The highest, or most prestigious league in Finland is called "SM-Liiga" with SM standing for Suomen (Finland's) and Liiga meaning League. It presently includes 14 teams from the major cities in Finland. My city, Lahti, is home to the Lahti Pelicans.
Hockey excitement is at an all time high here since the first round of the playoffs started a couple weeks ago! The Pelicans managed to grab the 7th of 8 seeds as a wildcard (they had to beat another team in a mini-series in order to earn a spot in the playoffs) They aren't expected to advance past the first round, since we are playing against the Espoo Blues in the second seed slot. However, we are winning 3-2 games in the best of 7 series!! The next game is Monday in Lahti.
My friends here in Lahti are huge Pelicans fans and have attended all of their playoff games. I've already been to 4 regular-season games in Lahti but recently I have been joining my friends/their family to watch the away games in Espoo (only 1 hour drive from Lahti)
Below is a picture of us at the Espoo arena on Saturday, March 21st. From left: The father of Juha and Taru Leppänen, Myself, Petteri Lehti, Taru Leppänen, Juha Leppänen, Tiina Lehti, Vili (Tiina's little brother), Santeri Toivanen, Petra Toivanen.
A shot of the Espoo arena early in the game.
Drama on the ice.
Something REALLY cool is the news broadcast about the first game we attended in Espoo last Tuesday, March 17th. Here is a link to the video:
CLICK HERE
At 2:23, the video pans the Lahti Pelicans fan section. You'll see my friend Juha wearing his bright green jacket and waving a blue scarf over his head. I'm standing to his left, so I appear right of him on the video. I'm wearing a black jacket and clapping my hands. I guess this is my debut on Finnish television! :)
We'll see if Lahti can win on Monday... but if not, it's back to Espoo for us on Tuesday for game 7!
Now I have a few more pictures to post from the Vanhat Tanssit (old dances) that took place in Mid-February. See this post for more details and photos. I recently received more great photos from my friend, Sini Nelimarkka, thanks Sini!
First is a great shot of my friend Tatu Tamminen and me. I am holding the city "Visitation" by Pekka Pohjola, a Finnish progressive rock artist. Tatu gave it to me as a gift from one musician to another (he plays guitar). I promised to send him a YYZ luggage tag from Pearson Airport in Toronto as a collector's item... he really likes Rush!
The next 3 are from the dancing at the "Lahti Suurhalli". This dancing took place the day after the official Vanhojen Päivä (old's day, as in graduating) and all of the dancers from all of the school's in Lahti were there to perform together for the city!
I'm wearing black (that helps... :P) but I'm dancing with the girl in the golden dress in the center of the picture. Her name is Laura Vuorelma and I was dancing with her at the Suurhalli because my regular partner, Tiina, went on the graduating class cruise to Stockholm.
In this photo we're on the left side, in the foreground.
This was during a line-up before the dancing I believe. I'm looking at the camera :) The guy right in front of me in the line is Juha Leppänen!
Those dances were a lot of fun. I really felt like a Finn among Finns... although dancing isn't exactly something the Finns are known for, it's a very strong tradition throughout the country for high school, or "lukio" students.
That's all for now! My birthday is coming up in 15 days, although I'm still unsure how to celebrate it! This Friday I'm planning to go to Helsinki for a big footbag session. My family is planning to spend Easter weekend at a nearby cottage with some friends. And Spring has arrived - the snow is almost gone.
I'll be updating this post to let you know if the Pelicans win the series on Monday or Tuesday! GO PELICANS! :) PS - fun fact, the trophy for the SM-Liiga is called the "Canadian Cup"!! I guess it's because some Finns living in Canada donated it to the league.
1 comment:
Hey buddy, great blog! I live just outside of Toronto but I am doing an exchange to Lahti this upcoming January. I really want to go to a few Pelican games!
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