Teemu Selänne joins Finnish national team for Ice Hockey World Championships

Finland start campaign with match against Germany on Saturday

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NHL ice hockey ace Teemu Selänne joined the roster of the Finnish national side at the Ice Hockey World Championships in Canada on Wednesday, and already in Thursday’s practice he gave a positive impression of his current form.
     
Selänne joined the number one forward line headed by center Olli Jokinen and accompanied by the team captain Ville Peltonen as the other wingman.
     
Selänne arrived in Halifax on a night flight from California via Boston.
      “Though I travelled in business class the seat provided little support to my neck and I was unable to sleep properly”, Selänne said.
     
The Finns are accommodated in a hotel right next to the Halifax Metro Centre arena. As the only player in the Finnish squad, Selänne - who won the coveted Stanley Cup last season with Anaheim - was given a private room. The rest of the team have twin rooms.
      In the NHL, the norm is that players who have appeared in more than 600 games or who have played for ten or more seasons can have a private room for overnights on the road if they so desire.
      In the NHL Selänne, 37, is used to having his privacy.
      “It is pure luxury. When sharing a room you have to take your teammate into account. When you have a private room and you don’t feel sleepy you can just turn on the television without disturbing anyone.”
      Selänne explains that in the NHL many players are more than happy to pay the extra cost of having a private room.
      “But not all teams allow this.”
     
The last time Selänne played with the Finnish national team was in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, where Finland won silver.
      Selänne was last seen on the IIHF World Championship ice in 2003. In the quarter-final against Sweden Selänne scored three goals, but the home tournament ended with a bitter 5-6 defeat, one that goes down near the top of the list in all-time Finnish sports nightmares.
     
This time around, too, any encounter with the Swedes will not come before the knock-out stages of the competition.
      Finland are in Preliminary Round Group C along with Germany, Slovakia, and Norway. Germany are up first, in a match on Saturday at 22.30 local Finnish time.
      The top three teams in the group will progress to two six-team Qualifying Round groups, and points scored against the other two teams progressing will be carried forward.
      The best eight teams of the remaining twelve will then go head-to head in the quarter-finals, leading to the final match in Quebec City on May 18th.
      Finland were defeated 4-2 by Canada in last year's final in Moscow.


Links:
  2008 IIHF World Championship (Wikipedia)

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