Tiny Finland Wipes Away the Smirk

Boston Bruin’s star goalie Tuukka Rask, playing for Finland, helped to shutdown mighty Russia in the quarterfinal round of men’s ice hockey. The huge win should wipe the smirk off of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s face. Things aren’t exactly turning out as planned. His Winter Olympics are the most expensive in history, his hockey team is out, and meanwhile Ukraine is burning at his doorstep. The Wall Street Journal details the Russians’ disappointment here.

Appearing as the highest-profile home team in the most expensive Olympics in history, Russia’s men’s hockey team seemed to carry the insecurities of an entire nation on its shoulders. The front page of daily Sport Express shouted on Wednesday: “Do We Have a Team? We’ll Find Out Today.”

To critical Russian hockey fans, the answer turned out to be no. Wednesday’s loss is the second time in a row that Team Russia, heirs to a Soviet Union hockey dynasty that won gold in seven of the nine Winter Olympics from 1956 to 1988, has exited the tournament in the quarterfinals.

In a postgame news conference, Russian head coach Zinetula Bilyaletdinov parried intense questions from his countrymen, who peppered him with queries such as, “Is this a catastrophe?”

“This has certainly been an unsuccessful appearance,” Bilyaletdinov responded. “Call it what you will.”

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E.J. Smith is the Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH, where he completed course-work in Practical and Defensive Handgun, Conceal Carry Pistol, Shotguns, Precision Scope Rifle and Kidnapping Prevention. E.J. plays a Yamaha Recording Custom drum set with Zilldjian cymbals. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zilldjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@youngresearch.com. Sign up here to receive all the best content from Richardcyoung.com each week.