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WC: 2016 Team Finland Pt. II

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Gabranth said:
Laine has stated that he doesn't care which wing he plays. He is ok with both.

Source for Finns: http://www.leijonat.fi/maajoukkueet/a-maajoukkue/201516/mm2016/item/16696-ykkoskenttaan-nostettu-laine-paljastaa-ketjukaverinsa-neuvot.html
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"There's an NHL guy on the left side, so that puts me on the right. I don't think I had much say in the matter. But I can do RW as well, so it doesn't matter that much."

I think the bolded part is where we can see between the lines that even Laine himself knows that he's being nerfed by these lineups.
 
Great game to start the tournament, hope the finnish team will have too quick offense so it leads to belarussians not catching up and drawing calls, wanna see PP
 
Ok so far:
- L-B-J line worked fine.
- G-K-A line worked pretty ok I think
- Pihlström scored a goal

What I wan't to change:
-Get Rantanen in there
-Give Pulkkinen better linemates ffs.
 
A good game when you take into account that it was the first game of the tournament. The 1st period was ugly, but there was no widespread panic and the team stayed patient. What's exciting is knowing that several players have still got a lot of room to improve, and I'm sure they will.
 
I'm positively surprised how quickly the team adjusted and got over the initial difficulties they always seem to have. Some years it's taken even multiple games to get going, now it was only a little over a period. Hopefully they'll just keep on improving.
 
edd1e said:
A bit sad that Rantanen's out of the lineup. I think he's really a player finns need.
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Can someone explain to me what the deal with this is. Is he going to be placed on the team later on? Is he going to go home? Are you guys expecting someone from the NHL to come and take the roster spot or are they just keeping it open for flexibility? After the long year he's had I hope he isn't just sitting around there for nothing. I'm also going to stop looking for info about it if he's not going to play.
 
tigervixxxen said:
Can someone explain to me what the deal with this is. Is he going to be placed on the team later on? Is he going to go home? Are you guys expecting someone from the NHL to come and take the roster spot or are they just keeping it open for flexibility? After the long year he's had I hope he isn't just sitting around there for nothing. I'm also going to stop looking for info about it if he's not going to play.
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They are most likely just keeping it open for flexibility. I doubt they are waiting anyone from NHL to join. I think Rantanen will play couple games but is not on playing roster when QFs start. There really just isn't place for him besides 4th line.
 
Just put Laine to LW. Every time he got to be in the LW and got the puck, he was really dangerouse. And how did the beauty goal come? Well, Laine storming the left wing of course, then beauty play with Sasha.

Really, he just knows so much better how to dangle from LW than Jokinen. THAT much better, that we should swap them even though Jussi is very respected player by me. Laine can just cut in the middle and shoot it dangerously every time, or make other play or his signature dekes on left wall if he cant cut to middle. It's really hard to stop. If you guess the signature deke too much, he'll cut to mid. If you just keep the mid, hell get past you from left side and storm to the net or try a pass.
 
QnebO said:
Really, he just knows so much better how to dangle from LW than Jokinen. THAT much better, that we should swap them even though Jussi is very respected player by me. Laine can just cut in the middle and shoot it dangerously every time, or make other play or his signature dekes on left wall if he cant cut to middle. It's really hard to stop. If you guess the signature deke too much, he'll cut to mid. If you just keep the mid, hell get past you from left side and storm to the net or try a pass.
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Agree. I don't really get why Jokinen insists on having the LW lane, when he's shown multiple times he can do his thing from both sides of the rink. Oh well, I can imagine the discussion about it has gone like this: Laine says, "I prefer being on the left", to which Jokinen replies, "I prefer it too", to which Laine really doesn't have the grounds to argue.

Now, he however, does. He showed exactly why he prefers the left side. So the switch should be coming, unless Laine is too modest to still argue his case, or Jokinen is really a selfish dick.

---

It was just one game of course, but Koivu's line was definitely not a hit from the get-go. It was exactly as predicted, the Captain, MiG and Aho are little too similar to form a whole that's more than the sum of its parts. As of right now, Aho looked like little more than a warm body. Because it's probably too much to hope KJ would just make adjustments after a game that was handily won, after all, let's hope Aho knows how to adjust himself.
 
Koskinen wasn't that great IMO... That first goal Saros would've taken. Laine distracted the guy enough to make it predictable for the goalie what he would do and still Koskinen overplayed that situation and empty net. The second goal, well I understand that Koskinen was cold because he didn't receive many shots.

I hope Saros plays vs GER on Sunday and Koskinen vs USA on Monday and depending how that game goes by Koskinen, Saros might take over the #1 goalie position, at least until the Canada game.
 
Mestaruus said:
Koskinen wasn't that great IMO... That first goal Saros would've taken. Laine distracted the guy enough to make it predictable for the goalie what he would do and still Koskinen overplayed that situation and empty net. The second goal, well I understand that Koskinen was cold because he didn't receive many shots.

I hope Saros plays vs GER on Sunday and Koskinen vs USA on Monday and depending how that game goes by Koskinen, Saros might take over the #1 goalie position, at least until the Canada game.
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Agreed, I think Koskinen played that first one badly. The second goal seemed to go in off of Kukkonen's leg so that's not on Koskinen. I could've seen it wrong though. Anyway, I don't have the least bit of confidence in him. "He's just big" is what my friend said and it's not that far off. I hope Saros can outplay him.
 
What do you think of these forward lines?

Antti Pihlström - Jarno Koskiranta - Leo Komarov
Mikko Rantanen - Mikko Koivu (C) - Mikael Granlund
Patrik Laine - Alexander Barkov - Jussi Jokinen (A)
Sebastian Aho - Tomi Sallinen - Teemu Pulkkinen

??
 
I'm not sure why JJ apparently insists on playing the left side. He's a good, versatile player who's perfectly capable of doing his thing from the right side as well. I wonder if this is about JJ wanting to show Laine that rookies come last when it comes to requests like this, but I hope they switch sides by the start of the USA game.

As for Koskinen, he wasn't all that convincing, but I think he needs to fold like Vehviläinen before he loses the starter spot.
 
Our offense looked great but i think Jalonen is still wasting 3 players with these lines, Aho, Komarov and Pulkkinen. Pulkkinen to Koivus line, Aho to Komarovs line. But also i have to say kinda no point messing with the lines when we just scored 6 goals.
 
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