Tribute to Ville...

[russianflame]

Эта тема посвящена Вилле Ниеминену, человеку с безумной улыбкой, который за очень короткий период времени завоевал огромное уважение и практически безграничную любовь суппортеров Флэймз в Калгари, остальной Канаде и в остальном мире...
Кроме того, он проявил себя как фантастический собеседник с потрясающим чувством юмора...

Здесь я решил сделать небольшую подборку его классических изречений из различных интервью, а также некоторые мнения об этой личности других игроков Флэймз...

Самая главная фраза Вилле, которая выражает его игровую философию: "After a game, if they hate me, I think it is a good sign," said Nieminen. "When you play hard, everything happens. Everything starts from there."

Вот что говорит Вилле по поводу своего открыто рта и безумной улыбки: Nieminen is equally puzzled by the fascination for his other open-mouthed habit -- a penchant for playing with a gaping grin/grimace that reveals more teeth than a Jaws movie poster.
He's understandably tired of being asked about the Jack Nicholsonesque facial expressions and has come up with a pat response to make the point that they are natural and unconscious.
"I always ask, 'Why are you right-handed?' " he says. "It's the same thing."

А вот просто подборка разных фраз из разных интервью (дочитайте до конца - не пожалеете):

In my first year in Hersey I had dificulties to understand french speaking peoples english aksent. Frech speaking people don`t pronounce h-letter in the beginning of the word.
Our coach Bobby Hartley did advice me to shoot "high on the glove". It sounds same as "eye on the glove". So for a week I always stared at goalie`s glove when I was shooting.
Also in the begining I didn`t know the right word for finnish word "rдnni"= "rim", instead word "rim" I used word "shrimp". So when we had team meetings I talked about "shrimps" when I should have talked about "rims".

"I guess he tryed to kick my ass but it was the wrong body part".... - classic reffering to the Pronger kick.

"The Calgary Flames are bad losers, put it that way," Nieminen said after his teammates engaged in yet another last-second dust-up during a 3-0 loss to the San Jose Sharks in Game 3 Thursday night. "We take pride in being a winner. I think it's a good sign to be a bad loser. "We showed it again in Game 3."

"This game is over. We just have to go to Vancouver and play boring road hockey." (после 6 игры с Ванкувером)

"We get overexcited about this red crowd but we have to learn from it," said forward Ville Nieminen, who proceeded to throw in a play on words. "On the road, we play hospital hockey with lots of patience." (игра слов - lots of patience (patients))

"when you are having ties, tying a game...a tie is like kissing your sister"

"It's like trying to build a house on soft land, your foundation must be hard"

"We were outworked, outplayed, outhit, all kinds of outs," said Ville Nieminen. "And now we're out of Tampa." (после одной из проигранных игр в финальной серии)

"The red house in Calgary, it's controlled chaos" (об атмосфере на трибунах в Сэддлдоуме во время матчей плей-офф)

"He got me in the mouth and I just about ate the whole blade," Nieminen recalled of Dimitrakos' infraction

"I knew the penalty was coming, so I tried to make a play that you should not even be allowed to think about five-on-five"

"That pass across, stopping up inside the blueline to pass it across. Nobody picked up Marcus so he was wide open."

"When there's a delayed penalty coming you try that little mustard play when you can put some mustard on it"

"You can talk about defense and offense and atmosphere and whatever"

"Last time I scored was before in December and that was bad."

"I have not scored since the leafs were on the trees"

"I hear Donovan behind calling Nemo, Nemo, Nemo, But I decide that it is my time." (об одном из своих голов)

Barry Strater:" Ville Nieminen scored the game winning goal as Calgary Flames beat the Ottawa Senators tonight at the Saddledome."
Ville Nieminen: "That's me." (во время интервью после матча с Оттавой)

"When i got traded to this team it felt like i got called up."

"It's your own fault if you can't fit in in that dressing room"

"Give me the puck. I'm hot — in the steam room." (в раздевалке - о том, что он тоже может забивать)

"I don't know if I played in Chicago, I just lived there," said Nieminen after the game on FAN960 . "They can stop talking about 'Finding Nemo.' I've found myself in Calgary"

How about this quote from the SUN regarding his shot off the bar in OT:"Why didn't it go in? Because we did not deserve to win," Nieminen said.

When asked about the scorer's touch he showed on his goal ..."I told the guys before that I had good hands -- but it was in the casino."

"I'm all Swedish, no Finnish." (о том, что он хочет забивать (в основном шведы имеют в НХЛ репутацию забивал, а финны - рабочих лошадок))

"I hoping they no cheer pour Wancouver" (обратите внимание, в одном из радиоинтевью он произнес "Уанкувер"... Сидящие рядом Коммодор и кто-то еще просто покатились со смеху а Коммодор даже сквозь смех спросил: "Who?")

``I grew up at a hockey rink and I feel I belong to the hockey rink and the hockey atmosphere,'' said the six-foot-one Finn. ``In Pittsburgh, the hockey atmosphere was dying.

``I wasn't myself. I didn't try hard enough. I felt as if I was in a passenger seat.''

"I'll tell you one thing, I'll be very well rested, and almost arrested," he said, delivering another one-liner.

"Of course I feel bad. It's a lot easier to be out on the ice than in the press box. I've had enough hot dogs already." (о том, как он себя чувствовал во время дисквалификации)

Asked why he decided to make the cross-continent trip despite not being able to play in Game 5, Nieminen cracked: "Because there was a seat available on the plane" (о том почему он полетел в Тампу, хотя был дисквалифицирован)

On the Score's latest story on the Flames, and the city, they talk about how a baby and a sheep at the zoo have been named after Kipper. To which, Ville says:"If I am having second baby, I am naming Mikka."

The interpreter was getting a bit nervous. Nieminen informed Goulet that he was a free man for the NHL, because he was done with school and the compulsory military service, they were “in the box”, as he put it. And if Colorado was interested in him, he could come right away. He would only have to drop by Tampere to change his underwear"

" I don't know if it was a computer generated picture or what, but it was definitely in"

There was an occasion on CBC after the 2nd game in the series when they asked Ville about the setup on the Dono breakaway goal. Ville said that Dono was screaming so loud at him for the puck that his lungs may have been falling out. And he went on to say that if there is someone who screams and yells that loud, you best get him the puck. The guy is so awesome. Looking to some more quotes.

When asked about the missed lead pass up the middle "Yeah, I was being a bit of a cookie monster"

А вот что говорят о нем партнеры:

And a simple explanation from Chris Simon when asked to describe the Finn with a very wide grin. "Nemo is a pain in the ass."

"He's a character," defenceman Robyn Regehr said of Nieminen after the Flames' optional practice yesterday. "It was a little scary the first time he was in the starting lineup because he skated by the bench and he was yelling at everybody and he was hard to understand. He speaks three or four different languages and you can't understand any of them."

"He even does it when he's doing up his laces," remarks Flames defenceman Andrew Ference, who also played with Nieminen in Pittsburgh.
Ference leans over and contorts his mug in a valiant attempt to mimic Nieminen's game face. "I don't know," he shrugs, "if he's in pain or what."

"I think it's pretty good, though," said Shean Donovan. "It's his trademark. He's obviously an agitator, so as an opponent when you see that big grin coming, sometimes it makes you a little bit mad."

"Niemo stood up one day and screamed 'One bus, 20 steering wheels,' " recalled Conroy, squishing his face at the silliness of it. "He got such a reaction he uses it almost non-stop. "That's his trademark."

"Hey Niemo," said Andrew Ference as the tenacious Finn approached a throng of reporters waiting to ask about the three costly penalties he took against Vancouver one night earlier. "How many penalties are you gonna take (tonight)?"

Darryl Sutter's sarcasm also found Niemo when the Flames coach was asked about his winger's, um, over-exuberance. "I thought he had a four-day rental on that box," deadpanned Sutter on the grinder whose trio of penalties resulted in three Canucks goals in Wednesday's 5-3 series- opening loss.

А вот отрывки из отличной статьи о Вилле:

Playing on the edge. Playing mean and tough with passion and fierce determination and, yes, nasty. These are some of the qualities required of players to win the little battles ... and get into the heads of an opponent, when the stakes are so high at this time of the year.
Going to the edge -- and yes sometimes over that edge -- is all a part of playoff hockey, and there's one name that seems to be on the lips of all of his opponents so far this playoff year: Calgary Flames winger Ville Nieminen.
Finding "Nemo" in this case isn't difficult.
In the Detroit series, Nieminen skated straight for Red Wings goaltender Curtis Joseph and rammed him down to the ice for no good reason -- and he incurred a one-game suspension for the uncalled-for hit.
In the San Jose series, he's been caught spearing Sharks defenseman Rob Davison, sticking a couple of others and just being a pest.
And that doesn't count some important offense he's contributed throughout the playoffs -- including a one-goal, one-assist performance as he and linemates Marcus Nilson and Shean Donovan were the key cogs in a Game 2 triumph in San Jose as well as a skilled setup for Nilson's quick goal in the Sharks' 3-0 victory in Game 5 at San Jose.
Three goals and three assists in 17 playoff games may not sound like much, but Nieminen's contributions are normally expected in the checking, hitting and just plain playing-on-the-edge sort of game that is required at this time of the year.
"He's a cheap-shot artist," Detroit winger Kirk Maltby said after the attack on Joseph.
"He violated the code by driving right into Cujo," Red Wings coach Dave Lewis said. "Rules are rules, but there's a code in the NHL, but I've never seen anyone just cross the line like that so deliberately."
"There's nothing he won't try out there," Davison said, shaking his head in disdain.
But that's from the guys who have to face the unpredictable Nieminen, who has become one of those players you love to hate when he's on the other side ... but who is invaluable if he's on your team.
Earlier in the playoffs, Flames captain Jarome Iginla just smiled when the conversation got around to Nieminen. In fact, Iginla went on the say that the Flames' acquisition of Nieminen from Chicago in a late February trade might have been the most underrated deal for his team -- and that's saying a lot in a season of trades that has brought goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff from San Jose, Nieminen from Chicago, Nilson from Florida and Chris Simon from the New York Rangers.
"Nemo's been a warrior for us in the playoffs," Iginla said. "In the postseason, you want everyone to try to be in the face of an opponent -- and that's Ville's game. He'll hit you and then give you a big smile and get under your skin, make you angry enough to want to get back at him."
"He's a real agitator -- and a great playoff player," Flames coach Darryl Sutter said. "In the playoffs, everyone has to bring his 'A' Game every night and Nemo's been one of our most consistent and aggravating players to play against."
Nieminen reminds a lot of people of fellow Finnish winger Esa Tikkanen, who was a real pain in the neck to opponents when he helped the Edmonton Oilers win four Stanley Cups and then one more for the New York Rangers.
"He's a real character," Flames center Craig Conroy said, shaking his head.
"It was a little scary the first time he was in the starting lineup for us and he skated by the bench and he was yelling at everybody at the top of his lungs. We all kind of sat there trying to figure out what he was trying to say," laughed Flames defenseman Robyn Regehr. "Since then, it's become kind of a ritual for him to do that before each game. It's obviously his way of giving us some encouragement. But ...
"We jokingly call him Esa Tikkanen, because, like Tikkanen, he is supposed to speak three or four different languages -- but half the time I don't think you could understand him in any of those tongues."
A well-meaning Nieminen said, "Just call it Finn-glish."
Then he added, "I don't know how I can make anybody mad when they don't understand me most of the time, do you?"
What hasn't been lost in the translation is the effort and passion and grit the 27-year-old native of Tampere, Finland gives in the playoffs. Remember he also played a big part of Colorado's Stanley Cup run in 2001, with four goals and six assists -- plus more unpredictable actions on the ice.
What it comes down to is this: We know that not all plays, all goals, all defensive efforts are not pretty when teams get as far as the conference finals -- and the team that has the most players who play on the edge the most win more of the little battles that win games.
And finding Nemo in that role is not uncommon at this time of the year, even if he didn't really make as much of an impact after leaving Denver for Pittsburgh and Chicago.
Some say he has responded to the hard-work ethic demanded of him by Brian Sutter in Chicago and Darryl Sutter in Calgary. More likely, going from last place in Chicago to a contender in Calgary has been plenty of impetus.
"I always wanted to be a better player than just an agitator," Nieminen said with a big smile late in the Detroit series. "I thought I showed some of that in our Cup season in Denver when I scored 14 goals in the regular season and had another four in the playoffs and had an opportunity to play on one of the Avs top lines (because of an injury to Peter Forsberg).
"But I've come to learn that I'd be out of a job if a coach try to rely on me to just be a skilled hockey player."
But when you start to wonder just what kind of life it is trying to get under every opponent's skin and start to think that everything seems to be all fun and games for Nieminen, you can learn that this 6-1, 200-pounder has his serious side as well. Like when I brought up the Esa Tikkanen comparisons.
At first, Nieminen cringes a little when anyone brings up the name Tikkanen. But not because he didn't like the way Tikkanen played -- there's no question he learned a lot of his techniques from the loquacious Tikk.
"Esa was my dad's name," Nieminen told me during that Stanley Cup run in 2001 as he paused, choking on his words. "I don't talk about this much. But my dad taught me a lot about this game. He was a pretty good player in Finland and had me on skates when I was 4 and he challenged me to be beat him 1-on-1 all the time. The reason I'm a little melancholy about this subject is that my dad always had an alcohol problem and it had an effect on the whole family.
"Earlier this year when I was playing at Hershey (American Hockey League), I got the call early in the season that my dad had died. It really hit me hard. But the thought I take with me is that at least he didn't wake up with a hangover that morning."
A rather spacey look replaced that contagious Nieminen smile about this time. It was a time of reflection that led to a smile.
"I'm convinced he sees all of my games now, you know what I mean?" Ville said. "And I'm sure he's proud of what I've accomplished. I play like he taught me how to play. While I don't think he would have ever won a Dad of the Year award, to me, I looked at him as kind of a role model, because of how he taught me how to play this game."
That was three years ago, but you can see that Nieminen hasn't lost any of that grit and passion for the game -- and, oh yes, that aggravating, agitating style.
And you know something, I think Ville Nieminen is right.
Truth be told, Ville never really gave himself much of a chance to play in the NHL. But he is clearly making a difference, just like Esa Nieminen always thought his son would.

Продолжение следует...

[russianflame]

[vadson77]

Виля тожэ подписался, так жэ на год и 600 тонн...
http://www.thefourthperiod.com/cgy32.html