Iltalehti breaks down the hottest topics and corridor stories of the World Hockey Championships every day. Here are Thursday’s Afterbaths.
The Switzerland loss sucks
Lassi Kuisma, Zurich
To celebrate the World Cup gold, you have to beat a bunch of tough teams. That’s the way it is, but at the same time it’s true that Switzerland now has a hot road to the first men’s World Cup gold in the country’s history.
The value of the final match between Finland and Switzerland in the first group skyrocketed when the semi-final pairs were tied. Switzerland will face Norway, Finland will face Canada.
In other words, Finland would play against the sensational team Norway on Saturday if the Lions had beaten Switzerland in regular time.
All credit to Norway, but the team can’t make it to the finals, can they? Right?
If Switzerland takes care of Norway without major difficulties, the team will get to the finals a little more rested than the winner of the Canada-Finland match. Switzerland-Norway starts on Saturday at 15:20 local time and Canada-Finland at 20:00
The Lions beat the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals. Pasi Liesimaa
A game of seconds
Viljami Kalmari, Zurich
Watching the TV broadcast, you wouldn’t guess how precisely the rink choreographies before the World Cup matches are performed.
On the ice, we follow exactly the same timetable as in the TV booth. For example, the greetings of captains and judges are scheduled to the nearest second.
Below is an example of the timetable provided by the IIHF for the Finland-Czech Republic match.
The times are shown in Swiss time. IIHF
Nieminen’s rugged design
Ilari Savonen
Attentive listeners could rub their ears during the quarter-final match between the Lions and the Czech Republic.
The moment that caused astonishment came during the last commercial break of the second period, when the Viaplay broadcast showed a picture of the match between Canada and the USA, which was going on at the same time. There, with his fierce tackle, USA defender Ryan Lindgren pinned Canada’s star player Evan Bouchard to the ice so that he didn’t move in any way for a moment.
The tackle situation was explained in Viaplay’s studio, where expert Ville Nieminen got to speak.
– It’s a bad-looking tackle, as everyone can see. Ryan Lindgren stands up at the last moment and the shoulder hits “Bouch” Bouchard’s glass jaw, Nieminen formulated.
Niemi should be thanked for how firmly he has taken a stand on various grievances during this spring’s WC tournament. This time, the word description “glass jaw” admittedly went a little overboard when talking about a player who received a potentially bad concussion in connection with the tackle situation in question.
NHL insider reporter Frank Seravalli revealed during the match on the X message sharing service that Bouchard had concussion-like symptoms as early as last month. The situation is even more worrying if Seravalli’s information is correct.
– The risk of permanent symptoms increases significantly if you get another injury within a short time, sports medicine specialist and professor Jari Parkkari stated to Iltalehti.
Canada’s NHL star pack Evan Bouchard was the target of a fierce tackle in the USA quarter-final match. PDO
If you don’t happen to know what the term “glass jaw” means, it originally described a boxer who can’t take punches properly.
Today, glass jaw and glass ankle are used to describe an injury-prone player, or in general a person prone to injury.
