The Finnish Elite League season is over. Most foreign leagues are over. The NHL is in the first round of play-offs, the regular season (and the season as far as BF is concerned, once again) is over. The fun is only beginning.

There is something to pick you up once the hockey season is over every spring, and that is the World Championships. For me, picking my favourites in international games has always been a process that confuses many. Given my background, it’s difficult to guess who I support. The French? The Americans? Or maybe the Finns? I solved that many years ago by picking my favourites separately for each sport. It’s France for football, Americans for T&F (except javelin), Americans also for tennis, Finns for most winter sports (except alpine skiing). Hockey? The sport I love most in the entire world? Finland. Always, all the way.

The World Championship tournament of ice hockey takes place later this spring and I cannot wait for it to start. Right now there are also the under-18 World Champs underway. By this logic of holding world championship tournaments at the end of the season it would make sense to also have the under-20 champs right now. But that’s troublesome. There are often players playing in either both U-18 and U-20 tournaments, or U-20 and the grow-ups. So the U-20 tournament is over New Year’s.

The Finnish national hockey team is called The Lions. Because there’s a lion in the Finnish arms. So The Lions are gearing up for the upcoming World Championships in Canada as we speak. I love that nickname. But what I love more is the derivatives of that. The U-20 team has long been referred to as The Little Lions. And now, reading about the first game of the WC tournament of the U-18 team (they won), I came across the derivative used for them: The Lion Cubs. Now, how cute is that??

Go Lions!