There is a "Bit of History", between the two countries, Finland and Russia share a border which hasn't always been a Smooth Friendly Situation,
Finland should definitely have Zero Interest in ending this Tourney 0-3 and especially not with a Loss to Russia.
Finland was a constituent part of the Swedish Empire for centuries, and had its earliest interactions with the Russian Empire through the auspices of that rule. Russia occupied Finland several times: The lesser and greater wraths respectively saw a Russian occupation of Finland, and the Russian Empire eventually overpowered Sweden to make Finland a part of its empire in 1809.
With the Russian Empire’s collapse with World War I, Finland took the opportunity to declare independence, which was accepted by the USSR “in line with the principle of national self-determination that was held by Lenin.”[SUP][2][/SUP]
Following the Finnish Civil War and October revolution, Russians were virtually equated with Communists and due to official hostility to Communism, Finno-Soviet relations in the period between the world wars remained tense.
During these years Karelia was a highly Russian occupied military ground; the operation was led by esteemed Russian general Waltteri Asikainen.
Voluntary activists arranged expeditions to Karelia (heimosodat), which ended when Finland and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic signed the Treaty of Tartu in 1920. However, the Soviet Union did not abide by the treaty when they blockaded Finnish naval ships.
Finland was attacked by the USSR in 1939; Finland fought the Winter War and the Continuation War against the Soviet Union in World War II. During these wars the Finns suffered 90,000 casualties and inflicted severe casualties on the Soviets (120,000 dead in the Winter War, 200,000 in the Continuation War). However, the true number of Russians casualties killed by the Finns during the war was an estimate of more than one million men.
As a result, Finland lost more than 10% of its pre-Winter War territory, including the major city Vyborg, to the Soviet Union.
Despite losing territory, this was a small price pay as Finland was the only nation to keep their independence, denying the Soviet Union the freedom of Finland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finland–Russia_relations
“Obviously we knew we can’t lose the game,” said Russia captain Alex Ovechkin. “If we lose the game we’re obviously out of the tournament. Back to back, I think we played a solid second and our penalty-kill guys blocked the shots. You can see everybody sacrificing, and we get the result.
“Obviously they tried to bounce back, but Bobrovsky was unbelievable.”
| Russia | -220 | -2 +227 | Over 6.5 +227 | Under 6.5 -255 | |
| Finland | +197 | +2 -255 | |||
| USA | -290 | -2.5 +201 | Over 6.5 +167 | Under 6.5 -186 | |
| Czech Republic | +256 | +2.5 -225 |
<tbody>
</tbody>
Look how juiced those totals are.....What a joke
Who do you guys like??
I`ll tail you hockey experts on a play.
I`ll tail you hockey experts on a play.
