Do Norwegians play hockey?

[Simon Atavax]

I always hear about Sweden, Finland, and Russia as three of the great world ice hockey powers. But never a peep about Norway. Don't they play? They're right next door!

Simon Atavax
http://atavaxlive.blogspot.com

 

[Gulla]

We play hocky, but being only 4 million people and having a far more distributed population makes for few areas where building a hockey hall less economically feasible. But I think we are still in the A-group (fighting to avoid relegation each championship).

In Norway a "City" might be as few as 2-3000 inhabitants. Our biggest city is Oslo at ~450.000 and only 3 more are over 100.000.

And of cource a long tradition of crosscountry skiing as the national sport (with ski jumping for the macho and brave), there simply isn't enough people to be on top in all winter sports.

And it really isn't fair to pull Russia into the group with the Nordic countries. There are far more (licesed and active) hockeyplayers in Russia than there are people in Norway

Håkon

 

[Blackrat]

And it really isn't fair to pull Russia into the group with the Nordic countries. There are far more (licesed and active) hockeyplayers in Russia than there are people in WHOLE SCANDINAVIA

Fixed it for you . Might be a bit exaggerated but not much.

A finn myself.

 

[drothgery]

Fixed it for you . Might be a bit exaggerated but not much.

A finn myself.

Hmm...
Norway has ~4.5 million people
Sweden ~9 million
Finland ~5 million
Denmark ~5.5 million (which is a lot more Scandanavian than Finland, IIRC).

Sweden's the only one with more people than say, Toronto.

 

[Stormborn]

My freshman college roommate was a hockey player from Norway. My opinion of him has nothing to do with his nationality nor his past time, but his general behavior and attitude so I wont comment beyond my sure knowledge that such exist.

Oh, and if you want a disconcerting experiance: wake up in the middle of the night to someone talking in their sleep in a language you do not know. A bit freaky to say the least.

 

[Dioltach]

Oh, and if you want a disconcerting experiance: wake up in the middle of the night to someone talking in their sleep in a language you do not know. A bit freaky to say the least.

Ah yes, the days of drunken holidays with loose girls on the Mediterranean ....

 

[Knightfall]

I always hear about Sweden, Finland, and Russia as three of the great world ice hockey powers. But never a peep about Norway. Don't they play? They're right next door!

Yep, and there is even a Norwegian in the NHL. His name is Patrick Thoresen.

http://oilers.nhl.com/team/app?page=PlayerDetail&playerId=8470375&service=page

His nickname is Thor.

 

[Gulla]

There are actually two...

Patric Thoresen is currently not playing much in Edmonton Oilers, but Ole-Kristian Tollefsen is playing for Columbus Blue Jackets

Håkon