Suomi-Kanada -jääkiekkosanakirja, lyhyt oppimäärä.

Viime aikojen hilpeimpiä iltapuhteita on ollut suomalaisen lätkäsanaston esitteleminen pohjoisamerikkalaisille Twitterissä. Historiallisen dokumentaation nimissä kirjattakoon koko toistaiseksi kasattu setti talteen tänne*.

Dear English speakers, this is the Complete HockeyFinnish101, so far*.

Perusteet - Basics
1. Jääkiekko, lätkä = ice hockey, biggest sport in Finland. “Lätkä” refers to the shape of puck.
2. Höntsä = shinny, free-flowing game, preferably outdoors.
3. Kiekko = a puck. Finnish word “kiekko” also means discus in track and field.
4. Maila = a stick. Also lots of other expressions for stick in hockey slang.
5. Maali = a goal or net, both the physical object and the result of scoring. Something Finns don’t really know how to do.
6. Luistin, luistella, luistelu = a skate, to skate, skating. Good skaters have “hyvä jalka” (see number 32), sounds stupid in any language.
7. Kaukalo = rink. The Finnish word also happens to mean a trough for pigs/cows. These two things are close, have yo admit.
8. Syöttö, syöttää = a pass, to pass. In Finland it’s relevant for a team to build minimum 3-pass “chains”. Scoring is not.
9. Lämäri = Slapshot (or the best hockey movie ever), officially “lyöntilaukaus”. The verb is “lämätä”, pronounce that!
10. Rannari = wristshot, officially “rannelaukaus”. Things have never been the same since Jari Kurri retired.

11. Laukaus, laukaista = a shot, to shoot. Something they should really teach more.
12. taklaus, taklata = a hit, to hit. You’ll get suspended for doing that on purpose in Finland.
13. Pelikielto = a suspension. For those bad guys who hit hard or drop their gloves on purpose. Also “kakku”, ie. a cake.
14. Maalivahti, molari, veskari = a goalie. Goalies are a little crazy, and for some reason we produce a lot of good goalies.
15. Puolustaja, pakki = defenseman. Your average Finnish D is “peruspakki”, ie. stay-at-home D with no puckhandling skills.
16. Laitahyökkääjä, laituri = a winger. “Laituri” also means a wharf/platform at shores/stations.
17. Keskushyökkääjä, sentteri = a center. Not to be mixed with the act of “näyttää sentteriä”, which means giving the finger.
18. Pelaaja, peluri, pelimies = a player. A real “pelimies” will always score, at least at local night clubs.
19. Valmentaja, koutsi= a coach, the most important man in Finnish hockey. Successful “mestarivalmentaja” translates as God.
20. Tuomari = referee, aka “nuija” (moron), “seepra” (zebra) or “puusilmä” (wooden eye). Kerry Fraser would be king here.

Pohjolan erikoisuudet - Northern exposure
21. Poika = The Boy. Finnish championship trophy, officially called the Canada Bowl, donated by Canadian hockey people in the 1950’s.
22. Pelikirja = playbook. According the “analysts”, the essence of it all. The only thing that a coach needs to win. (sidenote: something more than just tactics, or strategy. And in the Finnish tradition of over-coaching, something much more important (apparently) than the players).
23. Sota-alue = war zone. Known as the slot elsewhere, but Finnish hockey scene loves war-related metaphors. Yes, it’s sick.
24. Kiima = heat, rut. The state that Finnish hockey players must reach to be ready for a game. Yes, we really are sick.
25. Pitkä kiekko = the long puck, or icing as you might call it. Finland has the no-touch icing.
26. (Ajaa) puun takaa = (to drive/hit) from behind a tree. A beautiful, blindsided open-ice hit. Oldtimers’ stories.
27. Perstaklaus = ass check, or hip check, Kasparaitis-style. Mostly folklore these days.
28. Lättysyöttö = a pancake pass, sort of. Also known as saucer pass. Some say Finnish C Raimo Helminen invented it.
29. Vanhanaikainen = the old-fashioned (goal). Don’t really know what’s so old-fashioned about scoring on a wrap-around.

30. Paluukiekko, ripari = a return puck, or rebound. Jesus saves, and Finns don’t score on the rebound, which leads us to…
31. Maksaa hintaa = to pay the price. According the coaches, you got to pay the price, if you want to score on the “war zone”.
32. Hyvä jalka = good leg(s). Team can’t win, if it doesn’t have “good leg”. That means skating hard, which leads us to…
33. Lentokeli = (good) flying weather. If the team is skating well, it happens to have a good “flying weather”.
34. Seinäsyöttö = a wall pass, also known as give and go. So strange to call a fine passing play with such a passive term.
35. Kultakypärä = a golden helmet. In the Finnish league the team’s scoring leader wears a gold-paint helmet. Nice target.
36. Rystyvippi = a backhand chip, can’t call it a decent shot often. “Rysty” refers directly to the back side of the hand. (sidenote: rystynen = a knuckle, we don’t use those much)
37. Pilkkiä = the act ice fishing (a winter pastime), refers to a linesman who can’t decide whether to drop the puck or not.
38. Läpiajo = a breakthrough, or breakaway, where a player breaks in alone and shoots the puck straight at the goalie.
39. Kahvata = that would be hooking, the term “kahva” refers to handle/grip. We used to love “kahvakiekko” as a game plan.

Kehtaako näitä edes kertoa - Yeah, we really do say that…
40. Jarruketju = the braking line, the 4th line which exists to destroy most beautiful things in hockey, which leads us to…
41. Rotta = the rat, a prototype of irritating 4th line player. TPS once perfected this so they had the Rat line.
42. Luukkuvahti = the gateguard, second goalie. In Finland, his traditional job is to open the gate to guys coming to bench. (sidenote: In Europe, benches are bigger and goalies usually have room to sit normally among other players)
43. Penailu = mikemilburing, the traditional way of running a hockey club (messing up thigns). Refers to legendary HIFK GM Pentti “Pena” Matikainen.
44. Upin Akatemia = You call it the Finnish goalie factory, but most decent goalies are trained by Urpo “Upi” Ylönen in Turku.
45. Tasavajaa = evenly incomplete, or playing four-on-four (although only on penalty situations, not on overtime).
46. Ylivoima, alivoima = overpower, underpower. That would be power play and penalty kill. PP also known as “forced play”.
47. Mylly = a mill, ie. a decent on-ice fight. Good term since most fights seen in Finnish hockey are kind of Seminesque.
48. Tiputtaa hanskat = to drop the gloves, “hanskata” (to glove?) is a verb for fighting.
49. Joukkotappelu = that would be a bench-clearing brawl. We see those on YouTube, probably never seen one in Finland.
50. Ylämummo = the upper granny. Means shooting the puck into the top corner of the net, doesn’t make sense even to Finns. (sidenote: made famous by the “legendary” Timo Jutila, former defenseman turned into a tv commentator. Nowadays spends his time with the national team, nobody knows why.)

51. Voittomaalikilpailu = winning goal contest. Everybody else just calls it a shootout (to decide a regular season tie).
52. Viedä kahville = to take someone to have a coffee, ie. to deke a D/G out of his pants. Coffee is sometimes served with a bun.
53. Pommi, miina = a bomb, a mine, ie. a thunderous hit. You see, we really love that war-related sports rhetoric.
54. Kesätreeni = summer training. Something you shouldn’t be doing now, but Finnish teams practice together at summertime. (sidenote: the Finnish PA has managed to negotiate a few weeks of obligatory summer vacation for league playes.)
55. Peiliin katsominen = looking into a mirror. When a team has sucked, it’s always a place to take a look into a mirror. (sidenote: mostly they stare at game videos, though, a lot).
56a. (In honor of todays biggest news, July 1st 2010) Kurpitsapää = Pumpkinhead. You guessed it, that’s Olli Jokinen, aka “the Chief”.
56b. HockeyFinnish101 Special edition: how to draw Olli Jokinen. http://bit.ly/5XphN7
57. Lätkävaimo = a hockey wife. Just some ordinary WAG, Katerina Jokinen needs a term of her own.
58. Tupu-Hupu-Lupu -ketju = The Huey-Dewey-Louie line. More important names, national team line Jere Lehtinen, Saku Koivu and Ville Peltonen
59. Torilla tavataan = See you at the market place. Finnish equivalent to championship parade, which brings us to…
60. MM95 = World champions 1995, the only time for Team Finland. Had a huge party at a market place in Stockholm, Sweden, where the games were played.

Näitä tiputtelee jatkossakin tarpeen tullen ja mieleen juolahtaessa. Mukana on nytkin muutama muiden ehdotus, joten palaute, kommentit ja uudet ehdotukset ovat tervetulleita. Twitterissä keskusteluun voi osallistua seuraamalla #HockeyFinnish101 -tägiä tai meikäläisen viserryksiä @Karhuherra.

I will keep doing these when something important comes to mind. So please do comment, and do not hesitate to ask questions or make suggestions. On Twitter, follow #HockeyFinnish101 or @Karhuherra.

* Joitakin alkuperäisiä viserryksiä on muokattu tai selitetty tarpeen tullen tarkemmin./Some of the original tweets have been edited slightly or been explained on sidenotes.