WC: 2016 Team Finland Pt. II

[vendetta]

Some of my opinions.

First of all, it's a miracle Laine's scoring so well. The line isn't working 5 on 5 at all. I guess a part of that is because of Laine not being that great on the puck, but he is very good off the puck and even so I've just about never seen him getting good passes leading into a scoring chance. It happens extremely rarely in comparison to many other lines... That actually don't have anywhere near as good of a finisher as Laine in them. Surely Barkov and Jokinen should be able to set him up better?

Another thing, the PPs make no sense. Aho's spot makes zero sense, Koivu should be in the middle of the box if anything. Granlund is the playmaker of that PP as well, but with the removal of Pulkkinen that PP has no good shots. Jokinen is not a good playmaker and Barkov's wasted as Finland's best playmaker in the middle of the box. I can't believe they would waste Finland's best playmaker like that, even if he is good in that role as well. The PP doesn't play to Laine properly at all, he either gets passes in poor situations or the defensemen use their awful shots instead of passing good one timers to Laine in the situations asking for it. Laine actually has been getting set up terribly throughout the tournament even though he's been open so, so many times. How's this even possible?

I mean, Barkov did score 2+1 in the past game and that's good of course, but those scoring plays still were played away from Laine the entire time. Good thing they ended up being goals but this is still difficult to comprehend.

Then I'd like to add that the roles for the lines are incorrect. Barkov's the playmaker, Laine's the goalscorer. Someone like Komarov would make sense for the 3rd member of the line, not Jokinen. Now there's no one to go to the goal to block vision and compete for space... Except Barkov, our playmaker. How does that make sense? Koivu I guess can do that job and Granlund can take care of the playmaking well, but then what is Aho doing in that line? A second playmaker? It should be a shooter instead in my opinon. Aho hasn't had a good tournament and I feel like it's mostly because of him constantly playing incorrect roles.

I'm not even going to get into our scorers being wasted in the 4th line. Why can't the 3rd line be another scoring line and just leave the defending stuff to the 4th with Pyörälä, Pihlström and other defense specialists, for instance Lajunen? Even if these wouldn't be the finalized line ups, why hasn't the coaching staff even been testing these kinds of combinations instead of just sticking with the same line up for was it 4 matches or so even against extremely weak teams when those were the chances for experimenting? Now it's too late to try to fix the subpar roling.


Some suggestions:

Laine - Barkov - Komarov

Jokinen - Koivu - Granlund

Rantanen - Aho - Pulkkinen

Lajunen - Pyörälä - Pihlström

But their player choices just aren't perfect for forming a completely coherent line up. That 3rd line lacks physicality but I honestly have no clue what Rantanen and Pulkkinen are doing here if they aren't playing in that line. Komarov would be better but then Finland would lack the rebound / loose puck control and sight blocking required for their best shooter.

Couldn't disagree more.. barkov line works very well...jokinen has point in every game and us a good vet to have with the young barkov and laine... jokinen is a fantastic playmaker and barkov is not just a plymaker he can do it all scoring included..so u have a shooter a playmaker and a defensive minded center that van do whatever he wants score or pass or screen or deflect..

 

[CanadianPantherFan]

^^Exactly.

I did not bother responding to him because he was in LOW minority. That's probably most negative anti Barkov I've ever read in my life , saying something

Let's get this straight. Laine IS LUCKY one to play with those two guys. Laine is solid hockey player ,but he's got a ways to go in decision making process and reading 3 on 2 plays when he has the puck at the next level. You can't teach his shooting skills, but look at how he gets the puck on his goals (Barkov gets the puck from 180 feet or more away and off to the races they go).

 

[hirawl]

It's the same recipe as for the Panthers. Play Barkov more and give him the puck. It's so simple. The more the puck spends on Barkov's blade the better they do. Just a simple fact.

 

[teravaineSAROS]

Does anyone have a clip of Barkovs play against (i think) Slovakia when he was behind the Slovak net and manhandled their team by himself?

 

[Mestaruus]

What is the name of your goal song ? It's the best goal song in any IIHF world jr/WHC I've heard in last 5-10 years. I love hearing it especially after a Barky driven goal. Same song used at last World Jr's too if I'm not mistaken.

Don't know if I'm the only Finn to think so, but that goal song is awful. I'm embarrassed about it. USA has more classy song for example. I have no idea who decides these goal songs. I don't think it's the team nor the Finnish fans that decides.

 

[snipes]

Your winters might be, but do you know about our summers?

 

[snipes]

^^Exactly.

I did not bother responding to him because he was in LOW minority. That's probably most negative anti Barkov I've ever read in my life , saying something

Let's get this straight. Laine IS LUCKY one to play with those two guys. Laine is solid hockey player ,but he's got a ways to go in decision making process and reading 3 on 2 plays when he has the puck at the next level. You can't teach his shooting skills, but look at how he gets the puck on his goals (Barkov gets the puck from 180 feet or more away and off to the races they go).

I agree. Barkov is the best Finnish player and probably would be my pick for the top player at the tournament as of today.

 

[Conspiracy Theorist]

So if Finland doesn't win today, there will be SWE in QF against, Czechs in the semis and Canada/Russia in the finals after they battle hard against each other.

 

[BB88]

So if Finland doesn't win today, there will be SWE in QF against, Czechs in the semis and Canada/Russia in the finals after they battle hard against each other.

I was just coming to post about this.
Feels weird that we beat USA in the standings but with a loss tonight we may end up going against Russia.

 

[FiLe]

Solid game.

Yet, underlying those solid things... the PP still looks like it could use some work. And we again saw one of those strange choices from Jalonen. Koskiranta is sidelined, Finland gets a PP three minutes before the end. The game is decided, perfect time to experiment. Every cell of my body yells, "put Rantanen out there". And who does Jalonen put there to sub for Koskiranta? Pihlström.

 

[Jolli]

Funny how the game turned around. Had Canada managed to score a goal in the first period, I think the result would be very different.

Laine with a lot of rookie mistakes today, which was totally expected, I guess.

Koivu's PP unit was looking pretty good. Laine's not so much.

 

[LOFIN]

Rantanen deserves more icetime with his performance. If Koskiranta is out, he should be the first one they consider to be his replacement on the PP.

 

[MardyBum]

Even though he didn't get a point i'm even more impressed with Laine than I was before the game.

He had some turnovers trying to do too much but was able to generate a good amount of offense and had some nice chances. It seemed Laine was the only one Talbot was able to stop today .

So how does the bracket look for the QF now?

 

[Gaps]

I don't really have anything negative to say right now. Let's enjoy this one until Thursday.

This is what things should look like. Everyone did their part and several players who finished with no points still played a very good game (e.g. Barkov, Koivu, etc.)

And I have to say that despite his hooking/tripping penalties, I'd take Koivu as our captain over someone like Corey Perry any day of the week.

 

[JJTT]

Powerplay still sucks. Aho needs the puck more instead of Koivu there.

 

[Conspiracy Theorist]

Nice to see third line making big plays and scores. PP needs work.

 

[Raimo Sillanpää]

Funny how the game turned around. Had Canada managed to score a goal in the first period, I think the result would be very different.

Laine with a lot of rookie mistakes today, which was totally expected, I guess.

Koivu's PP unit was looking pretty good. Laine's not so much.

Laine made mistakes, but had confidence to make mistakes. Good game from him, he had two chances to put us 1-0 and 2-0 even before the first goal.
I thought his PP was ok, what was wrong with it?

 

[aahola]

Powerplay still sucks. Aho needs the puck more instead of Koivu there.

It doesn't suck by all means. Far from perfect though.

 

[TheFeistyFinn]

Laine made mistakes, but had confidence to make mistakes. Good game from him, he had two chances to put us 1-0 and 2-0 even before the first goal.
I thought his PP was ok, what was wrong with it?

Laine made many terrible passes on PP that killed the whole situation.

 

[rduck1]

Solid game.

Yet, underlying those solid things... the PP still looks like it could use some work. And we again saw one of those strange choices from Jalonen. Koskiranta is sidelined, Finland gets a PP three minutes before the end. The game is decided, perfect time to experiment. Every cell of my body yells, "put Rantanen out there". And who does Jalonen put there to sub for Koskiranta? Pihlström.

Yeah, that was so funny ! It's his conservatism again: Where our minds immediately go "Time for an experiment!", his goes "Protect the lead, get the W". Still, the results keep impressing, so one can only complain so much.

 

[FiLe]

The issue with the PP is that while it doesn't necessarily suck, it doesn't look like it's going to get much better with the current setups either. And there definitely is still room to improve.

But hey, somehow this team just racks up those wins again and again despite looking far from impressive. So... yeah.

 

[Jolli]

Laine made mistakes, but had confidence to make mistakes. Good game from him, he had two chances to put us 1-0 and 2-0 even before the first goal.
I thought his PP was ok, what was wrong with it?

Laine's unit had troubles bringing the puck to the offensive zone and to me it looked like that his unit's passes didn't connect. On PP, I think Laine had only one shot on goal?

The last PP was pretty good, but I think Canada wasn't just that eager to play at that point...

 

[kmwtrucks]

How did Pokka look Vs Canada today? played allot in the 3rd? How does his skating look. It was mentioned he is a tad slow?

 

[BB88]

I'll start by saying Talbot really had a bad game today, but I'll take the win.

This offense showed that if they can have the puck they can play, but damm that defense still scares me, Pokka/Lindell are making so many mistakes every game and I'm just waiting when will it end up hurting us.

Powerplay needs to start passing quicker and a lot smarter, really still hate Hietanen on the powerplay, his shot is useless.

This was a hge confidence booster, and to our younger players especially.
They showed they can play against the best and could expect them to play better in the next game.

 

[MardyBum]

Posted on the jets forum, to make us all feel better about the dirty play from Perry

Just to make everyone feel a bit better