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WC: 2021 Finland Roster Talk

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Great Team again. Very very tough loss Finland had the OT in our control and one tiny mistake but a costly one, took away our back to back championship.

Jukka Jalonen is just absolute magician, every player buys in to the game plan immediately since day 1.

Lions & Lambs of the tournament:

Lions: The whole Team

Lambs: no one
 
Congrats from Canada, not the outcome you wanted but that game could have gone either way. I have always been a big Suomi supporter over the years and I have a National team sweater that I cherish. Next year it is in Tampere and Helsinki, I have visited both great hockey cities.
PS - As a Bruin fan - Kiitos for Tuukka Rask.
 
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Finland had 1 line, or 2/3 players in that line who were able to create something offensively (Lundel-Ruotsalainen). I liked Mäenalainen-Björninen- Anttila line but in normal world they are the perfect 4rd line.

Other 2 lines were just there to fill space. Ruohomaa was good in final and i think that playing with 2 worst players in the team (Sallinen, Turunen) made him look worse than he would have been with better linemates.

Olkinuora, Lundell, Määttä, Ruotsalainen, Anttila and Björninen had great tournament.
Some like Innala, Lindbohmm Pokka and Mäenalainen were good
Most of the team was meh in every aspect and some like Sallinen, Turunen, Ojamäki and Koivisto were just bad.

If you ask me Määttä was team MVP followed by Olkinuora. Hope this gives Määttä some boost in his NHL career.

All the Talk A,B,C teams made me think a bit... Määttä was the only one who might be considered to A-team. Maybe 1/3 of this team could be selected to B-team and rest are just C-team material.
 
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snipes said:
Jalonen should get an opportunity to coach in the NHL.
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My feeling is that Jalonen is going to the NHL for next season and it will be announced soon. Whether it would be as assistant coach or head coach, I don't know.

I hope that if it happens, he could still coach the Olympic team and maybe the home WHC as well. Usually the Finnish head coach coaches both the EHT (Euro Hockey Tour) and WHC, but I hope that they could make an exception with Jalonen in that scenario since it's the home tournament and Jalonen could skip the EHT and coach WHC only. I want to see him in reins of our WHC team when we got better players.
 
Snaibberi said:
Finland had 1 line, or 2/3 players in that line who were able to create something offensively (Lundel-Ruotsalainen). I liked Mäenalainen-Björninen- Anttila line but in normal world they are the perfect 4rd line.

Other 2 lines were just there to fill space. Ruohomaa was good in final and i think that playing with 2 worst players in the team (Sallinen, Turunen) made him look worse than he would have been with better linemates.

Olkinuora, Lundell, Määttä, Ruotsalainen, Anttila and Björninen had great tournament.
Some like Innala, Lindbohmm Pokka and Mäenalainen were good
Most of the team was meh in every aspect and some like Sallinen, Turunen, Ojamäki and Koivisto were just bad.

If you ask me Määttä was team MVP followed by Olkinuora. Hope this gives Määttä some boost in his NHL career.

All the Talk A,B,C teams made me think a bit... Määttä was the only one who might be considered to A-team. Maybe 1/3 of this team could be selected to B-team and rest are just C-team material.
Click to expand...

In my opinion it was Finland's D-team as far as averages goes, but I'd say that our defense men were the strongest part of the team and they might be around B & C as a whole.

According to the NHL.com, we had 46 players this season that played in the NHL during the regular season. That's roughly 2 teams. Which we can say would sort of fill all of the slots in A & B teams.

We missed many good KHL players, we missed Liiga finalists, we missed many deep playoff run players from other European leagues as well. We missed a lot of good, young AHL players. These combined could easily form the C-team. I'd say that the WHC 2021 team was the D-team and there is not much exaggeration with that. Exaggeration would be calling it the E-team.
 
Mestaruus said:
I hope that if it happens, he could still coach the Olympic team and maybe the home WHC as well. Usually the Finnish head coach coaches both the EHT (Euro Hockey Tour) and WHC, but I hope that they could make an exception with Jalonen in that scenario since it's the home tournament and Jalonen could skip the EHT and coach WHC only. I want to see him in reins of our WHC team when we got better players.
Click to expand...
If Jalonen gets a contract overseas, I'd say it's likely he'll still be helming the olympic team (assuming that NHL lets its players go, that is). That wouldn't even be anything revolutionary - it's how the North American teams have been handling their coaching business since times immemorial.

But it's daydreaming to think he'd be behind the bench in Tampere. He obviously wouldn't be available if he's still stuck with his day job - and it'd be pure idiocy to count anything on the chance (even if it wouldn't be that slim) that he might be free by then. We need a head coach who's 100% available and committed to that project.

It's a tricky situation, but here's what I think would happen if the big league poaches Jalonen: He will still coach Finland in the Olympics. For the two EHT tournaments in the fall, Atu Selin will be the acting head coach, with Manner and Raimo Helminen as his assistants. And who will be coaching Finland in spring, in the remaining EHTs and the home ice WHC? Well, somebody who is a Jalonen acolyte, already on Liitto's payroll - and will be available for the post after New Year.
 
FiLe said:
If Jalonen gets a contract overseas, I'd say it's likely he'll still be helming the olympic team (assuming that NHL lets its players go, that is). That wouldn't even be anything revolutionary - it's how the North American teams have been handling their coaching business since times immemorial.

But it's daydreaming to think he'd be behind the bench in Tampere. He obviously wouldn't be available if he's still stuck with his day job - and it'd be pure idiocy to count anything on the chance (even if it wouldn't be that slim) that he might be free by then. We need a head coach who's 100% available and committed to that project.

It's a tricky situation, but here's what I think would happen if the big league poaches Jalonen: He will still coach Finland in the Olympics. For the two EHT tournaments in the fall, Atu Selin will be the acting head coach, with Manner and Raimo Helminen as his assistants. And who will be coaching Finland in spring, in the remaining EHTs and the home ice WHC? Well, somebody who is a Jalonen acolyte, already on Liitto's payroll - and will be available for the post after New Year.
Click to expand...

I agree about him being at the Olympics being very likely regardless of where Jalonen goes (if he goes). Well you are talking about Pennanen and I already thought about it too.

So Pennanen will be coaching the U20 new year's tournament again I believe. After that he can be the EHT head coach for couple of tournaments and possibly be assistant coach for Jalonen at the Olympics.

Now let's imagine that Jalonen would be Columbus' head coach or assistant coach and it's very unlikely that they make the playoffs with that roster. So our federation can set a plan in motion, where Pennanen is the head coach of WHC 2022, unless Columbus is out of the playoffs after regular season. In that case Pennanen would be the assistant coach and Jalonen will take over the head coach role. For 2023 Pennanen can be the head coach for the entire season.

I think it might be possible and I think it would be not wise to use this option if J.Jalonen's employer/NHL boss would give green light to it. If we have any chance to get even a small part of J.Jalonen it should be done. The best coach of all time of Finland, home tournament, big names will come. It will be a nightmare for other teams.
 
Mestaruus said:
I think it might be possible and I think it would be not wise to use this option if J.Jalonen's employer/NHL boss would give green light to it. If we have any chance to get even a small part of J.Jalonen it should be done. The best coach of all time of Finland, home tournament, big names will come. It will be a nightmare for other teams.
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I tried to type a lengthy post, meticulously explaining why I find this such a bad idea, but I found that there are so many reasons that I couldn't even figure where to begin. So I just promise I'll revisit the topic and attempt to be more elaborate if it somehow becomes reality.
 
FiLe said:
I tried to type a lengthy post, meticulously explaining why I find this such a bad idea, but I found that there are so many reasons that I couldn't even figure where to begin. So I just promise I'll revisit the topic and attempt to be more elaborate if it somehow becomes reality.
Click to expand...

Yeah let's wait and see what happens with Jalonen first. Maybe he'll just stay for another year with the national team and won't be going anywhere yet. How great would that be. It's still fun to speculate about it though.
 
FiLe said:
Leijonat - Jukka Jaloselle jatkopesti Leijonien päävalmentajana – ”Olen todella nauttinut Leijonien valmentamisesta”

No need to look for a new guy yet: the best coach outside the NHL just signed an extension that covers the 2022-23 season with an option of the 2023-24 season as well. Effin' A, is all I can say.
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It's fantastic news for our team. Got to wonder if Jalonen was offered an assistant coach position for some NHL team. Would he be so picky that he would only settle for a head coach position? Only J.Jalonen knows that I guess. He can convince them with a succesful tournament at the Olympics perhaps.
 
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Mestaruus said:
It's fantastic news for our team. Got to wonder if Jalonen was offered an assistant coach position for some NHL team. Would he be so picky that he would only settle for a head coach position? Only J.Jalonen knows that I guess. He can convince them with a succesful tournament at the Olympics perhaps.
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At least earlier, he said that he wouldn't be shunning assistant coaching gigs - the only thing he categorically wasn't willing to entertain was making it through the AHL and other minor leagues.

It's hard to say what was going on behind the scenes, but the fact that he signed an extension is a dead giveaway that whether he did have something going on overseas or not, there are no serious offers on his table right now. So while this news nominally means we'll have him at least until 2023, in practice it means that he'll be a full-time coach for our Lions at least for the upcoming season, which is a big one for us with both the Olympics and the home tournament.
 
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