago) somehow.

 

[Tadu]

Every foreigner should know few of the FEL-teams.

Helsingin Jokerit (Jesters of Helsinki) is a rich team owned by swedish businessman with multiple jaws. They sign everyone want but still never win. They also have these 10-year old ultra-fans sharing fucking sandwiches and beating up other 10-year olds.

HIFK (Helsingfors iddrotts komrater or something[Helsinki sportsters]) is a swedish team lost in a finnish league. They play rough brand-hockey lead by ~16-year old swedish lund-kid who does airdribble goals.

Rest of the teams are OTC(odorless, tasteless, colourless).

 

[psychodad]

Every foreigner should know few of the FEL-teams.

Helsingin Jokerit (Jesters of Helsinki) is a rich team owned by swedish businessman with multiple jaws. They sign everyone want but still never win. They also have these 10-year old ultra-fans sharing fucking sandwiches and beating up other 10-year olds.

HIFK (Helsingfors iddrotts komrater or something[Helsinki sportsters]) is a swedish team lost in a finnish league. They play rough brand-hockey lead by ~16-year old swedish lund-kid who does airdribble goals.

Rest of the teams are OTC(odorless, tasteless, colourless).

As they can probably derive from this drivel, some of the capital city wannabes have created an artform out of being arrogant. They have these naive delusions that roads are not paved outside the city limits, and that the rest of the country is cows and tractors. The star players on their teams mostly come from outside the capital city area, but most of the time these ignorant fans only hear about them for the first time when they sign a contract to HIFK or Jokerit.

Of course, the most succesful clubs in the leagues history are all outside of this area, namely Ilves, Tappara and TPS.

 

[J.Grönvall]

Tappara

We've had only a couple of foreign players so far this season in Tampere.

Joey Tenute: A skillful canadian who came with relatively big expectations, due to his last season in Finland when he scored 38 points in Jokerit Helsinki. Tenute had some knee issues last season in DEL-league Germany and never got his skating to the level it needs to be in order to play in SM-Liiga. Tenute played 18 games and had two goals and five assists, which was not enough, especially because he was expected to be the number-one-center in our team. Tenute is quite intelligent player and has a decent shot, but that was not enough, so Tenute was released and won't be playing in Tappara this season.

Jan Platil: A czech defenseman with good size. Originally Platil came to play through try-out but took a huge hit from HIFK Helsinki's Eetu Pöysti on his third game and has been on the injury roster since then. Platil is expected to return this week, so it's only after that when we'll really get to see what he's like, and how can he perform here.

Viktor Ekbom: A young swede defenseman who has been in and out of the roster so far. Ekbom was expected to play regularly and maybe even get some power play time, but he hasn't been that good so far. Ekbom has had some injuries and maybe that has been slowing him down. At least for now, he has played very simple, defense-oriented hockey and fights the roster spot with our young guys.

Looking to the future, I would recommend you to fix your eyes on our 16-year old talent Aleksander "Sasha" Barkov Jr. Barkov is a big (188 cm, 88 kg) modern center with great hands and timing. Barkov is playing his first season (obviously) and has put up eight points in fifteen games. Despite his lack of experience and his young age, he has quickly become one of our most important players and everyone in Tampere are excited to see this young man on ice.

 

[Buffalo_1988]

JYP had eight game wining streak but it stoped last weekend. JYP lost two games to the same opponet (HPK). In Scoring-board Eric is in 4Th palce at this moment, but i think he will rise back to top. Overall Perrin has performed nicely in this season.

Pavel "ice man" Skrbek. Very calm and solid defender. Keeps his head up, look the situation and then decide what to do. Holtari made quite smart move signing with Pavel.

 

[Buffalo_1988]

JYP signed a Czech born player. Petr Hubacek, 32 years old forward. He is worldchampion (2010) and he has experience from NHL, KHL and AHL. According to the first game and postgame interview , He seems like a decent guy.

Height 185cm -- Weight 90kg -- Shoots Right

 

[Northern King]

Tomas Zaborsky (Assat)
- He's got 15 goals and 5 assists in 20 games, which is quite impressive.
- It will be intresting to see whether he will stay in Pori or go to KHL.

Since Buffalo posted, I guess I can make a minor update.

Zaborsky's got now 24 goals in 30 games, which is pretty damn good.
And he will stay here in Pori for the rest of the season.

Btw, I still doubt that anyone foreign even reads this thread..

 

[Buffalo_1988]

I know that there are some foreign who are reading this thread so it isn't for nothing :)

Here is Eric Perrin's interview from JYP's webpage


1. What kind of team we have in 2011-2012

Eric: Hard working and lot of character.


2.Task, where you have to be an scout and you have to analyze that what kind of player you are.
What kind of review you would write? (not easy translate this one so it might sound weird)

Eric: Center who plays both, deffence and offence


3. If you wouldnt play hockey for a living, what would you do?

Eric: Maybe golf or tennis


4. What is the biggest hit in JYP's locker room?

Eric: "I'm sexy and I know it" by L.M.F.A.O. Too many in our team think that they are


5. The team team has a fine system. Do you get fines and why?

Eric: Yes, i get fines because boys dont translate all the rules for me and the rules are changing all the time!


6. Horse racing or motorsport?

Eric: Motorsport


7. Lottery or poker?

Eric: Poker


8.Lapland or the southern sun?

Eric: Shoutern sun


9.Fillet or Chicken pasta

Eric: Fillet


10. If you are stuck in the desert island and you have to choose one of your team mate with you. Who would it be?

Eric: Kalle Koskinen because he is older than me, calmn and nice guy.

 

[FASlapsi]

In SaiPa we have this thing called reilu meininki.

Also, we have players of ice hockey that come from an outer country's, like Sverige and Slowackia. One of their names are Savilahti-Nagander, which is really really funny because Savilahti means Claybay, and Nagander just sounds retarded.

Then there is also this Bombmachine of Hakali, Ville Paalanen. He is very good at skating inside other players, and he sometimes tryes airwaves, but always stupid Olli Malmivaara (whos sister is a world famous acterss, PAvel Rosa) spoils everything with his stick. He (Ville Paalanen, not Olli or Pavel) also seriously wounded Ace-welder Honkanen and made minced meat out of him, because he was so asshole to our Slowackialainen miracle, Richard Lintner.

That's it! NExt time I will speak about Robert Jekimovs, SaiPa's one player that comes from outer country named Latwea. Also I will tell you about KalPa's very weird player, he is Kimmo Kapanen and he is a neeger.

 

[VP78]

... he is Kimmo Kapanen and he is a neeger.

He is not "a neeger" (what does it mean?) . He is a nigger!!