Finland v. Sweden - Watch it!

I turn off my Xbox to find, hockey! ON TV! HERE! IN THE U.K., hockey!!!!!!!!! Whooooooooo!!!!!!

It was Finland v Russia that was on. So I started to watch with excitement. Yes I know Canada is out, but still, anyone that watched this game would have noticed the abundance of Canadian flags and jerseys in the crowd. Canadians need hockey. It doesn't matter if the game doesn't even involve them, they are interested. The same is true of the NHL, Phoenix v. Nashville, San Jose v Atlanta, Columbus v Minnesota, who will win? who will lose? who cares? Canadians. That's who. So from this you can infer, I was deeply engrossed by the Finland v. Russia game.

So Finland score, and then they score again. In very quick succession! Then the teams had appeared to switch ends, and I am sitting there thinking, well what moron put cameras on both sides of the rink?! Then Finland score again. (To put this in perspective this had happened in the space of 2 minutes max). Then I realize, there is not cameras on the other side of the rink at all, the BBC is being a Big Bastardin' Cockface and only showing the damn highlights of the game, and my mood sunk. Still I did watch a very convincing Finnish side defeat Russia 4-0.

Then I realized I was getting old(er) when I saw Pavel Bure, manager of the Russian side. Wow, it really was 12 years ago he led the Vancouver Canucks all the way to the Stanley Cup finals against the New York Rangers (who ended up beating Vancouver and taking home their first Stanley Cup since 1940)?

Anyway the good news is Sunday at 12.50 the aforementioned BBC will be showing the live final Sweden v Finland on BBC2. This promises to be a great game with so much at stake and the history between these two teams, I am sure to be entertained! If anyone wants to come round and watch it with me, feel free (although I doubt anyone will take me up on that).

There is one aspect of the game I am not looking forward to however, let me explain. When I was growing up, my Dad, who is a BIG football fan, used to watch "Soccer Saturday" on TSN. He used to get absolutely infuriated with the commentary from these Canadian guys, who kept saying Soccer with such a North American twang it drove any British person nuts, and on top of that clearly did not understand the game very well. I used to think he was nuts for being so bothered by it. Not anymore. I find myself doing the exact same thing over here. I feel a certain rage when someone is commentating on hockey with no real clue what they are on about. The funny thing I have noticed is they always have a go to guy that knows his stuff. Soccer Saturday used to have a guy called Graham Leggott, who if my memory serves me correctly was from Aberdeen. Here the BBC seem to have some North American chap (still not quite Bob Cole/Harry Neale) to deal with such complex commentary such as "forechecking", "Passing it to the point", "just past the hash marks", "dekes", "dumps the puck" etc. I found this comparison rather amusing. Basically, I have become my father.

Oh and DHL picked up that package today, lets see if Amazon promptly refunds my money....

"Hello out there, we're on the air, it's hockey night tonight. Tension grows, the whistle blows and the puck goes down the ice. The goalies jump and the players bump and the fans all go insane, someone roars, Bobby scores! At the good old hockey game. Oh the good old hockey game, is the best game you can name, and the best game you can name, is the good old hockey game" Stompin' Tom Connors (The good old hockey game)