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WC: 2015 — Team Finland

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FiLe said:
Did you watch these preliminary games? Ruutu was actually a solid complementary piece to Konna and JMA, forming pretty much our most consistent line. I think with our current roster there's room for both Härski and Rudy in top-six, but if there's only a slot for one, no way Hartikainen takes preference based on what we've seen.
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Sure maybe offensively out best line in last game, but still not good enough. I'd like to experiment more with Hartikainen up there instead of Ruutu or like you said have both of them there maybe.

Don't know if it was intentional or not by KJ, but when Barkov made that 2-2 goal Hartikainen was also there and that looked good to me, but it's not the only reason why I want him there.

Since JJ-Barkov isn't working yet and maybe never will, Ruutu could make space for JJ (in the Konna-Aaltonen line) and we can put Palola/Donskoi/Filppula/Granlund/Lehterä with Barkov + Hartikainen. So in this situation I'd prefer Hartikainen over Ruutu in top-6, but it's an option to have them both as well, just not as good option in my opinion. Oh and if Komarov isn't injured I actually want to see Hartikainen instead of Komarov as well in top-6.

Who was the third link in the Olympics when we had Selänne-Barkov-X before Barkov injured? Was it Granlund?
 
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Mestaruus said:
Who was the third link in the Olympics when we had Selänne-Barkov-X before Barkov injured? Was it Granlund?
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It was Granlund. I would kinda like to see Pesonen-Barkov-Palola, but I don't think both will make the team, and their "pedigree" might not be high enough to "deserve" that kind of role.
 
I guess you guys talk about Janne Pesonen and not Harri.

rduck1 said:
It was Granlund. I would kinda like to see Pesonen-Barkov-Palola, but I don't think both will make the team, and their "pedigree" might not be high enough to "deserve" that kind of role.
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Palola-Barkov and someone sounds good to me. Many think it would be better to put Palola in that full SM-Liiga line first; Palola-Kemppainen-Donskoi, but I'd personally prefer to just put a real sniper with Barkov right away. Either one is fine and in few days we'll know a lot more. I can't wait till KJ makes some announcements.
 
Mestaruus said:
Sure maybe offensively out best line in last game, but still not good enough. I'd like to experiment more with Hartikainen up there instead of Ruutu or like you said have both of them there maybe.

Don't know if it was intentional or not by KJ, but when Barkov made that 2-2 goal Hartikainen was also there and that looked good to me, but it's not the only reason why I want him there.
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Well, Hartikainen did get a few shifts up there and while we saw some good flashes, not nearly enough to oust Ruutu.

If Ruutu had actually been bad, I'd be saying he should have no room in there either - just like I'm thinking now Barkov and Jokinen should maybe be separated (but, yeah, that's not gonna happen). Right now any comments favoring Hartikainen (or whoever) over Ruutu in top-six is nothing but prejudice. It's a pretty big hit to any commenter's credibility.


Realistically, these might be the forward lines KJ is going for:

Ruutu - Kontiola - Aaltonen
Jokinen - Barkov - Hartikainen
Donskoi - Kemppainen - Palola
Komarov - Immonen - Pihlström

If Immonen and Komarov can't play, put Hytönen and one of Huhtala/Osala/Louhivaara in there.
 
It was a bless that Florida tried Jokinen and Barkov in a same line and we all saw that it will never work. Time is money before WCH and Finland's coaching staff didn't have to try that combo to see if there is chemistry. Well what does Jalonen? He put them in a same line like he haven't never saw them playing together.

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I've done lot of thinking these last few days about our team and lots of people has said that we have a better team on our hands than in years, but if you look at these players really closely, we actually don't have that good a team after all. We have a exciting team yes, but it's not that good. Still i think we will win bronze.
 
agent082 said:
It was a bless that Florida tried Jokinen and Barkov in a same line and we all saw that it will never work. Time is money before WCH and Finland's coaching staff didn't have to try that combo to see if there is chemistry. Well what does Jalonen? He put them in a same line like he haven't never saw them playing together.
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To be fair though, unlike Florida KJ and co didn't have all that many options, at least in these EHT games. They pretty much had to pair Jokinen with Barkov in order for Sasha to have a skill player on his wing.

Or how you would have set the lines up, if we are to consider that Aaltonen is a staple with his BFF? All the rest of the wingers in the team are power forwards or pure grinders. It's not like they can whip up a Jagr or Huberdeau out of thin air.

Given the final team should feature Donskoi and/or Palola, hopefully they'll give 'em a shot if Jokinen is still dead weight next to Sasha.
 
There might be a sort of silly thing going on in the heads of the coaching staff, in that splitting Barkov and Jokinen would demote one or the other to the third line, assuming the Kontiola line remains intact. Now we here are totally okay with Jokinen being there, but KJ sees him as the captain and leader of this team, so top-6 minutes are probably just about guaranteed. So that would mean a bottom-6 job for Barkov, which does not sound very good to me.
 
rduck1 said:
So that would mean a bottom-6 job for Barkov, which does not sound very good to me.
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If all our units get more or less even minutes, who cares if Barkov is in top- or bottom-six? It all depends on who his linemates are. If he plays in what is namely the third line with, say, Donskoi and Palola and hits it off far better with them than he did with Jokinen, the line numberings are completely irrelevant.

It'll be whole another story of course if he ends up playing with a pair of grinders.

This is another advantage of having eight d-men, btw. With four full units the TOIs stay pretty even, so it does not matter that much who's in first and who's in fourth line as long as the chemistry is there. For example, in 2011 the PIG line was our 3rd on paper.
 
I never knew how Kojo is as a coach, but it isn't looking very good. I think our team has made a record of how bad power play can be. And not seperating barkov and JJ already... wow. If they still put them in the same line, all hope is officially lost for any medal.
 
I just noticed I've been the only one who's called him that in this thread though, so I can see the need to ask the question.

Doesn't seem overly common on the Cats board either.


But yeah, it's simply his nickname. Just like Hartikainen is "Härski", Jussi Jokinen is "Juice", Olli Jokinen is "Päällikkö" (or "Da Chief" in English), Kontiola is "Konna" and Juhamatti Aaltonen is "that useless limp*$@*".

For the record, I like JMA and wish we had more players like him.
 
FiLe said:
I just noticed I've been the only one who's called him that in this thread though, so I can see the need to ask the question.

Doesn't seem overly common on the Cats board either.
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Every one knows he is asking it because he wants to try to make us feel like Sasha is Russian. But he is hitting he's axe to stone, Sasha Barkov has totally Finnish mindset and is more Finn in he's nature than Swedish speaking Finns.
 
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QnebO said:
Every one knows he is asking it because he wants to try to make us feel like Sasha is Russian. But he is hitting he's axe to stone, Sasha Barkov has totally Finnish mindset and is more Finn in he's nature than Swedish speaking Finns.
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Lol? Of course not. I just think it's an odd nickname considering there is nothing about Alexsander that translates into "Sasha" in the way Kontiola translates into Konna etc. To me at least.
 
QnebO said:
Sasha Barkov has totally Finnish mindset and is more Finn in he's nature than Swedish speaking Finns.
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Yeah, well, it's not like we grabbed some Russian leftover to our team our of pity. Despite his heritage, Barkov chose to play for Finland and therefore he is "our" Sasha, now and always.

That being said, he does have this subtle, ironic and somewhat self-deprecating sense of humor which is an obvious product of his Russian roots. And I totally adore it. The guy is just gold whenever they put a mic under his nose.


For example, this gem when he had freshly arrived a couple of weeks ago...

Reporter: "Do you have any personal aspirations for this tournament?"
Sasha: "Stay with the team 'til the end."
 
FiLe said:
To be fair though, unlike Florida KJ and co didn't have all that many options, at least in these EHT games. They pretty much had to pair Jokinen with Barkov in order for Sasha to have a skill player on his wing.

Or how you would have set the lines up, if we are to consider that Aaltonen is a staple with his BFF? All the rest of the wingers in the team are power forwards or pure grinders. It's not like they can whip up a Jagr or Huberdeau out of thin air.

Given the final team should feature Donskoi and/or Palola, hopefully they'll give 'em a shot if Jokinen is still dead weight next to Sasha.
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I would have tried anyone but Jokinen there (I would have also gave Rantanen a chance). It's not like trying some new combination on that line would have hurt more than keeping Barkov and Jokinen together.
 
agent082 said:
I would have tried anyone but Jokinen there (I would have also gave Rantanen a chance). It's not like trying some new combination on that line would have hurt more than keeping Barkov and Jokinen together.
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Jokinen is still far more skilled than most of the players in the current squad, so one certainly can't blame the Nose for wanting to try it out and give it some time. If they happen to click, the payout will likely be far greater than pairing Barkov with some common grinder.

But like I said, should the final team will feature more skill players (as it likely will), the situation will certainly be different.
 
FiLe said:
Jokinen is still far more skilled than most of the players in the current squad, so one certainly can't blame the Nose for wanting to try it out and give it some time. If they happen to click, the payout will likely be far greater than pairing Barkov with some common grinder.

But like I said, should the final team will feature more skill players (as it likely will), the situation will certainly be different.
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Maybe Jalonen thought it was coaches fault that Jokinen and Barkov didn't click in Florida and that his style of hockey helps to find that obviously lacking chemistry.
 
QnebO said:
I never knew how Kojo is as a coach, but it isn't looking very good. I think our team has made a record of how bad power play can be. And not seperating barkov and JJ already... wow. If they still put them in the same line, all hope is officially lost for any medal.
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So guys tell me, which PP has been worse KJ's PP in the practise games or Jortikka's in U-20? I personally find them just as bad.
 
Mestaruus said:
So guys tell me, which PP has been worse KJ's PP in the practise games or Jortikka's in U-20? I personally find them just as bad.
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I don't think we've gone 0 for 20 or whatever over these games, so I don't think they're even close to the same level. The WJC power-play was awful on a historic scale in terms of results.
 
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