The Butterfly Effect in Hockey

Happy Monday!

I'm here to talk to you about the Butterfly Effect in Ice Hockey.

What???

The definition of the Butterfly Effect is the idea that small things can have non-linear impacts on a complex system. The concept is imagined with a butterfly flapping its wings and causing a typhoon.

This post is supposed to be an example of how the Butterfly Effect can be applied to ice hockey. 

Here goes:

It was Spring 2008, and I was in my 23rd week of pregnancy. Before becoming new parents, we decided to take our last trip to North America for a while. Our first stop was Halifax, Nova Scotia. I liked the small fishermen's town appeal. 

In order to celebrate the Ice Hockey World Championships that were going on (I'm talking about it in a minute), they set up a Crosby exhibit inside the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame. The most memorable object (to me) was Mrs Crosby's laundry dryer. 

Why? Growing up in Cole Harbor, Sidney used it for shooting practice. It was in bad shape. Bumps, dents, black puck marks... The display comment said that with his first NHL contract, Sid purchased a new dryer for his mom ;-))) 

I just found out due to popular demand, the exhibition was made a permanent thing, check it out.

Halifax has a special meaning to every Swiss citizen, especially for those who are or have been working for Swiss, formerly Swissair, our airline, at some point. 

Unfortunately Halifax was where in 1998 our flight 111 crashed as a result of all systems failure due to smoke in the cockpit. A devastating day for our country and the entire airline industry. We have always been considered to be a super safe and reliable airline, and then this.

Almost everybody knew somebody (who knew somebody) of the 229 people who were on board of that aircraft, crew members or passengers.

When I started to work for Swiss in 2010, I met people who worked on that aircraft on that very day or were part of the investigation team that had been active for a period of five years after the crash. There were no survivors, so the priorities were to retrieve the flight recorder, the bodies and the largest parts of the wreckage.

Even though ten years had passed since the plane crash, when we arrived at Peggy's Cove, a cute little fishing community, where a memorial site was set up, we felt very concerned. There was an icy wind blowing that contributed to the goosebumps we had anyway.

If Halifax felt like a rustic, down to earth place, then Québec was almost fairytale land! 

Everything was built so pretentious and pretty, and it's not only Fairmont Le Château Frontenac,

but also the regular houses in the old town, pardoned-moi, Vieux-Québec, the fountains, everything!

As I was saying, the Ice Hockey World Championships were being held in Halifax and Québec City that year. 

Hubby was determined to get tickets for one of the Swiss team's games, and he managed. 

Switzerland played against Russia in the quarter finals and lost 0:6 (the Russians ended up becoming world champions that year, plus they had Ovechkin, so it was an honorable loss...)  

One of the goals for Russia was actually an own goal by our defenseman Philippe Furrer, (poor guy, it was his first WC!) and the TV reporter's multiple shocked oh nooooo's were legendary.

In the audience we met Swiss people who told us that every year in May they traveled to wherever the Hockey WC was taking place - that's one way to decide where you're going on vacation!

Only a few weeks later - we were back home again - the Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley Cup finals against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Among the team were Henrik Zetterberg who was awarded MVP, Pavel Datsyuk, Johan Franzen, Niklas Kronwall and Valtteri Filpula, just to name a few.

On September 17, 2008, baby Colin was born! What better outfit to come home from the hospital that the Montreal Canadians onsie we got him in Québec...

Fast forward to fall 2020. With no chance of spending our family vacation in the U.S. and Canada, as we usually do, we did a tour throughout Switzerland. One stop was in Fribourg, a nice medieval town with many scenic bridges. As a special treat we went to a hockey game. They were playing against HC Davos.

Andres Ambühl, their most legendary, enthusiastic and charismatic player and captain, played his 1,000th Swiss national league game that night. He's also been a long-term teammate on the Swiss national team.

After a wonderful NHL career, Finnish player Filpula joined Geneva, a Swiss National League team this past season.

 I'm jumping from one player to the next, but I promise, I have point to make. Just be patient. 

During last year's fall break that we spent in Switzerland again, no thanks to the pandemic, we went back to the newly renovated BCF Arena in Fribourg to support the local team. I spotted three girls, all with long blond hair and wearing jersey #5 Papi. Ha, they are Philippe Furrer's daughters, the local and national defense legend. 

The reason I'm telling you all this will soon be obvious, bear with me.

On 12/21/21 Philippe Furrer announced that this was going to be his last season, and he was planning on making it a good one.

In February of this year, the Winter Olympics took place in Beijing, China. I didn't get to follow much of it, due to the time difference. Colin sometimes set the alarm to get up to catch a hockey game. In the finals, Finland defeated ROC, short for Russian Olympic Committee. Valtteri Filpula was part of the Finnish Team.

In March, the Swiss hockey playoffs began. 

As part of Colin's career orientation he had the fabulous opportunity to spend an evening at the Swiss TV's sports studio, along with the host of the show and a hockey expert, in the person of retired hockey legend Martin Plüss. They showed Lausanne HC : HC Fribourg Gottéron. It ended 2 : 2 after regulation. 

In the third overtime, the 105th minute of the game, Fribourg's #5 Philippe Furrer scored! It's at 3:25 in this clip:

On May 1st, our team, EV Zug won the Swiss Championship. This has absolutely nothing to do with anything else in this post. Just wanted to mention it because we're so happy. We defeated the team that eliminated Fribourg, so if Philippe didn't get his trophy as a dignified end to his career, at least our common opponent ZSC Lions didn't win either! Right?

By the time the playoff finals took place, the Swiss National Team already began their preparations for the 2022 World Championships. It wasn't until later that our goalie and two forwards joined them for the Preliminary Round, which the Swiss guys finished as the best team of group A, even before Canada!

Speaking of... Before the game against Canada (which Switzerland ended up winning 6 : 3, hooray!) a very special player got honored: 38 yo (turning 39 later this year) Andres "Büehli" Ambühl, played his 120th game with the Swiss National Team! What an emotional moment!

But wait, I forgot to mention another special highlight of this year's "Worlds"! Our very freshly retired Philippe Furrer started his new job as a co-commentator for the Swiss TV station, and he did a fantastic job! 

I don't know if the had him do some intense media training or if he's just a natural, either way he managed to carry us along with his sharp eye for what's going on down on the ice, his profound hockey knowledge and enthusiasm!

Sadly the Swiss team got eliminated by Team USA in the quarter finals, leaving us to root for Canada or Finland. While I may have a stronger relationship to Canada as a country - we've been visiting numerous times and love it - I felt it would be even greater for Finland to win. Not only was it their home tournament, with the games taking part in Helsinki and Tampere, but there are six Finns on the team that during the season play for Swiss National League teams: Rajala, Hietanen, Vatanen, Sallinen, Pesonen - and Filpula!

You can see where this is going now, right?

Not quite yet?

Let's talk about the Triple Gold Member Club for a minute. It's a group of hockey players (and coaches) who have achieved all of the following:

• An Olympic Games gold medal 
• A World Championship gold medal 
• A Stanley Cup, the championship trophy of the National Hockey League (NHL)

Until yesterday, only guys from Sweden, Russia, Canada and the Chech Republic have been members, among them Jaromir Jagr, Niklas Kronwall, Henrik Zetterberg, Jonathan Toews, Sidney Crosby and Pavel Datsyuk, just to name a few.

So last night, the Finnish Team Captain became the newest member!

Right. Mr Valtteri Filpula, who back in 2008 won the Stanley Cup with the Detroit Red Wings, just recently won Olympic gold and even more recently aced the World Championship 2022, made it!

Congratulations, what an achievement! 

And this, my friends, concludes my post. It all makes sense now, right?