WC: 2017 Team Finland

[Plair]

yea Pulju's positioning was bad, he was swift in his movement for a big guy but he used it so inefficiently he was mostly just chasing the puck.

This is true, but I think Pulju was good at least on the own zone. To my eyes he helped defence quite nicely.

 

[BennsGonnaGetYou]

I was not able to watch the game but I heard Honka played really well in his senior debut for Leijonat. He will hopefully be one of our future top defenders in the national team.

 

[FiLe]

Looked like a pretty typical "first game" for our overseas additions. They hadn't yet fully recovered from the crossing.

Saturday will be a better indicator of things.


Though the showings weren't exactly good from some of our Euro players either. They still have work to do too.

 

[vaiski]

I was not able to watch the game but I heard Honka played really well in his senior debut for Leijonat. He will hopefully be one of our future top defenders in the national team.

Honka for me is like a bit less polished Sami Vatanen, except Honka doesn't have as big holes in his game. I think Honka has a ton of potential.

Puljujärvi looked pretty much the same as he did a year ago. I've never been a big fan of him, but I hope he was just feeling rusty.

 

[BennsGonnaGetYou]

Honka for me is like a bit less polished Sami Vatanen, except Honka doesn't have as big holes in his game. I think Honka has a ton of potential.

I don't agree, I think Honka already is a way better playmaker than Vatanen.

 

[BB88]

I was impressed by Hannikainen, (didn't have much of expectations from the very beginning) then Honka, Rantanen. Other than that it was meh. Wasn't impressed at all of Puljujarvis game. He refused to drive the play and didn't use his speed a single time during the game. Obviously it was his first game in Europe, but I guess everyone was expecting for something exceptional from him and signs of improvement.

Can't really look at any of the NHL/AHL helps game today and review them too much. They were/are obviously still getting used to the travel/time difference/new rink.

Saturday/Sunday games are the key games for them.

Sweden, Canada, USA, Rus are building deadly deadly teams for this years tourney, our team has plenty weak spots.

 

[BennsGonnaGetYou]

So what do you guys think about Marjamäki, is he the right man for the job? How much time should we give him?

 

[Mestaruus]

So what do you guys think about Marjamäki, is he the right man for the job? How much time should we give him?

Well if he doesnt get success from this WHC or next year's WHC and maybe Olympics I think there would be a case of firing him immediately but I'm personally optimistic about Marjamäki and I think he will get at least one medal position inside 1-2 years.

 

[BennsGonnaGetYou]

Well if he doesnt get success from this WHC or next year's WHC and maybe Olympics I think there would be a case of firing him immediately but I'm personally optimistic about Marjamäki and I think he will get at least one medal position inside 1-2 years.

I agree with you, most finnish hockey supporters seems impossible to please nowadays. I think we got spoiled winning the World juniors 2014 and 2016.
We need to be realistic and have some patience. We can't just expect that Marjamäki or any other coach for that matter will just wave their magic wand and bring home the gold medal every year.

 

[Trilliann]

This writer Pekka Holopainen claims that a well known Finnish NHL player declined because of an "injury", but in reality he's fine and it was because of the role he was offered. And that many others declined because of the bad management & coaching at World Cup.



http://www.is.fi/mmkiekko/art-2000005189448.html (article in Finnish)

Edit: I don't know anything about the writer, is he legit? Is it likely that he would have such inside information?

 

[BennsGonnaGetYou]

Egoism in my opinion.

 

[BennsGonnaGetYou]

Although I have one question, is there any substance to the claim that "a certain player" won't play under Marjamäki? Would be interesting to know who that player is.

 

[kunekune]

Yes, those reports about people declining to play in Marjamäki team are true.

The reason for it is that Marjamäki heavily favors players who are his friends.

 

[BennsGonnaGetYou]

Yes, those reports about people declining to play in Marjamäki team are true.

The reason for it is that Marjamäki heavily favors players who are his friends.

But which players are declining? Mention a name please.

 

[kunekune]

But which players are declining? Mention a name please.

Holopainen is talking about Armia in his article but it's not just him.

It's a mass movement.

 

[BennsGonnaGetYou]

Holopainen is talking about Armia in his article but it's not just him.

It's a mass movement.

How do you know it's Armia? Are you guessing?

 

[mattihp]

Does Marjamäki have the worst record of a Finnish national team coach since the 80s?

Must be complete bull?

Someone said 6 wins and 15 losses if EHT and World Cup are in the mix..

 

[FiLe]

I don't think anybody exactly knows it's Armia. It's simply people connecting a few loose dots, figuring the image points at him, and then they report it as a "fact". So it could be him, or it could be somebody else, or the story is nothing but garbage.

I'm not one of those who would call it any kind of movement, but I guess I can see where this talk is coming from.

-So-so or down right bad results. (Albeit none from games that really matter yet.)
-Plenty of declinations, some with reasons that are perfectly valid, some that appear less so. (Yet appearances can be deceiving.)
-A weird pick or two that can hardly be explained with anything else except said player being a coach's familiar. (Well, it's mostly just JMA, but he does seem like a really blatant case. If you want, you could add giving Pulju a golden opportunity in the first line, but I don't really see anyone complaining about that.)

The thing is, these things could be connected. Or it's all nothing but a series of unfortunate events. I won't say that people who believe in the former are less in the right than those who believe in the latter. What I am saying however, is that we should save passing judgment 'til after the games. Sometimes you have to do weird poo as a coach to know what works and what doesn't. The key is doing it while you can still afford it. Which is something they still can.

 

[Jussi]

Does Marjamäki have the worst record of a Finnish national team coach since the 80s?

Must be complete bull?

Someone said 6 wins and 15 losses if EHT and World Cup are in the mix..

Well EHT success is sort of meaningless. Jukka Jalonen didn't have a good start in international tournaments either but he was given time.

 

[Lataba76]

Finland plays the same role as Sweden 2016? I see no chance vs Sweden,Canada and Russia.

 

[Flowergirl]

Apart from the contract issues, it appears that Mikael Granlund is also injured:
http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showpost.php?p=131441569&postcount=747

 

[illone84]

Finland plays the same role as Sweden 2016? I see no chance vs Sweden,Canada and Russia.

Yea, doesn't look good. However, in 2011, not many thought we had much of a chance either. All good. Nice to see some young guys playing though (Honka, Rantanen, Aho, Pulju).

 

[FiLe]

I just realized why all this sudden talk about Marjamäki being so toxic is somehow so amusing to me - because it's not the first time we've been here.

Remember 2010? After Vancouver, there was huge talk how J.Jalonen managed to alienate a large chunk of our NHL core back then - mostly the players born in the 70s who were all chummy with Erkka. O.Jokinen even went as far as saying he quits - at the age of 31. And then he was back for one (or actually two) last hurrah(s) when Erkka made a return.

However, many of our 80-borns had no issue whatsoever with Jalonen.

Fast forward to 2016/2017, there's been the World Cup, and now there's hubbub how Marjamäki has managed to alienate a large chunk of our current NHL core. Leo Komarov even went as far as saying he quits - at the age of 29. Deja vu.

So... Jalonen ticked off a bunch of Erkka's familiars, and now Marjamäki has seemingly ticked off a bunch of the last "toxic" coach Jalonen's familiars. Such a vicious cycle!

And it goes even further than this: Summanen, in the World Cup of 2004, managed to tick off a bunch of Aravirta's familiars. (Though we never saw how far this would have gone, because they quickly made up with Erkka.) And in 1992, Pentti Matikainen - despite having brought the first olympic medal, the first WHC medal and a third place in the 1991 Canada Cup - got sacked because he ticked off Selänne (who was Kummola's pet).

The bottom line is of course this: Rather than calling Marjamäki a particularly toxic coach, perhaps we should instead conclude that most - if not all - coaches are divisive to a degree?

 

[Sanf]

I just realized why all this sudden talk about Marjamäki being so toxic is somehow so amusing to me - because it's not the first time we've been here.

Remember 2010? After Vancouver, there was huge talk how J.Jalonen managed to alienate a large chunk of our NHL core back then - mostly the players born in the 70s who were all chummy with Erkka. O.Jokinen even went as far as saying he quits - at the age of 31. And then he was back for one (or actually two) last hurrah(s) when Erkka made a return.

However, many of our 80-borns had no issue whatsoever with Jalonen.

Fast forward to 2016/2017, there's been the World Cup, and now there's hubbub how Marjamäki has managed to alienate a large chunk of our current NHL core. Leo Komarov even went as far as saying he quits - at the age of 29. Deja vu.

So... Jalonen ticked off a bunch of Erkka's familiars, and now Marjamäki has seemingly ticked off a bunch of the last "toxic" coach Jalonen's familiars. Such a vicious cycle!

And it goes even further than this: Summanen, in the World Cup of 2004, managed to tick off a bunch of Aravirta's familiars. (Though we never saw how far this would have gone, because they quickly made up with Erkka.) And in 1992, Pentti Matikainen - despite having brought the first olympic medal, the first WHC medal and a third place in the 1991 Canada Cup - got sacked because he ticked off Selänne (who was Kummola's pet).

The bottom line is of course this: Rather than calling Marjamäki a particularly toxic coach, perhaps we should instead conclude that most - if not all - coaches are divisive to a degree?

I haven´t read Selämme´s book. Is this from it? I remember that Selänne declined from 1992 WHC (and if talking about surprising medals...) but other than that was it not the poor success in 1993 what got Matikainen sacked.

But I agree. Westerlund is pretty much the only one that I can remember that pleased pretty much everyone...

And I don´t really understand how Marjamäki has managed to **** someone off yet. There has only been bigger one tournament yet. And the team buiding for World Cup is really strange. Somebody has problems for few outside the box WHC camp selections?

I don´t know if there is fact basis in these, but if someone like Armia who has just barely get a solid spot in one of the weakest teams in 30 team NHL at third line is demanding roles in NT... Well I´m not saying anything because it´s just rumours.

 

[Lataba76]

Yea, doesn't look good. However, in 2011, not many thought we had much of a chance either. All good. Nice to see some young guys playing though (Honka, Rantanen, Aho, Pulju).

But it is enough for the Sweden,Russia and USA? I m dissatisfied with this team. Maybe Aho,Rantanen,Aho and Pulju are glowing points in this team. But the rest.................inkl. Coach ?