Entry tags:
Mikko Koivu and Mikael Granlund, separately and together
Saw first tv ad for the upcoming season yesterday, yeah! I don't even know why, because with the pre-season having been in full swing for weeks now, it really shouldn't, but it didn't really hit home how soon the season is starting before that. Only like couple of weeks left.
So what better way to celebrate that, than another primer. Here's one on Mikko Koivu, the captain of Minnesota Wilds, and Mikael Granlund, their top prospect.
First off, this was supposed to be a short, quick look on who these two Minnesota Wild players are, and why are they shippy together. Which it still is, except for the short and quick part. But in any case, it's done now, so let's just get right to it, shall we?
As a disclaimer: All pictures were found using the google image search, and I don't own any of them. If you wish to be credited just let me know and it shall happen. The same goes for youtube videos.
This is Mikko Koivu
On
And off the ice
Born March 12, 1983, in Turku, Finland, Koivu is the first line center and captain of Minnesota Wild, who drafted him as sixth overall in 2001. Mikko is the son of a Finnish hockey coach Jukka Koivu and the younger brother of Saku Koivu, with whom he has nine year age-gap.
Not that they actually look like it.
Starting his professional hockey career as a seventeen year old in the Finnish Elite League, Mikko played four years with his hometown team TPS, before coming to to the North America in 2004. Because of the lockout Mikko spent the season playing for the Houston Aeros, Minnesota's AHL affiliate, before making the team the following season. Since then he has become integral part of the franchise, and in 2009 he was named as their first ever permanent captain.
On ice Mikko is often praised as one of the best, although highly underrated, two-way forwards in NHL today. He is also tremendously talented at shootouts. Although, because of Mikko's much larger size for one, he and his brother have very different playing styles, the two are often compared to each other, most of the time in favor of Saku. As one Finnish sports writer wrote in a column this spring; everything Mikko does, his big brother has done already. This has made Mikko highly competitive, both on and off the ice.
Anyways, have a highlight reel:
For the World Championships this spring Nike (one of the biggest sponsors of the national team) did an ad-campaing called 'Break the Spell'. Along with Valtteri Filppula, Mikko was one of the faces of the campaign.
To me, this video is basically everything that Mikko appears to be off ice. Intense and really passionate about everything he sets out to do, but at the same time he's mostly very goofy and laid back. At least so long as you don't catch him after a bad game or something like that, as he can get a little testy about loosing. He's also really not known to be one to mince words.
He's also very polite and well-mannered, and as such it's not in anyway unusual to see media call him "the ideal son-in-law" every now and again. (The fact that he's still a bachelor might have something to do with that.)
Donating to children's hospitals both in Minnesota and in Finland certainly doesn't hurt his reputation as a genuinely nice guy.
Neither does holding up the game so he can help an injured fan
Even if he's secretly a huge prat sometimes
I really wasn't kidding about the competitiveness
Also, he should not be allowed to dress himself. Because when he does things like this happen
or this
(The lady in the picture with him, is his mom. Love how tiny she looks in comparison.)
Compulsive need to look like a grandpa aside, Mikko is very well liked by his teammates.
Who include one Mikael Granlund
Here he is on
an off ice
Born February 26, 1992 in Oulu, Finland. The twenty year old center/winger, often claimed as the greatest future star of Finnish hockey and is also one of the most promising prospects of Minnesota Wild's who drafted him as ninth overall, in 2010.
When Mikael made his SM-liiga debut, with his hometown team Oulun Kärpät, on his seventeeth birthday in 2009 a lot was already expected of him. By then he had already played at the World Juniors as a sixteen year old, the second youngest Finn ever, and had never scored less than twenty points during a season, even if he was always playing amongst older players. He played in two games, but didn't register any points before getting pulled out of the line up on March 3, just as the team was set to take ice.
Would've been nice to see you wear that jersey at least a bit longer..
Those ended up being the only games Granlund ever played with the team on adult level as contract dispute between him and the club resulted in Granlund signing with a different team that same spring. The problem? Accoring to Granlund the contract he signed was altered afterwards. It also would've paid him virtually nothing. Based on these, he considered the contract null and void and himself a free agent. Kärpät tried to keep Granlund, who eventually sued his old team, arguing that the contract he signed with them did not meet the requirments for an empoyment contract. In the end the suit was settled out of court the following summer, and Granlund started the 2009-10 season as a member of the Helsinki IFK, with whom he stayed for three seasons before signing with the Wild this spring.
Now, there's no way of knowing how much the whole ordeal has affected Granlund as a person. Beyond a press release about signing with the HIFK he has never (to my knowledge at least) commented on the situation that forced him leave his old team, and even in that he only says that he's signing elsewhere because playing with Kärpät has become impossible.
But personally, I can't help thinking that being exposed to the shadier parts of sports business and having to go through a legal battle at seventeen would have an impact on anybody. At the very least, I'd think it has made him more careful, something which seemed evident in the way his signing with the Wild in May maybe took a few days longer than what the hastier fans were hoping for. It was never about him not wanting to sign with them, on the contrary. But if you'd had to go through all that, wouldn't you want to be extra sure that the next time you sign a life altering contract that everything is absolutely foolproof this time?
In any case, Granlund went on to win the league championship in 2011 with the HIFK. As a first line center, he was instrumental in the win, being also the leading point scorer in the playoffs that year. He was awarded the Jarmo Wasama memorial trophy, given to the best rookie of the year, in 2010 when he also received Raimo Kilpiö award, given to the league's gentlemanly player (he had total of 2 penalty minutes in 43 games). He also got the President's Trophy in 2011, award given by Honor Chairman of Finnish Ice Hockey Association. In his three full season's Granlund has never finished the regular season with less than thirty points and has always been in the top five points scorers on his team.
But enough of points and awards, let's look at highlight already! Here's best of Granlund from the 2011-12 season
In 2010 a group of sports journalism students made a profile piece on Granlund. It's a really great look on who he, mostly as a player, but also off the ice.
Part 1 (It's subtitled, but if those don't go on automatically, just press the cc button.)
And part 2
Now, you can't really talk about Granlund, without at least mentioning the awesome game winning goal at the World Championships against Russia in semi finals last year.
One thing constantly noted about Granlund is how humble he is, and I think the way he reacted to that goal is the perfect example of it. In literally every time his been asked about it in interviews since his answer has been some variant of "yeah, sure it was nice and all, but it's still just one goal, just like any other" He even manages to sound completely genuine while saying that.
Of course the thing to remember is that, at least in Finland, Granlund has been under media's eyes at least since he was sixteen years old, and locally even earlier. So he has had plenty enough time to get used to the exposure that comes from being a pro hockey player. Which is obvious from his lack of self-consciousness, appearing surprisingly comfortable on camera.
(Other noteworthy things in this interview: like many other hockey players, Granlund lacks the ability to keep his tongue in his mouth.)
That is, at least as long as the only thing he has to talk about is hockey, at least. If asked a question about off ice issues however, he'll turn into a shy and awkward teenager soon enough. I had originally planned to include some of the videos about him getting asked about the hordes of teenage girl screaming his name (yes, that a thing), and turning into a blushing, stuttering kid, but all of those seem to have mysteriously disappeared from youtube. So instead, here's Granlund being awkward while shooting an ad for a Finnish phone company.
And then the actual ad itself.
One thing also often said about Granlund, is how he's been able to make himself home in a locker room filled with guys lot older than himself and how he appears to be much older than he actually is.
But to me personally, the most remarkable thing is how he almost seems like he takes pleasure in proving anyone who doubts him wrong. And there have been many (some people just can't stand to see others succeeding in anything.) I mean in nearly every season that his played so far in the SM-Liiga, he has done everything excepted of him and more. That is not counting his latest one, but I think that the fact that he scored career highs in every major category, and people call it disappointing speaks more about just how much was asked of him, than it does about his performance.
And so now that we know both of them separately it's time for the fun part;
Why the two of them should be having all the gay sex
Because they're adorable together, for one.
Granlund and Koivu were connected to each other literally the second Granlund was drafted by the Wild, as you can see from his draft video.
Makes sense of course, Koivu the Finnish captain of the team and Granlund the future Finnish superstar, often compared to Koivu's big brother, playing in the same team soon enough. The thing practically writes itself.
It wasn't however until an almost year later, that the two met each other, having been chosen to play for Finland at the 2011 World Championships in Bratislava. For Koivu, it would be the first time donning the "C" in his national team jersey, for Granlund, the first time playing for Finland in a men's tournament.
Not to get into any specifics about the tournament itself, since those are not really prudent to the subject of this particular primer, I'll just jump right to the part where Finland won the tournament and our second ever World Championships title. During the award ceremony Koivu and Granlund had a Moment.
(Jump to 6:59 for the part in question.) I don't know which is better, the star struck look on Granlund's face or how Koivu keep hitting him until he gets Granlund to look at him..
Winning the championship was really huge, and as key members of the team, both Granlund and Koivu spent much of the summer doing pr appearances and interviews and whatnot. And they did a lot of those together. Not that either one of them was objecting to that.
Fucktons no alcohol was consumed prior to taking this picture.
In fact, they seem to enjoy each others company so much that they didn't seem to want to stop touching each other.
The fact that Finnish usually call the Championship Trophy as "The Guy" or "Son" brings out the gay overtones of this picture beautifully.
They were even in the Army together for a while, in the late summer/early fall. (Finland has a conscripted Army so all men have to serve either in the military or in civilian service sometime after their eighteenth birthday, although it's usually delayed for a year or to allow them to finish school. Now idea how Mikko managed to put it of for ten years though.)
Still touching.
In fact, when looking for pictures for this primer at one point I was starting to suspect that off ice ones, in which their not in some sort of bodily contact, simply don't exist.
That is, until I finally found one.
In which theirs longing gazing across a crowd.
But as the summer came to an end, it was time for Granlund to make a decision. To stay in Finland for a one more year or more to North America and play for the NHL? When Koivu was asked about what he thinks Granlund should do, the answer was that he'd "already hinted to Granlund that he really should come and play for the Wilds." Not that I would ever suggest that he might've had any kind of ulterior motives, beyond what he thought of as best for Granlund career.
In the end though, Granlund decided that he wasn't ready for NHL quite yet, and stayed in Finland. (There's a really good, subtitled interview about what went into that decision here.)
But being separated by an ocean is no excuse to stop being adorable. At the 2012 World Juniors Granlund was captaining the Finnish team when he had a snafu in a elimination shootout against Sweden in semifinals. (You can watch it here.) When Koivu heard what had happened he called Granlund up, because he wanted to comfort him. Russo, Wilds' beat writer wrote about it here. Some of the highlights from the piece:
So what better way to celebrate that, than another primer. Here's one on Mikko Koivu, the captain of Minnesota Wilds, and Mikael Granlund, their top prospect.
First off, this was supposed to be a short, quick look on who these two Minnesota Wild players are, and why are they shippy together. Which it still is, except for the short and quick part. But in any case, it's done now, so let's just get right to it, shall we?
As a disclaimer: All pictures were found using the google image search, and I don't own any of them. If you wish to be credited just let me know and it shall happen. The same goes for youtube videos.
This is Mikko Koivu
On
And off the ice
Born March 12, 1983, in Turku, Finland, Koivu is the first line center and captain of Minnesota Wild, who drafted him as sixth overall in 2001. Mikko is the son of a Finnish hockey coach Jukka Koivu and the younger brother of Saku Koivu, with whom he has nine year age-gap.
Not that they actually look like it.
Starting his professional hockey career as a seventeen year old in the Finnish Elite League, Mikko played four years with his hometown team TPS, before coming to to the North America in 2004. Because of the lockout Mikko spent the season playing for the Houston Aeros, Minnesota's AHL affiliate, before making the team the following season. Since then he has become integral part of the franchise, and in 2009 he was named as their first ever permanent captain.
On ice Mikko is often praised as one of the best, although highly underrated, two-way forwards in NHL today. He is also tremendously talented at shootouts. Although, because of Mikko's much larger size for one, he and his brother have very different playing styles, the two are often compared to each other, most of the time in favor of Saku. As one Finnish sports writer wrote in a column this spring; everything Mikko does, his big brother has done already. This has made Mikko highly competitive, both on and off the ice.
Anyways, have a highlight reel:
For the World Championships this spring Nike (one of the biggest sponsors of the national team) did an ad-campaing called 'Break the Spell'. Along with Valtteri Filppula, Mikko was one of the faces of the campaign.
To me, this video is basically everything that Mikko appears to be off ice. Intense and really passionate about everything he sets out to do, but at the same time he's mostly very goofy and laid back. At least so long as you don't catch him after a bad game or something like that, as he can get a little testy about loosing. He's also really not known to be one to mince words.
He's also very polite and well-mannered, and as such it's not in anyway unusual to see media call him "the ideal son-in-law" every now and again. (The fact that he's still a bachelor might have something to do with that.)
Donating to children's hospitals both in Minnesota and in Finland certainly doesn't hurt his reputation as a genuinely nice guy.
Neither does holding up the game so he can help an injured fan
Even if he's secretly a huge prat sometimes
I really wasn't kidding about the competitiveness
Also, he should not be allowed to dress himself. Because when he does things like this happen
or this
(The lady in the picture with him, is his mom. Love how tiny she looks in comparison.)
Compulsive need to look like a grandpa aside, Mikko is very well liked by his teammates.
Who include one Mikael Granlund
Here he is on
an off ice
Born February 26, 1992 in Oulu, Finland. The twenty year old center/winger, often claimed as the greatest future star of Finnish hockey and is also one of the most promising prospects of Minnesota Wild's who drafted him as ninth overall, in 2010.
When Mikael made his SM-liiga debut, with his hometown team Oulun Kärpät, on his seventeeth birthday in 2009 a lot was already expected of him. By then he had already played at the World Juniors as a sixteen year old, the second youngest Finn ever, and had never scored less than twenty points during a season, even if he was always playing amongst older players. He played in two games, but didn't register any points before getting pulled out of the line up on March 3, just as the team was set to take ice.
Would've been nice to see you wear that jersey at least a bit longer..
Those ended up being the only games Granlund ever played with the team on adult level as contract dispute between him and the club resulted in Granlund signing with a different team that same spring. The problem? Accoring to Granlund the contract he signed was altered afterwards. It also would've paid him virtually nothing. Based on these, he considered the contract null and void and himself a free agent. Kärpät tried to keep Granlund, who eventually sued his old team, arguing that the contract he signed with them did not meet the requirments for an empoyment contract. In the end the suit was settled out of court the following summer, and Granlund started the 2009-10 season as a member of the Helsinki IFK, with whom he stayed for three seasons before signing with the Wild this spring.
Now, there's no way of knowing how much the whole ordeal has affected Granlund as a person. Beyond a press release about signing with the HIFK he has never (to my knowledge at least) commented on the situation that forced him leave his old team, and even in that he only says that he's signing elsewhere because playing with Kärpät has become impossible.
But personally, I can't help thinking that being exposed to the shadier parts of sports business and having to go through a legal battle at seventeen would have an impact on anybody. At the very least, I'd think it has made him more careful, something which seemed evident in the way his signing with the Wild in May maybe took a few days longer than what the hastier fans were hoping for. It was never about him not wanting to sign with them, on the contrary. But if you'd had to go through all that, wouldn't you want to be extra sure that the next time you sign a life altering contract that everything is absolutely foolproof this time?
In any case, Granlund went on to win the league championship in 2011 with the HIFK. As a first line center, he was instrumental in the win, being also the leading point scorer in the playoffs that year. He was awarded the Jarmo Wasama memorial trophy, given to the best rookie of the year, in 2010 when he also received Raimo Kilpiö award, given to the league's gentlemanly player (he had total of 2 penalty minutes in 43 games). He also got the President's Trophy in 2011, award given by Honor Chairman of Finnish Ice Hockey Association. In his three full season's Granlund has never finished the regular season with less than thirty points and has always been in the top five points scorers on his team.
But enough of points and awards, let's look at highlight already! Here's best of Granlund from the 2011-12 season
In 2010 a group of sports journalism students made a profile piece on Granlund. It's a really great look on who he, mostly as a player, but also off the ice.
Part 1 (It's subtitled, but if those don't go on automatically, just press the cc button.)
And part 2
Now, you can't really talk about Granlund, without at least mentioning the awesome game winning goal at the World Championships against Russia in semi finals last year.
One thing constantly noted about Granlund is how humble he is, and I think the way he reacted to that goal is the perfect example of it. In literally every time his been asked about it in interviews since his answer has been some variant of "yeah, sure it was nice and all, but it's still just one goal, just like any other" He even manages to sound completely genuine while saying that.
Of course the thing to remember is that, at least in Finland, Granlund has been under media's eyes at least since he was sixteen years old, and locally even earlier. So he has had plenty enough time to get used to the exposure that comes from being a pro hockey player. Which is obvious from his lack of self-consciousness, appearing surprisingly comfortable on camera.
(Other noteworthy things in this interview: like many other hockey players, Granlund lacks the ability to keep his tongue in his mouth.)
That is, at least as long as the only thing he has to talk about is hockey, at least. If asked a question about off ice issues however, he'll turn into a shy and awkward teenager soon enough. I had originally planned to include some of the videos about him getting asked about the hordes of teenage girl screaming his name (yes, that a thing), and turning into a blushing, stuttering kid, but all of those seem to have mysteriously disappeared from youtube. So instead, here's Granlund being awkward while shooting an ad for a Finnish phone company.
And then the actual ad itself.
One thing also often said about Granlund, is how he's been able to make himself home in a locker room filled with guys lot older than himself and how he appears to be much older than he actually is.
But to me personally, the most remarkable thing is how he almost seems like he takes pleasure in proving anyone who doubts him wrong. And there have been many (some people just can't stand to see others succeeding in anything.) I mean in nearly every season that his played so far in the SM-Liiga, he has done everything excepted of him and more. That is not counting his latest one, but I think that the fact that he scored career highs in every major category, and people call it disappointing speaks more about just how much was asked of him, than it does about his performance.
And so now that we know both of them separately it's time for the fun part;
Why the two of them should be having all the gay sex
Because they're adorable together, for one.
Granlund and Koivu were connected to each other literally the second Granlund was drafted by the Wild, as you can see from his draft video.
Makes sense of course, Koivu the Finnish captain of the team and Granlund the future Finnish superstar, often compared to Koivu's big brother, playing in the same team soon enough. The thing practically writes itself.
It wasn't however until an almost year later, that the two met each other, having been chosen to play for Finland at the 2011 World Championships in Bratislava. For Koivu, it would be the first time donning the "C" in his national team jersey, for Granlund, the first time playing for Finland in a men's tournament.
Not to get into any specifics about the tournament itself, since those are not really prudent to the subject of this particular primer, I'll just jump right to the part where Finland won the tournament and our second ever World Championships title. During the award ceremony Koivu and Granlund had a Moment.
(Jump to 6:59 for the part in question.) I don't know which is better, the star struck look on Granlund's face or how Koivu keep hitting him until he gets Granlund to look at him..
Winning the championship was really huge, and as key members of the team, both Granlund and Koivu spent much of the summer doing pr appearances and interviews and whatnot. And they did a lot of those together. Not that either one of them was objecting to that.
In fact, they seem to enjoy each others company so much that they didn't seem to want to stop touching each other.
The fact that Finnish usually call the Championship Trophy as "The Guy" or "Son" brings out the gay overtones of this picture beautifully.
They were even in the Army together for a while, in the late summer/early fall. (Finland has a conscripted Army so all men have to serve either in the military or in civilian service sometime after their eighteenth birthday, although it's usually delayed for a year or to allow them to finish school. Now idea how Mikko managed to put it of for ten years though.)
Still touching.
In fact, when looking for pictures for this primer at one point I was starting to suspect that off ice ones, in which their not in some sort of bodily contact, simply don't exist.
That is, until I finally found one.
In which theirs longing gazing across a crowd.
But as the summer came to an end, it was time for Granlund to make a decision. To stay in Finland for a one more year or more to North America and play for the NHL? When Koivu was asked about what he thinks Granlund should do, the answer was that he'd "already hinted to Granlund that he really should come and play for the Wilds." Not that I would ever suggest that he might've had any kind of ulterior motives, beyond what he thought of as best for Granlund career.
In the end though, Granlund decided that he wasn't ready for NHL quite yet, and stayed in Finland. (There's a really good, subtitled interview about what went into that decision here.)
But being separated by an ocean is no excuse to stop being adorable. At the 2012 World Juniors Granlund was captaining the Finnish team when he had a snafu in a elimination shootout against Sweden in semifinals. (You can watch it here.) When Koivu heard what had happened he called Granlund up, because he wanted to comfort him. Russo, Wilds' beat writer wrote about it here. Some of the highlights from the piece:
"'He's a great guy,' Granlund said of Koivu last summer. 'I need to learn from him. He’s a great player and great leader, so there’s much to learn from him.'"
"If you know Koivu, he’s not exactly the touchy, feely type. So for Koivu to show this kind of compassion was big."
“'He said, ‘It’s just hockey,’” Granlund said. 'He tried to cheer me up. It means a lot that he called me. He’s a great player, and a good friend.'”
That's the picture Finnish media chose to use to accompany the story once they got wind of it. Don't you just love it when sports writers write slash for you?
And then of course in May the two of them were re-united at the Worlds again. Once the tournament was over, Granlund signed with the Wilds. The two of them should be playing with each other full time as soon as season starts, whenever that may be. Since they no longer have to angst about being stuck on two different continentals, they can start angsting about their age difference (which, btw, for those of you too lazy to count yourself is nine years). Which, is the attraction of the pairing in a nutshell. Or, as![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
intertangled put it:"It's like taking the best parts of Staal/Skinner and Carter/Richards."
And really, what more could you possibly want?
So there you have it.
"If you know Koivu, he’s not exactly the touchy, feely type. So for Koivu to show this kind of compassion was big."
“'He said, ‘It’s just hockey,’” Granlund said. 'He tried to cheer me up. It means a lot that he called me. He’s a great player, and a good friend.'”
That's the picture Finnish media chose to use to accompany the story once they got wind of it. Don't you just love it when sports writers write slash for you?And then of course in May the two of them were re-united at the Worlds again. Once the tournament was over, Granlund signed with the Wilds. The two of them should be playing with each other full time as soon as season starts, whenever that may be. Since they no longer have to angst about being stuck on two different continentals, they can start angsting about their age difference (which, btw, for those of you too lazy to count yourself is nine years). Which, is the attraction of the pairing in a nutshell. Or, as
intertangled put it:"It's like taking the best parts of Staal/Skinner and Carter/Richards."And really, what more could you possibly want?
So there you have it.
no subject
First off, this was supposed to be a short, quick look on who are these two Minnesota Wild players are, and why are they shippy together. Which it still is, except for the short and quick part.
LOL, isn't that the way it always goes? (You're right, editing is really, really hard!)
Huh, that Nike commercial is surprisingly non-sucky for a sports-commercial. And Mikko is... kind of sexy? (NOOOOO!) Like, why is he attractive and nice and kind of funny? I cannot have positive feelings towards Finnish players, it's like against the law or something!
Also, he should not be allowed to dress himself.
This is true for 99% of all hockey players. How they always manage to choose the least appropriate outfit is a complete mystery to me.
The whole stuff with Kärpät and Granlund is really annoying. I can understand why you feel frustrated by your team sometimes. (This is why I generally avoid finding out what goes on on the business end of professional sports, because the more I see about how everything is run, the less I want to do with the whole thing. There's so much fuckery, everywhere.)
Now, you can't really talk about Granlund, without at least mentioning the awesome game winning goal at the World Championships against Russia in semi finals last year.
Okay, I'm not even going to pretend that isn't one of the sexiest goals, ever. How is that for real, seriously?
Ugh, why is Granlund so adorable? I just want to hug him and cuddle him. THIS IS VERY HARD FOR ME, OKAY? And they're so cute together, even in that video from 2011 Worlds (I was sure that year was canceled, really, I don't remember anything about it. PS would you like a goalie? His name is Fasth and he's really useful!)
Fucktonsno alcohol was consumed prior to taking this picture.Hokey players never drink. Finns, especially, never consume alcohol. #truefact
They were even in the Army together for a while, in the late summer/early fall.
O_o Is this a... thing, in Finland? Do people do military service for shits and giggles? I understand nothing about this picture!
In fact, when looking for pictures for this primer at one point I was starting to suspect that off ice ones, in which their not in some sort of bodily contact, simply don't exist.
The slash potential inherent in these two is kind of ridiculous.
At the 2012 World Juniors Granlund was captaining the Finnish team when he had a snafu in a elimination shootout against Sweden in semifinals.
Okay, that is kind of awful. I mean, I'm sure Gustafsson would have made the save anyway (SHUT UP, IT TOTALLY WOULD HAVE HAPPENED!) but that is just painful to watch. And now I want to hug him until he stops looking sad. WTF? (I'm sure Mikko took care of that anyway.)
Since they no longer have to angst about being stuck on two different continentals, they can start angsting about their age difference
...fine, I kind of ship it. Like, a lot. Dammit. (You really need to do the Big Bang and write about a million words about these two, because now I want all the stories, forever and ever.)
TL;DR Awesome primer!
Edited to add: Oh, hey, don't forget to link this on Hockeypedia! More people need to ship these two.
no subject
You're right, editing is really, really hard!
It is! For me, empty paper is pretty much most horrible thing ever, so I'm somewhat bad when it comes to starting projects. But when I do start writing, it's like I can't stop even if I wanted to. I mean with this, I was actually able to reign myself in somewhat; the section about Mikko was originally almost twice as long. And then I realized that I shouldn't have bothered, since there's no way I would've been able to shut about Granlund anymore than that (he takes a lot of flack alright! I've gotten used to being defensive when it comes to him!). I consider being able to not count his every single season stats for SM-Liiga a success and leave it at that. :D
Both of the Nike ads are stupid good. My theory is, that in addition to great music (both songs used were actually made for the campaign), even hockey players can't get awkward when all they have to do, is walk around, look pretty and do some skating. :D
I cannot have positive feelings towards Finnish players, it's like against the law or something!
Now you know how I feel about Lundqvist! Sucks, doesn't it? ;p
How they always manage to choose the least appropriate outfit is a complete mystery to me.
I'm suspecting some sort of secret clause in the CBA; "players must always endeavor to make themselves look as tacky and ridiculous as possible." Either that, or they get their sense of style surgically removed. (For canadians, that same operation includes the removal of any trace amounts of personality not already destroyed.)
I can understand why you feel frustrated by your team sometimes.
Three years of Mikael gushing about how great organization HIFK is, hasn't really helped matters there.. Honestly, the best thing about him moving on to NHL is that it means not having to hear him talk about how much he has enjoyed playing with them and how they're like a big family and ad nauseam. We were a family too, at one point! And I know that mistakes were made, and we did try to screw you out of a pretty big pile of money, but it's not like we meant anything by it! Do you have to rub how much better your new adopted family is, in our face!
.. Sorry, this is something, I feel tad strongly about.
I do wish, that I didn't know anything about what went on between Granlund and Kärpät, because, yeah, not exactly something to endear one to either the club, or the entire sports really. But shockingly, the most promising prospect the country has produced possibly in decades and his first team nearly having to go to court were big enough news that every major news outlet was reporting on it at the time, so it really wasn't something you could avoid hearing about.
How is that for real, seriously?
I know! I remember watching that game with a bunch of friends, and right after it happened, and for a quite a while afterwards all anyone was saying was what the fuck did just happen. It's just pure porn.
It's kind of funny in a way, but if one were to pick a moment Granlund went from being a really good, promising young hockey player to rock star teenage heartthrob, worshipped by damn near whole country, it's that one goal. Kinda makes you wonder, how much less pressure would've been on him this year if he hadn't scored it, at least in such a manner..
I was sure that year was canceled, really, I don't remember anything about it.
If I have to deal with 2006 still being part of history books, you're bloody well going to live with last year happening. ;D
PS would you like a goalie? His name is Fasth and he's really useful!
I think we're good thanks! Unlike you people, we actually have excess of good goalies to pick from. ;)
(In all honestly, I have recently come to see that Fasth deserves some credit for what happened last year. Sure, he got pent over, spread open and fucked with out prep or lube, but then, it's not really his fault, seeing as your Ds were the ones doing the spreading.)
Finns, especially, never consume alcohol. #truefact
I'm positive that no one around here even knows what alcohol is.
Do people do military service for shits and giggles?
Not voluntarily no. It's just that we have this lovely little thing called conscription army, so military service is mandatory for men, as soon as they turn 18, although no one actually does it until they're around 19 or 20, since it can be pushed back for school and such. (Nice job dodging it for ten years, though, Mikko.) I really did mean to explain it in the primer but forgot.
I mean, I'm sure Gustafsson would have made the save anyway (SHUT UP, IT TOTALLY WOULD HAVE HAPPENED!) but that is just painful to watch.
First of; yeah, no he wouldn't have. But feel free to continue being delusional. ;D Secondly, watching that video, while horribly in itself, is really nothing compared to seeing the kind of comments people have said about it. If I have to hear another person saying stuff like "is that the best you can do you loser", I will beat the shit out of them. Not even kidding. Obviously it's NOT the best he can do, that has been proven often enough! It takes a specially petty person to take one mistake and judge everything based on that, totally overlooking all the times someone has succeeded.
Granlund was juggling so much, and under so much pressure the whole season, that I would bet money on any of the people making jokes about that goal turning into sobbing babies, if they tried to deal with the same amount. Hell, by the time the season was finished, he'd played in three different international tournaments, two of those on adult level, so it's not like he just did double duty at the juniors. Meanwhile, he played almost full season in SM-Liiga and finished high school AND his military service. And then on his free time (which he clearly had such huge amounts of) he was doing pr work for his own team and our Hockey Association. Now, I wonder how he could've possibly been burned out by the end of the season..
Did I mention I feel pretty strongly on the matter.
He so does need Mikko to come and make everything better.
Glad to know that I've succeeded in my conversion efforts. :D The Big Band is starting to look like a very real possibility and making this primer help surprisingly lot with that. I feel that I've got a lot better grasp on how to structure it at least. At this point, the only real problem I have with it, is that Mikko seems to insist on being the pov character, which is so not good, since personality wise of the two of them, he's some much harder to write, to me at least. But I just can't get the story I'm working on to work with Granlund's pov.
In short: Glad you liked it!
Not forgetting Hockeypedia, don't worry. I was just too lazy and wanting to get to sleep early to do it yesterday. Wont stop trying to convert people until these two have all the shippers. :D
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Our lives are so hard ^_^
I'm suspecting some sort of secret clause in the CBA; "players must always endeavor to make themselves look as tacky and ridiculous as possible."
This would actually make a whole lot of sense. I mean, I made a whole lot of embarrassing noises over Malcolm Subban at the draft, just because of how well dressed he was. (Well, partly that, at least.) It's just so rare to see!
But shockingly, the most promising prospect the country has produced possibly in decades and his first team nearly having to go to court were big enough news that every major news outlet was reporting on it at the time, so it really wasn't something you could avoid hearing about.
Yeah, it's always hard when it's something you really can't avoid. I figured out pretty early on in my life that professional sports wasn't really something I wanted to be involved in, or wanted anyone I cared about being involved in, just from the shit that was going on with the guys I went to school with. And that was still at a really low-key amateur level. Which is why I tend to approach information about off-ice stuff very carefully.
if one were to pick a moment Granlund went from being a really good, promising young hockey player to rock star teenage heartthrob, worshipped by damn near whole country, it's that one goal.
Well, I kind of want to draw little hearts around pictures of him and squeal like a teenager after seeing that goal, so I can see how that would be the case =D Argh, so freaking awesome!
If I have to deal with 2006 still being part of history books, you're bloody well going to live with last year happening. ;D
Heee, it's actually kind of hard to ignore 2011, since every youtube video ever with Tre Kronor in it has at least two comments from Finns with some variation of ”6-1 you fuckers!” in it. (And likewise, pretty much all the videos with the Finnish team in them has some comments from Swede's with either ”5-1 to 6-5!” or ”How many Olympic golds do you have?”. Our countries are so freaking mature ^_^
In all honestly, I have recently come to see that Fasth deserves some credit for what happened last year.
I don't think I'll ever be able to be objective about Fasth. Sure, logically, a 6-1 loss isn't ever going to be just the goalies fault, but my approach to him is not very rational. I just hate his face and want him to go away for ever. (Much like with Tommy Salo. Not really his fault either, yet I will never, ever forgive him. I even tend to have a visceral negative reaction to Sami Salo, just based on his name.)
It's just that we have this lovely little thing called conscription army, so military service is mandatory for men, as soon as they turn 18
Ah, okay, that makes sense. We used to have the same thing (it just recently got removed), but most people here never did it anyway. It was kind of easy to avoid, by simply saying that you didn't want to, so either you did it after you graduated from school, because you wanted to, or you didn't do it at all. Which is why I got a bit confused at seeing Mikko in a uniform. I don't think I've ever heard of anyone doing military service ten years later, here.
First of; yeah, no he wouldn't have. But feel free to continue being delusional. ;D
DON'T YOU DARE SAY BAD THINGS ABOUT GUSTAFSSON! He's pretty much the only hope I have at the moment for future swedish goalies that are not awful! (Oh God, Lundqvist will retire at some point and then we will have none and I will cry FOREVER!)
Secondly, watching that video, while horribly in itself, is really nothing compared to seeing the kind of comments people have said about it.
That is such bullshit. Yes, it's a bad mistake, and it's at a horrible time, but it's ONE mistake, at ONE point. Find me a single hockey player that hasn't fucked up at some point in their career. External pressures aside, these sort of things happen to everyone and trying to make comments about a players entire career based on one moment is inherently useless. (Unless it's Tommy Salo. *is incredibly hypocritical* )
But I just can't get the story I'm working on to work with Granlund's pov.
That always happens, doesn't it? It's never the character you have the best handle on that ends up as the POV one. At this point, I'm convinced my brain is conspiring against me.
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So very unbearable indeed. :D
I figured out pretty early on in my life that professional sports wasn't really something I wanted to be involved in, or wanted anyone I cared about being involved in, just from the shit that was going on with the guys I went to school with.
I never really had that experience growing up, and somehow was lucky enough to avoid it until what happened with Granlund, so it really was a huge eye-opener into just how much fuckery sports teams can get around to doing.
(And likewise, pretty much all the videos with the Finnish team in them has some comments from Swede's with either ”5-1 to 6-5!” or ”How many Olympic golds do you have?”. Our countries are so freaking mature ^_^
My own personal favorite is "x number of swedish players/goalies/citizens have watched this video." With x being the number of dislikes the video has had at the time the comment was posted. So very mature indeed. :D
Which is why I got a bit confused at seeing Mikko in a uniform. I don't think I've ever heard of anyone doing military service ten years later, here.
IDEK, doing it ten years later is really not the norm here either. For the most part, everyone has either done it by then, or gotten excused from doing it based on health issues. Maybe our military just realized that for once, Mikko wasn't either injured come spring, or in the middle of the play-offs(lol, image the shit storm, of trying to pull a top-6 forward out of line up in the middle of the play-offs just so he can go and play soldier for a few months) and decided to make the most of the opportunity?
DON'T YOU DARE SAY BAD THINGS ABOUT GUSTAFSSON!
Weirdly enough, I'm actually hoping that Gustafsson turns into at least semi decent goalie. But only because he'll be Wild's number one goalie prospect once Bäcks retires/returns to Europe, and since I seem to have stockholmed myself in to liking the team, I'd like for them to continue having good goalies (I have too many Feels for all the Finns they are holding hostage, it couldn't be helped!). Is he really any good?
That is such bullshit. Yes, it's a bad mistake, and it's at a horrible time, but it's ONE mistake, at ONE point. Find me a single hockey player that hasn't fucked up at some point in their career.
Exactly! And in the end, a shootout plunder at the Juniors is pretty small in comparison. It's not as if he missed an open net during the Stanley Cup or Olympic finals.
Although, I so feel for you when it comes to Salo. Rationally, I know that Kiprusoff is our first and so far only Vezina winner and all in all really good goalie, but my visceral reaction to when ever he's mentioned is:"That guy who refused to play us in two different Olympics, and when he finally did, he lost us the chance for a gold in one period. What an ass." (4 goals in ten minutes, what the fuck even!)
At this point, I'm convinced my brain is conspiring against me.
I'm thinking mine's doing the same. Stupid brain.