Hockey from Espoo

New jerseys

2010-11-08T19:17:00.006+02:00

I have acquired two new jerseys to my collection. First one is Donald MacLean's LA Kings-jersey from 1997-98 season.

Second one I bought last week, it's Branislav Mezei's jersey from 2010 SM-liiga playoffs.

SaiPa-Blues

2010-11-04T12:25:00.002+02:00

It's nice to be wrong sometimes. Blues started to play in the second period and with Petri Lammassaari finally showing his amazing scoring skills, Blues got even in the third period, "Lamppu" scoring a hat-trick. Overtime didn't produce a goal so the game went to penalty shots, or as SM-liiga likes to call it, the game-winning goal competition... Blues won it with Camilo Miettinen the only scorer. So, two points from Lappeenranta, it would have been a great result even without coming back from three-goal deficit. Blues didn't play well, the first period was maybe the worst performance this season, but two points are two points, no matter how they were earned.

Best players were Petri Lammassaari of course, and Mikko Tolvanen, who played two periods without conceding a goal, basicully a shutout. Iiro Tarkki started the game, but played only twenty minutes. He can't be blaimed from those three conceded goals, but he didn't play well either. Next game is against Pelicans at home, I hope Blues plays better first period this time, and of course the two periods after that.

Stats
Goals

Blues-HIFK and SaiPa-Blues

2010-11-02T19:16:00.004+02:00

Like I said in my last post, HIFK-game was great show from Blues. Great atmosphere in the stands and good display on the ice. Blues was never trailing in that game and showed no fear or letting down at any point. After both tying goals from HIFK, Blues was right back on the attack and created a scoring chance.

Goals
Statistics

The game looked good and I thought that this could be a start of a winning streak...

...until tonight's SaiPa-game and it's first period. Blues is trailing by three goals after 20 minutes and hasn't shown any signs of waking up. I hope I'm wrong and they get maybe one point from this match..

Blues-HIFK

2010-10-30T23:22:00.002+03:00

Great match tonight! A long lost win from IFK (First for Matikainen against Kari Jalonen), Jere Karalahti got to play the whole game and the atmosphere was awesome. Thank you Blues!

A better report coming tomorrow.

Go Blues!

Photos from NHL Premiere Carolina - Minnesota 7.10.2010

2010-10-17T14:23:00.016+03:00

There's not enough time

2010-10-17T14:11:00.002+03:00

OK, I thought that I would have more time to post this update, but no. So I'll post just photos from NHL Premiere and statistics plus highlights from Blues's games.

Blues-Ässät 0-1 stats, highlights
Pelicans-Blues 4-2 stats, highlights
Blues-SaiPa 3-2 stats, highlights
HIFK-Blues 2-1 PS stats, highlights

Update

2010-10-14T20:13:00.004+03:00

I've been busy with my daughter lately, so I haven't had the time to write here. This will change this weekend, I think, so stay tuned for some photos and videos from NHL Premiere. Blues has also played a couple of games after my last post, so I'll comment those too.

For now, enjoy this.

Update (JYP-Blues, Blues-Ilves, HPK-Blues)

2010-10-05T09:13:00.004+03:00

After my last post, Blues has played three games, at home against Ilves and visiting JYP in Jyväskylä and HPK in Hämeenlinna. Home game went very well, when Blues put up a great show scoring seven times, end result being 7-2. Away games were a bit different.. At those games Blues scored only two times, losing to JYP 3-0 and to HPK 6-2. It's hard to find any good thing to say about those matches, so maybe I won't. Blues basically sucked.

Couple of photos from Ilves-game coming soon.

Stats from all three games:
JYP-Blues
Blues-Ilves
HPK-Blues

Goals
JYP-Blues
Blues-Ilves
HPK-Blues

A lot has to improve to the next game at home against Ässät from Pori. They have started the season very well, if you forget their last match (11-3 loss to HIFK). With that in mind, Blues has the chance to put up big numbers again, but I'm gonna be happy if they just win, no matter what's the score after third.

I'm going to miss that game because I'm going to see NHL Premiere in Helsinki. Carolina Hurricanes and Minnesota Wild will clash in a season opener and I'm there with my camera. Expect a lot of photos and videos!

Blues-Kärpät

2010-09-28T11:08:00.004+03:00

The game wasn't the kind of showdown most people expected. Kärpät had a lot of injuries and was missing most of their top players, including Kamil Kreps and Jari Viuhkola. Blues on the other hand had their best lineup on the ice, again, but the game was still pretty sticky. They never really got rolling and missed several scoring chances simply because of sloppy finishing. Kärpät got their goal from a lucky bounce but fortunately Blues tied in the third and forced the game to overtime. The way the game ended is shown in my previous posting. But still, stats and goals from the game.

Two points from this game was basicully not enough if you look at the lineup of both teams but after trailing in the end, I'm very happy that Blues got those two points. I'm also very happy that Jani Lajunen scored the winning goal, the way he scored it is another thing, but the fact that he got a reward from the hard work and excellent form was a great thing. I hope this means that Lajunen get's even bigger role in the team, and people start to understand his value to the team.

Next in line is JYP in Jyväskylä. I'm looking forward seeing how the season develops from here.

Blues-Kärpät

2010-09-26T15:21:00.002+03:00

For now, I'll post just this, (2-1 OT) enjoy.

Blues-KalPa

2010-09-25T12:27:00.007+03:00

I'm really starting to believe that you don't change a winning lineup. Blues played very well almost the whole game. Second period was difficult but fortunately the first went so well that the 3-0 lead after first twenty minutes was enough to keep the lead even though KalPa scored twice in the second period, and Blues was left scoreless. Blues had a strong performance again in the third period and was able to score twice, basicully ending the game after 49 minutes with a goal by Arttu Luttinen (5-2). That goal was a thing of beauty, if you haven't seen it yet, take a look. Top 5 of the whole season, I'm pretty sure.

Statistics from the game.

After seeing Blues play three games, it's time to check who has played well and who has something to improve. I have seen all of these three games, two live and one from TV.

First line
Lammassaari-Öhman-Luttinen
Lammassaari has played very well, leading the team in points (2+2). Öhman has been a bit quiet, same as Luttinen, but there's no reason to change this line because it's working well right now.

Second line
Kähkönen-Miettinen-Immonen
All three players have scored once, and surprisingly Immonen is the best player in points (1+2). Ranta would come to this line, if there were a reason to drop one of these guys, but at this point there isn't. So Ranta remains in reserve until someone gets injured or Matikainen decided that there is a need to mix things up.

Third line
Sailio-T.Sallinen-J.Sallinen
This has been the best line in my opinion. They are a checking line and no-one is expecting them to lead the team in scoring but still T.Sallinen has scored twice and Sailio once. They play like they had been together forever, eich member knows his role and fills that perfectly. Before the regular season started I predicted that Tomi Sallinen is going to impress a lot of Blues-fans and so far it's going exactly that way. I hope that his great form continues the whole season.

Fourth line
Virkkunen-J.Lajunen-Talaja /Laine
Jani Lajunen is one of the best fourth line centers in SM-liiga this season. He has a NHL-contract in the backpocket and I'm sure that Nashville Predators will want him there next season, if this great form continues. His work may not show on the scoring statistics but he's a big part of the team. Virkkunen and Talaja have brought great energy to the game and Laine some physical aspect when needed.

Defenders
Korpikari-V.Lajunen
Korpikari has played very well, being the best defender of the whole team, counting all of the three games. He plays with his own strenghts and does that well. V.Lajunen hasn't really played as well as he can. But there has been glimpses of the same we saw last season (points after regular season were 5+33) and I'm sure that Ville will improve his game as the season goes on.

Laakso-Karalahti
Laakso is in the army and it clearly affects his game. There is lot to improve for him. Karalahti has played well, considering the whole media-show that has been going on around him. HIFK-game's misconduct has a mistake from the referees, so that's not a big minus for Karalahti. Both of these guys have skills that have not come out yet.

Kurki-Varakas
Kurki and Varakas both have offensive talent but they have a smaller role than the other four defenders. Varakas is also strong in front of own net so he get's a lot of ice time. In fact, Varakas has the biggest average in playing minutes of all of the teams defenders, 23.50. Both, Kurki and Varakas have played well without any big moments, good or bad.

Goalies
Iiro Tarkki
Tarkki has played all three games and has played them well. One shutout and many great saves has assured everyone, that he's the clear number one goalie of Blues.

Mikko Tolvanen
No icetime yet, so there is nothing to say about him.

Blues-KalPa

2010-09-23T13:27:00.003+03:00

Lineup for tonights match:

Starting goalie
35 Iiro Tarkki

Backup
32 Mikko Tolvanen

First line
14 Petri Lammassaari
41 Stefan Öhman
9 Arttu Luttinen
2 Oskari Korpikari
47 Ville Lajunen "A"

Second line
23 Jarkko A. Immonen
52 Camilo Miettinen
85 Toni Kähkönen "C"
4 Aleksi Laakso
10 Jere Karalahti

Third line
12 Jari Sailio
40 Tomi Sallinen "A"
80 Jere Sallinen
8 Ville Varakas
6 Mikael Kurki

Fourth line
19 Roope Talaja
24 Jani Lajunen
21 Valtteri Virkkunen

So Ranta is still missing, but I guess you don't change a winning lineup. Hope this works and Blues scores their first home goal, and many more after that.

TPS-Blues

2010-09-22T09:56:00.003+03:00

The set-up for this match was pretty clear, Blues lost their first match against HIFK without scoring (0-2) and TPS had lost quite heavily (6-3) against Ässät. So both teams were anctious to win this one. TPS was missing five defenders because of injuries, and Blues had basicully their best lineup on the ice.

First goal of the match came after five minutes, and was scored by Blues. Valtteri Virkkunen scored his first SM-liiga goal ever, and at the same time, the first goal of the season for Blues. Other noticeable goal-scorers were Tomi Sallinen (short-handed goal, 0-3), Jari Sailio (first goal as a Blues-player, 0-5) and Jere Karalahti (first goal as a Blues-player, 0-6). Match ended in a score 0-7, so the end result was pretty clear. Blues succeeded in everything and TPS in nothing.

Iiro Tarkki had 24 saves and a shutout, TPS used both of their goalies, Atte Engren played the first period and came back in the middle of the second with Tommi Virtanen playing seven minutes in the middle.

All of the games goals can be seen from here and statistics from here.

It's still early in the season, but I'm little suprised that Roope Ranta hasn't played at all in these regular season games. He played in training matches and played very well. There's no information on any injury that might have affected his playing-status. We'll see if he plays tomorrow in a home game against KalPa from Kuopio.

SM-liiga opener, Blues-HIFK

2010-09-21T00:00:00.002+03:00

Blues opened their season with a 0-2 loss against HIFK. Statistics of the game can be found from here.

Blues started the game pretty well, they had good speed and attitude. All of that paused when Jere Karalahti got sent out after six minutes for injuring Turo Järvinen from HIFK. The tackle was to the head but the call was charging. Two minutes plus ten (because Karalahti's hands hit the head) is the maximum penalty I would have given. Match misconduct was way too much. But, you can all decide yourself. Watch the tackle from here.

Blues played the shorthanded situation very well, HIFK didn't have any major changes during that five minute penalty and right after the penalty ended, Blues was on the attack again. In the end, both teams had their changes for the first goal and the lucky bounce went to HIFK's favor and they scored the first goal one and a half minutes before the third period ended. Blues tried to get even without goalie but Lennart Petrell scored to make it 0-2 and basicully ended the game.

Pretty good game from Blues, even though they lost. The match could have ended 2-0 quite easily, with couple of lucky bounces going Blues's way. Iiro Tarkki was great, he made important saves during Karalahti's penalty and during the whole game. Oskari Korpikari played also well, he was strong in front of Blues's net. Camilo Miettinen and Tomi Sallinen had good energy and they created couple of changes to score.

So, the first goal of the season didn't come in the first match of the season, maybe in the second. Next game is against TPS in Turku.

Blues-Ässät and Ilves-Blues

2010-09-12T14:47:00.003+03:00

Videos from Ässät-game:

First period
Second period
Third period and overtime

Blues didn't play too well against Ässät, last minute equalizer saved much. In overtime both teams had their chances and Ässät used theirs. Even though Blues had their best squad on the ice, they didn't play well at all. This appearence left much to improve to the last match.

Blues played their last training match against Ilves in Lempäälä, that match ended with a heavy loss, score being 6-2 to Ilves. So Blues lost the last two training matches before the season, both against teams, that they should win quite easily in SM-liiga if they want to be in the top half of the league table. But, what is good compared to last couple of seasons, Blues has only a few injuries at this time, biggest name being Jere Karalahti. The length of his absence is unknown.

The first league match (home) is against fierce rival HIFK. That game will show the real potential of this team. That game is televised on national TV so heavy loss for Blues would be really bad for the image of the team. HIFK is one of the big favorites to win the whole league but this derbys are always tough and even matches. Let's wait and see how this one ends.

Blues-Ässät

2010-09-08T21:54:00.009+03:00

Blues played against Ässät yesterday, the match ended 2-3 in overtime. Here are some photos of the match. Deeper analysis and a few videos will follow later this week.

New stand intended only for Blues-fans

Jere Karalahti

Blues-Lukko

2010-09-03T21:15:00.004+03:00

First of all, I was supposed to go to this game, but family obligations went ahead. So I spend the night at home with my daughter, watching the game from Internet (only statistics).

So, again no photos or videos from me, sorry. But everyone loves statistics, right? ;)

Blues - Rauman Lukko 6-4

First period
1-0 Järvinen (Immonen)PP
1-1 Rajala (Palola)
1-2 Tikkanen (Kuukka, Morrison)PP
2-2 Talaja (Laine)

Second period
2-3 Elo (McLean, Morrison)

Third period
3-3 Kurki (Immonen)PP
4-3 Kähkönen (Miettinen)PP
4-4 Elo (Morrison)
5-4 Manninen (J.Sallinen, Järvinen)
6-4 Talaja (Gröndahl, Laakso)

Penalties
Blues 4x2min ; Lukko 6x2min

Goalies
Tolvanen, Blues 11+13+9=33 ; Raanta, Lukko 7+14+12=33

If there are couple of names on the statistics you don't recognize, it's understandable, Blues had only a few of their top players on the roster. And this was supposed to be some kind of nostalgic match, return to legendary Matinkylä Square Garden... Pretty badly executed. Take a look at this:

Roster of the match:
M.Tolvanen (starting goalie)
I.Tarkki (backup)

K.Näkyvä
M.Kurki
A.Laakso
A.Gröndahl
J.Valkonen
R.Saari
V.Varakas

R.Ranta
C.Miettinen
T,Kähkönen
R.Talaja
J.Lajunen
H.Laine
M.Järvinen
J.Immonen
J.Sallinen
N.Huovila
P.Halinen
J.Manninen

Players missing from the roster (points in training matches):
L.Volden
J.Iilahti

O.Korpikari (0+1)
S.Heiskanen (injured, hasn't played)
J.Karalahti (1+3)
V.Lajunen (2+5)
J.Hakanpää (0+0)

A.Luttinen (1+1)
J.Sailio (2+1)
P.Lammassaari (1+4)
V.Virkkunen (0+0)
J.Nättinen (0+0)
T.Sallinen (3+2)
S.Öhman (5+2)

Kolin Cup

2010-08-29T00:12:00.003+03:00

Kolin Cup didn't go too well if you look at the results alone. But the goal of the trip was mainly somewhere else, like getting the team together, to play as a team. We'll see if that happened, I believe it did. But, results and statistics is all I can give right now, so here goes.

Kloten Flyers - Espoo Blues 4-3 (0-1, 2-0, 2-2)

First period
0-1 Öhman (Lammassaari, V-Lajunen)PP

Second period
1-1 Lemm (Sidler)PP
2-1 Du Bois (Jenni, Neher)PP

Third period
2-2 Öhman (Lammassaari, Karalahti)PP
3-2 Du Bois (Herren)
3-3 Karalahti PP
4-3 Bieber (Rintanen)

Penalties
Kloten 9x2min ; Blues 5x2min

Goalies
Flückiger, Kloten ; Tolvanen, Blues (no statistics available)

EV Zug - MoDo Hockey 2-1 (0-0, 2-0, 0-1)

Kloten Flyers - MoDo Hockey 4-0 (2-0, 0-0, 2-0)

EV Zug - Espoo Blues 5-3 (1-0, 1-1, 3-2)

First period
1-0 Holden (Schnyder, Brunner)

Second period
1-1 Kähkönen (Karalahti)PP
2-1 Camichel (Sutter, Christen)PP

Third period
2-2 Ranta (Miettinen)PP
3-2 Holden (Schnyder, Fischer)
4-2 Diaz (Metropolit, Holden)PP
5-2 Christen (Lindemann, Sutter)EN
5-3 Sailio (T.Sallinen, J.Sallinen)

Penalties
EV Zug 8x2min ; Blues 7x2min

Goalies
Markkanen, EV Zug ; Tarkki, Blues (no statistics available)

Pictures of the whole tournament can be seen from here:
Blues Fan Club

Next training match for Blues will be played in Espoo (vs. Rauman Lukko, 2.9.2010) so I'll be posting pictures and videos again, with statistics of course.

Kolin Cup

2010-08-28T14:02:00.001+03:00

Results from the first two matches

EV Zug - Kloten Flyers 1-2 (0-1, 1-0, 0-0: 0-0, 0-1)
Kloten won after penalty shots.

Espoo Blues - MoDo Hockey 4-6 (1-1, 1-1, 2-4)
Blues scored the first goal and the match was even before the third period, but then MoDo shifted to fourth gear and marched over Blues. Still, a decent start because MoDo has more experienced roster.

Photos of the match can be seen from here:
Blues-website (with match report in Finnish)
Blues Fan Club-website

Main statistics of the game

First period
1-0 Öhman (Laakso)PP
1-1 Rosén (Tollefsen)PP

Second period
Hedman 5+20min
Ritchie 2min
Tollefsen 2+2min
Sailio 5+20min
T.Sallinen 2min
Kurki 2min
1-2 Vestin (Ritchie, Dimitrakos)DP
2-2 Varakas (Luttinen, Kurki)

Third period
2-3 Danielsson (Ritchie)SH
2-4 Dimitrakos (Sundström, Hållberg)
2-5 Vestin (Häggström, Svartvadet)
Madsen 10min
3-5 Kähkönen (Öhman)PP WG
3-6 Rosén (Olden)EN
4-6 T.Sallinen (Talaja)

Penalties
Blues 6x2min + Sailio 5+20min ; MoDo 9x2min + Hedman 5+20min and Madsen 10min

Goalies
Blues I.Tarkki ; MoDo T.Tarkki (?) (no statistics available)

Next opponent is Kloten Flyers, game starts at 16.30 Finnish time. More story after that.

Savon Sanomat - tournament

2010-08-22T17:36:00.003+03:00

Blues played in Savon Sanomat tournament this weekend. First match was played on friday, against Ässät from Pori. Winner of that match would proceed to final (saturday) against winner of the second match, KalPa from Kuopio (hosts) vs. JYP from Jyväskylä. Blues won their match 1-4 and played against KalPa in the final. That match was penalty-rich, with three major penalties. In the end, Blues was the clear winner with the score 0-5 and therefore won the tournament. At this time Blues has won three of four training matches, not a bad record.

Next in line is a tournament played in Switzerland, the Kolin Cup. Blues plays against MoDo (SWE), Kloten (SUI) and EV Zug (SUI). Three tough matches but all can be won.

Here are the main statistics of Savon Sanomat - tournament matches:

Ässät-Blues 1-4

First period
0-1 Lammassaari

Second period
0-2 Luttinen (Öhman)

Third period
1-2 Salonen (Miller)
1-3 Immonen
1-4 Immonen (V.Lajunen, Miettinen)PP

Penalties:
Ässät 8x2min, Blues 5x2min

Goalies:
Kilpeläinen, Ässät 9+11+8=28 ; Tolvanen, Blues 9+6+2=15

KalPa-Blues 0-5

First period
0-1 T.Sallinen (Karalahti)
0-2 Immonen (V.Lajunen, Ranta)PP

Second period
0-3 Immonen (Ranta)PP
0-4 Ranta (V.Lajunen)PP

Third period
0-5 Öhman (Lammassaari, Varakas)PP

Penalties:
KalPa 10x2min + Jalasvaara 5+20min, Blues 8x2min + Karalahti 25min and J.Lajunen 5+20min

Goalies:
Ahonen, KalPa 7+8+3=18 ; Tarkki, Blues 6+3+1=10

Top 5 in points after four matches:
V.Lajunen 2+4=6
J.Immonen 5+0=5
R.Ranta 1+4=5
S.Öhman 2+1=3
T.Sallinen 2+1=3

Lukko-Blues 5-3

2010-08-18T18:32:00.005+03:00

Yesterday Blues played against Lukko in Rauma. I wasn't there, so I won't be posting any photos or videos this time. Sorry. The end result was 5-3 as the headline says. Blues had almost the best lineup, but only almost. Kähkönen, Karalahti, Heiskanen and Iiro Tarkki did't play. Tarkki was the backup goalie.

Main statistics of the game:

16.07 Lukko 1-0 88 Petruzalek (15 Lindgren - 6 Rantanen)

27.09 Lukko 2-0 15 Lindgren (17 McLean) PP
32.19 Lukko 3-0 14 Juuso Rajala (11 Eero Elo)

53.33 Blues 3-1 41 Stefan Öhman (14 Petri Lammassaari - 2 Oskari Korpikari)
54.56 Lukko 4-1 23 Lauri Tukonen (38 Teemu Aalto - 15 Perttu Lindgren)
55.49 Blues 4-2 47 Ville Lajunen
57.48 Lukko 5-2 16 Olli Palola EN DP
59.41 Blues 5-3 40 Tomi Sallinen PP

Penalty minutes:
Lukko 28 min - Blues 22 min

Saves:
Miika Wiikman, Lukko 5+10+16=31
Lars Volden, Blues 3+8+4=15

Line-up:
Starting goalie
34 Lars Volden
Backup
35 Iiro Tarkki

First line
14 Petri Lammassaari
41 Stefan Öhman
9 Arttu Luttinen
2 Oskari korpikari
47 Ville Lajunen

Second line
27 Roope Ranta
52 Camilo Miettinen
23 Jarkko A. Immonen
8 Ville Varakas
16 Kristian Näkyvä

Third line
12 Jari Sailio
40 Tomi Sallinen
80 Jere Sallinen
4 Aleksi Laakso
7 Ari Gröndahl

Fourth line
24 Jani Lajunen
71 Matti Järvinen
20 Heikki Laine
29 Joonas Nättinen

Blues-Ilves, photos

2010-08-15T22:45:00.004+03:00

First photo: Jarkko Immonen, Niko Peltola and Sami Aittokallio.

Second photo: First goal of the season, scored by Mikael Kurki

Third photo: Petri Matikainen (Head coach of Blues) is taking it easy. He's the guy in a white shirt in the middle of the photo.

These are the best photos I took, videos were my main focus. Those videos are in YouTube.

First period
Second period
Third period

12.8.2010 Blues-Ilves 6-4

2010-08-13T18:27:00.004+03:00

First videos are available:

Roope Talaja (Blues) vs. Ryan Glenn (Ilves)

Marko Anttila (Ilves) scores to make it 4-4

Heikki Laine (Blues) scores an empty net goal to make it 6-4, which was the final score.

All is back to normal

2010-08-11T22:05:00.002+03:00

Laatikainen chose Sweden and Södertälje, so all is back to normal. Tomorrow Blues plays their first training game and I'm there. So, next time I'll be posting photos and videos of the first match.

Ben Eaves and Arto Laatikainen

2010-08-04T19:11:00.003+03:00

The biggest news in Espoo right now are the return of Ben Eaves (to Jokerit) and the future team of another Blues "legend" Arto Laatikainen (also to Jokerit).

Eaves has been fighting against injuries for almost his whole career and have quit playing hockey twice. But his magic skills as a hockey player are well known in Finland, mainly because of the playoff points record he set a couple of seasons back in Espoo Blues. Now he's trying to get back to playing fit, he first singed a coaching contract to Jokerit but decided to take one more shot at playing hockey.

Laatikainen has played SM-liiga only in Espoo, and have done that for ten seasons. Last couple of seasons he played in Färjestad in Sweden, but injuries shortened that experience. Now he's coming back to Finland, and rumours are saying that he's going to Jokerit. Blues offered him a contract but the wage requests were too big at that time, so Blues got Jere Karalahti instead. Now it seems that Blues don't have any more money to spend on Laatikainen so Jokerit is propably the only choice in Finland. Of course he can go back to Sweden or try KHL in Russia or some other country. But those same rumours are saying that he want's to come back to Finland.

So, us Blues-fans just have to wait and see if we lose another former Blues-star to our rival team.. I hope not.

Summertime

2010-07-31T03:11:00.002+03:00

It's kinda slow in the hockey world, I'm just waiting to get my season ticket that I finally ordered. Blues has their first training match on the 12th day of next month, so the start of hockey season 2010 isn't that far anymore.

2010-07-22T14:05:00.017+03:00

Here is my jersey collection so far. My oldest jersey is missing (Kiekko-Espoo, #44 Peter Ahola) so there's no picture of it. Two jerseys are my wifes, Heiskanen and Brückler (Espoo Blues).

(some random Finnish national team jersey)

(Espoo Blues from season 1998-1999)

(Espoo Blues from season 1998-1999, Joonas Jääskeläinen #28)

(Espoo Blues from season 1999-2000, Joonas Jääskeläinen #28)

(Espoo Blues from season 2001-2002)

(Espoo Blues from season 2005-2006, Semir Ben-Amor #28)

(Espoo Blues from season 2006-2007, Bernd Brückler #30)

(Espoo Blues from season 2008-2009, Erkki Rajamäki #18, game worn)

(Espoo Blues from season 2009-2010, Santeri Heiskanen #3, game worn)

(Espoo Blues [away] from season 2009-2010, Toni Kähkönen #85, game worn)

(Minnesota Wild, not sure of the season, Marian Gaborik #10)

(Calgary Flames, not sure of the season, Dion Phaneuf #3)

(Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod from season 2009-2010, Bernd Brückler #30)

Some videos from the past

2010-07-21T22:15:00.003+03:00

Links to YouTube:

Espoo Blues Entrance (From -08 season)

Jokerit vs. Pittsburgh Penguins 2.10.2008 (NHL Challenge -08)

Ämmä-Pesonen (NHL Challenge -08)

Espoo Blues vs. HV71 29.10.2008 (CHL-game)

Espoo Blues vs. ZSC Lions CHL semifinal 7.1.2009 (CHL-semifinal)

13.3.2009 Blues-Pelicans 1. puolivälierä (players protested against flaws in the insurance and social security contract)

19.8.2009 Blues-AIK (training game)

Opening

2010-07-21T21:40:00.000+03:00

First posting!

So I decided to make a hockey-blog. Ice hockey-blog. And in English.. I must be crazy. This is my first blog, so if I'm not doing everything like they are supposed to do in normal blogs, that's just because I'm a rookie.

Something about me.. I'm 25 years old, a huge hockey fan from Espoo. I played hockey in juniors for about 6 years, so not that long I suppose.. But I have watched hockey almost all my life, from TV or live. Nowadays I own a Espoo Blues season ticket, a card I have owned for almost fifteen years and I watch hockey from TV everytime it's on and I'm home. I have a couple of paid channels that show hockey, so I can watch SM-liiga, NHL, KHL, Allsvenskan and Swiss National League from TV. World Championships and Olympics are of course included to the list of hockey games I watch from TV.

Besides Espoo Blues, teams I go to see live are the Finnish national team of course, Helsingin Jokerit (my brother is a Jokerit-fan..) and pretty much all the major hockey events in Helsinki area. With these I mean for example NHL Premiere's and the first Talviklassikko (winter classic) between Jokerit and local rival HIFK.

So you could say I see a lot of hockey.. My wife would say too much but in my opinion I could see a lot more.. And the idea behind this blog is to write about hockey, games I see live or from TV, people inside hockey, major events, big headlines etc. I take my camera with me to every major event, so there is going to a lot of photos and videos here!

I hope you didn't get too bored reading this first post and come back later. My goal is to post at least once a week, but in the summertime, it's going to be a challenge.

So....Enjoy hockey!