Those of you who listened to me babble my way through the World Junior Championships know I have a fondness for Finnish hockey. It was recently brought home to me that some people--I'm not naming any names, but you know who you are--don't quite have a proper grasp on the subject. And so, since no one asked, here is how to apprectiate the awesomeness that is Finnish hockey, in four easy lessons.

Lesson #1: Finland is not Sweden. It is, in fact, an entirely different country.

via intactnews.ro

In the hockey sense, this means that the Swedish Elite League (SEL) is not the same as the top Finnish professional league, the SM-Liiga (Suomen mestaruus liiga, or "Finnish Championship League"). Depending on who you talk to, the SM-Liiga is either the second or third best league in Europe, after the SEL and the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). [I'd say #2 for goalies, #3 for others.]

Translating difficulty from one league to another is no science, and, as far as I've been able to discover, there has only been one systematic attempt to do so. In 2005, using historical data (although it's unclear what years this data covers), Gabriel Desjardins compared per game production for players who made the jump from various feeder leagues to the NHL. He calculated that the SM-Liiga had a difficulty rating of .54, making it the 3rd in the European leagues behind the KHL (.83) and the SEL (.78). For comparison's sake, the AHL had a difficulty rating of .44.

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I've kept quiet with the stories that have upset the hockey world this summer out of fear that making a quick, newsie like post was going to look more like opportunism than an actual attempt to share information.  I had nothing relevant to add to the news of the passing of Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien, and Wade Belak. 

The Boogaard news hurt.  There's the name recognition aspect and remembering that the Bolts almost acquired the guy in 2010 at the NHL trade deadline.  My friend and colleague here at SB Nation, Bryan Reynolds of Hockey Wilderness, had taken things very hard and very personally too, so I was exposed to that.  I kept my mouth shut.

Yesterday, with the news of the Yaroslavl Lokomotiv...  While I was compelled to get a news piece up on this...  That news snippet did no justice to the horrific news.  It did not share my emotional state on things. It didn't speak of the loss of life, nor how things were being felt across the globe (yes, globe.  Note that, ESPN.  I'll come back to that). 

The story was left blank, just as blank as I felt in the wake of such a disaster. 

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While we're supposed to be covering the Tampa Bay Lightning and the National Hockey League, a tragedy has occured in the Kontinental Hockey League today.  Another tragedy in the ice hockey world that has already felt too much loss this summer.

This story is breaking, but the entire Lokomotive hockey team has been killed in a plane crash.  The team includes former NHL'ers Pavol Demitra and Ruslan Salei among others.

From the Russian site Lifenews.ru (translated through Google):

In a plane crash near Yaroslavl killed dozens of prominent athletes, including head coach and Brad McCrimmon.

The Yak-42 flew to Minsk ice hockey team - told Life News in law enforcement. In a disaster, only one person survived.

The plane disappeared from the screens of about 15.50 Moscow time. As it turned out, had to climb aboard just 5000 meters and then collapsed.

This is another shocking and sobering event for the hockey world, and will be felt across North America and Europe.  

Team Canada took on Russia today in the quarter finals and lost 5-2 to the Russian powerhouse.

Not a surprise that Canada lost to the stacked Russian squad but this will be the worst finish for the squad since 1992 and the last time the country didn't win a medal since 2002. They won against easy teams in the tourney, but lost all of their games against top teams that they faced. It does not come as surprise for the team medal but still a little bit of a surprise for the team to finish this bad. Then again they were young and only sported only one player who participated for Canada in the Olympics (Corey Perry) as compared to the Russians who have 14 on their roster.

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Team Canada lost again to yet another strong team in the WC's, today it was to the Czech Republic. The 3-2 loss brings Team Canada to a quater-final matchup against Russia on Thursday.

Even with Steven Stamkos back in the lineup, they Canadians were unable to beat the Czechs who were in a 'must win' game in order for them to advance to the quarter finals. Canada had an early 1-0 lead from Ray Whitney, but struggled through the game and even gave up a short handed goal. The Czechs then scored three unanswered goals on Chris Mason. Duchene was able to score late in the third to make it 3-2 with Mason pulled and Vokoun being steamrolled by Perry behind the net, but the team wasn't able to tie up the game.

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After losing to Switzerland last week, Team Canada bounced back to beat Norway in a 12-1 blowout on Friday. Jordan Eberle in his first game with the team led Canada with a goal and three assists. This was the most goals scored by Canada at a World Championship since 1967. Steven Stamkos was kept out of play as per team protocol but he did skate with the team for an hour on Saturday at an optional practice.

In the next game that the team played, Team Sweden on Sunday, the Swedish team beat the Canadians 3-1. The team had a slow start to the game and only begun to respond physically in the 2nd period. According to TSN, Steve Downie repeatedly went after Lightning teammate Victor Hedman. Stamkos did not play in the game against Sweden.

The Canadians still has one more round robin game against the Czech Republic on Tuesday before the quarterfinals begin on Thursday.

The US lost to Finland at the World Championships Wednesday, 12 May, by a score of 3-2.

The US went O-fer in the round robin preliminary rounds and finished last in its group. This means that they have been knocked down to the relegation round and will face Kazakhastan 15 May. The other relegation round game is Italy versus France. They will also play Italy on 16 May, and France on 18 May. When the relegation round is complete, the bottom two teams drop to Division I play while the top two stay in the Championship Division.

So the United States in international play will have gone from playing for an Olympic gold medal to potentially dropping to Division I in three months. Granted, these are not the exact same guys that had played on the silver-medal winning team, and this team does not have the same coaches that coached the Olympic team. But still, three months later, this is pretty embarrassing. The last time the US was in the relegation round was in 2003.

Also see: 

1982 a dark time for USA Hockey [IIHF]

Team USA's relegation nightmare continues at IIHF worlds [Puck Daddy]

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Team Canada got handed it's first loss of the tournament yesterday by Switzerland, losing 4-1. The biggest news out of the game was the upper body injury that Steven Stamkos got by getting hit in the jaw by Swiss player Timo Helbing's elbow. After the hit Stamkos did return but then sat out the entire third period of the game.

The Globe and Mail is reporting that Stamkos will miss Canada's next game with a possible concussion. Canada's next game is on Friday and the forward will be kept out of the game for precautionary reasons. GM Mark Messier says he is being kept out because of protocol.

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