When the Finnish U-20 ice hockey team lost the semifinal game to the USA, the atmosphere in the locker room was filled with disappointment. The players had just given their all, mentally and physically, never backing down to the dream of becoming world champions. The U-20 team head-coach Antti Pennanen knew how hard everyone on the team had worked for this. He shared the players disappointment but had to find a way to fire them up again. They still had one important match to play. The puck for the bronze medal game would be dropped in less than 24 hours.
Pennanen had played metal music before games to amplify the teams fighting spirit. At this moment, he decided to try to find a silver lining despite what has happened and asked his crew to edit a short highlight movie of the tournament up to this point. As the soundtrack to this motivational clip Pennanen chose Children of Bodom´s "Are You Dead Yet?"
Then, at the team meeting before facing the Russians, Antti played this highlight reel and talked about how talented and unique a musician Alexi was. Alexi will forever be one of the best guitar players in music history. Antti stressed the importance of the game ahead - the players can still create history - the moments in life where one gets to play medal games are unique too. With Antti’s words, the images of Alexi and COB’s music in the back of their minds the players stepped onto the ice and beat Russia 4-1. The underdogs had prevailed. One can only imagine that “Are You Dead Yet" echoed thru the Edmonton stadium locker room hallways, before and after the game.
The next day Jaska Raatikainen read in the morning news about the Finns winning their last game. The headlines were clear ”Winning the bronze game was our way to honor and salute the memory of Alexi Laiho”.
Jaska started to think about how Children of Bodom could thank the team for their tribute and victory. Luckily, last autumn COB designed a ”pond hockey winter hat,” and one of the hats’ theme is Follow the Reaper, with blue and white colors (Finnish flag). These were the hats given to the team since U-20 mirrors the fact that 2020 was the 20th anniversary of Follow the Reaper album.
Thank you U-20 Finnish ice hockey team for honoring the memory of Alexi Laiho and congratulations to the bronze medal.
Children of Bodom