ijuka
Registered User
- May 14, 2016
- 23,631
- 17,357
Test out Aho in the exhibition game against USA and see how he does on the small ice. If he stands out and plays much better than TT/Korpedo, give him a shot against NA U23 and see how it goes.
Also, for those of you who nit pick against Laine saying he didn't score against Rus and Can, remember that the so called future best player in the world didn't score against Finland and Canada in round robin, and managed to get only 1 assist against USA in the semi, same as Laine in the semi against RUS.
Laine didn't score in the gold medal game but he sure was close a few times. He certainly had a lot more scoring chances than most players other than Granny + Aho.
Not Aho. Nor Granlund.
Total in the 2 games vs Canada, scoring chances attempted and generated, with double points for high quality chances:
Laine:
16
Aho:
5
Granlund:
6
And bonus:
Jokinen:
3
Closest to Laine:
Barkov:
11
It's cool and all if you can score a goal or two in a game. However, for consistent results, generating a lot of scoring chances is far more important. One is treading at an extremely shallow level if they only look at points. Maybe one should try actually analyzing the games.
Admittably, Granlund did generate only 2 scoring chance points less than Laine in the grand finals. However, he was worthless vs Canada in the groups while Laine generated or attempted 7 chances there(3 high quality). Yes, you will say that Laine was 0+0 and Granlund had an assist. However, that was his only generated chance. In the long run, do you pick the guy who will generate or attempt 7(+3) scoring chances in a match, or the guy who will generate or attempt only 1(+1, goals or assists are always high quality chances)?
These stats are also one of the reasons why I criticized Jokinen alot and still am rather doubtful. If you play with scoring chance-generation machines like Laine and Barkov, how do you generate nothing? It's a shame that they seem to now be lumped together.
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