WC: Finland 2024 roster talk

[Mestaruus]

The difference between Säteri and Larmi is that Säteri is somewhat more consistent - his highs and lows are more even - whereas with Larmi, you can get anything from "whoops, another softie" to "god mode".

Those reasons are enough so that I think Jalonen will ride till the end with his trusted Olympic gold starting goalie. In some way it's like Mörkö playing his last NT tournament, but I think Säteri now is closer to his prime than Mörkö was during his last tournament. Mörkö would actually still be in this tournament if he hadn't quit his NT career himself. Säteri is 34 years old and I think it's not impossible that this is his last NT tournament.

It's quite frustrating BTW. If we had just scrapped 1 point from somewhere. Beat the Czechs in the shootout, not let Austria score on the last second or not choke against Canada in the 3rd period we would have a chance to knock out Switzerland to the 4th place to meet Sweden. By beating SUI and DEN in the status quo the table would look like:

#3 SUI - 14 points
#4 FIN - 13 points

 

[FinPanda]

Those reasons are enough so that I think Jalonen will ride till the end with his trusted Olympic gold starting goalie. In some way it's like Mörkö playing his last NT tournament, but I think Säteri now is closer to his prime than Mörkö was during his last tournament. Mörkö would actually still be in this tournament if he hadn't quit his NT career himself. Säteri is 34 years old and I think it's not impossible that this is his last NT tournament.

It's quite frustrating BTW. If we had just scrapped 1 point from somewhere. Beat the Czechs in the shootout, not let Austria score on the last second or not choke against Canada in the 3rd period we would have a chance to knock out Switzerland to the 4th place to meet Sweden. By beating SUI and DEN in the status quo the table would look like:

#3 SUI - 14 points
#4 FIN - 13 points

The last second goal against Austria we would've avoided with a proper block. If only Kapanen had played that better..

 

[FiLe]

Lineup vs. DEN:

Larmi (Lehtinen)

Lehtonen - Vittasmäki
Rissanen - Kaski
Määttä - Mattila
Riikola - Saarijärvi

Innala - Granlund - Pakarinen
Puistola - Kapanen - Puljujärvi
Jääskä - Hyry - Puustinen
Mäenalanen - Björninen - Jormakka

Jalonen keeps on tweaking. Now Oksanen goes into the pressbox and Puistola takes his spot. It'll be interesting to see if he can add anything to the line.

Larmi getting a game here was very much expected. The game vs. Switzerland is a back-to-back tomorrow night, so Säteri will no doubt be back in net for that one.

 

[Eye of Ra]

Throwback

1995 World Championship Gold Medal Lineup
Ville Peltonen - Saku Koivu - Jere Lehtinen
Marko Palo - Esa Keskinen - Mika Nieminen
Juha Ylönen - Raimo Helminen - Sami Kapanen
Raimo Summanen - Janne Ojanen - Antti Törmänen/Tero Lehterä

Janne Niinimaa - Timo Jutila
Marko Kiprusoff - Hannu Virta
Erik Hämäläinen - Mika Strömberg
Petteri Nummelin

Jarmo Myllys
(Jukka Tammi)

 

[FinPanda]

Throwback

1995 World Championship Gold Medal Lineup
Ville Peltonen - Saku Koivu - Jere Lehtinen
Marko Palo - Esa Keskinen - Mika Nieminen
Juha Ylönen - Raimo Helminen - Sami Kapanen
Raimo Summanen - Janne Ojanen - Antti Törmänen/Tero Lehterä

Janne Niinimaa - Timo Jutila
Marko Kiprusoff - Hannu Virta
Erik Hämäläinen - Mika Strömberg
Petteri Nummelin

Jarmo Myllys
(Jukka Tammi)

That team is full of Finnish hockey legends. I was too young to be alive when we won that gold though.

 

[Mestaruus]

Jalonen keeps on tweaking. Now Oksanen goes into the pressbox and Puistola takes his spot. It'll be interesting to see if he can add anything to the line.

Since the game is already tomorrow I'd do no other changes than put Helenius in instead of Puistola, but as a winger that is quite unlikely to happen, since Jalonen does seem to think that Helenius will be used as center only.

What will really happen is that he'll do no changes, except maybe put Oksanen back in, instead of Puistola. Säteri to the net. Mertaranta's Larmi hype went over the top today.

 

[Mestaruus]

One more thing. It would be good if Czechs beat Canada on regulation tomorrow, because that would mean that SUI would have nothing to play for against Finland. In that case Czechs and Canada would be too much ahead of SUI. Of course SUI will play properly against Finland, but from their perspective it takes little bit out of it if there's no such thing as trying to avoid USA for the QF match.

 

[OKR]

They need to put someone else as the trigger man on PP1, Innala clearly ain’t it. At this point i don’t even care who, because they can’t do worse job than he has.

 

[Sanf]

Throwback

1995 World Championship Gold Medal Lineup
Ville Peltonen - Saku Koivu - Jere Lehtinen
Marko Palo - Esa Keskinen - Mika Nieminen
Juha Ylönen - Raimo Helminen - Sami Kapanen
Raimo Summanen - Janne Ojanen - Antti Törmänen/Tero Lehterä

Janne Niinimaa - Timo Jutila
Marko Kiprusoff - Hannu Virta
Erik Hämäläinen - Mika Strömberg
Petteri Nummelin

Jarmo Myllys
(Jukka Tammi)

Yep and Ari Sulander was the third goalie. Kai Nurminen, Juha Riihijärvi and Waltteri Immonen I believe were the last cuts/reserves.

Very different time. Half dozen of those probably would have left NHL earlier if today. Even someone like Juha Ylönen had very nice camp with Jets in 93, but left only after 96. Sami Kapanen despite having quite promising youth career was drafted only after that tournament. Probably due to size questions.

 

[Mestaruus]

They need to put someone else as the trigger man on PP1, Innala clearly ain’t it. At this point i don’t even care who, because they can’t do worse job than he has.

Indeed. He should probably go to the press box. The ketchup bottle just won't open, but it's probably too late for changes now. I know that Ismo Lehkonen has been asking for some "työrauha" (can't find a proper english word for it and peace really isn't it). In other words, less line changes, so that the players have a chance to find chemistry together.

 

[gritdash60]

Players like Hyry or Björninen are easy to like, but when they are among the best players in the team it's not a good thing. I wonder what happened to Lehtonen, he misses more passes than he actually connects? Dude has always been a stud, i might even say he shouldve cracked the Leafs lineup earlier, now he looks like a junior?

I really hope Säteri did not dress for this game for the reason that he plays against Switzerland, people who say Larmi should play are just crazy. Dude has like 25 shots against, PLEASE do not play him in against the Swiss or its the last game.

Kapanen, Puistola, Helenius etc young dudes would need some sheltered minutes, but how do you manage the lines when every line is in trouble against Denmark?

I might be alone, but playing the trap game against teams like Denmark, and just sitting at the red line is insane to me, i swear if you just told every forward to forecheck hard and do the basic 2-1-2 the win would be so much easier. There are forwards from the NHL and from the top leagues in the Europe, and you are telling them to fall back and do the trap against Denmark? Thank god this coach is on his last tournament, oh wait the new one after him does the same shit hahah.

 

[Czechboy]

One more thing. It would be good if Czechs beat Canada on regulation tomorrow, because that would mean that SUI would have nothing to play for against Finland. In that case Czechs and Canada would be too much ahead of SUI. Of course SUI will play properly against Finland, but from their perspective it takes little bit out of it if there's no such thing as trying to avoid USA for the QF match.

Funny, my hope is the exact opposite. I'm hoping you guys can beat the Swiss in regulation as I assume Canada is beating us.lol

 

[Jersey Fan 12]

Players like Hyry or Björninen are easy to like, but when they are among the best players in the team it's not a good thing. I wonder what happened to Lehtonen, he misses more passes than he actually connects? Dude has always been a stud, i might even say he shouldve cracked the Leafs lineup earlier, now he looks like a junior?

I really hope Säteri did not dress for this game for the reason that he plays against Switzerland, people who say Larmi should play are just crazy. Dude has like 25 shots against, PLEASE do not play him in against the Swiss or its the last game.

Kapanen, Puistola, Helenius etc young dudes would need some sheltered minutes, but how do you manage the lines when every line is in trouble against Denmark?

I might be alone, but playing the trap game against teams like Denmark, and just sitting at the red line is insane to me, i swear if you just told every forward to forecheck hard and do the basic 2-1-2 the win would be so much easier. There are forwards from the NHL and from the top leagues in the Europe, and you are telling them to fall back and do the trap against Denmark? Thank god this coach is on his last tournament, oh wait the new one after him does the same shit hahah.

Clearly Jalonen has no idea how to coach in the World Championships.

Oh wait...

 

[JJTT]

Clearly Jalonen has no idea how to coach in the World Championships.

Oh wait...

The difference is that other countries actually have good teams this year. The gap in skill level and skating is massive between Finland and top countries.

 

[Artorius Horus T]

The difference is that other countries actually have good teams this year. The gap in skill level and skating is massive between Finland and top countries.

I disagree,

Canada and USA are with meh teams. Sweden, even though have lots NHL guys, only Dahlin, Kempe, Hedman, Raymond, Erikson Ek
and Karlsson are the top guys, but only Dahlin, Hedman (and maybe Kempe) are their top top guys, their best players are playing NHL playoffs
(minus Nylander, Forsberg and Bratt).

Swiss have the best team in my books, Few teams have surprised me, a lot, but even so, i disagree with teams having somehow better
teams what previous years.


Also, can't understand what happened to Swiss against Canada, they should have beaten Canada.


I think, its one of those, win the right games tournament, beat Switzerland, all odds are off, though beating Swiss might be too much to ask from us...

 

[swissdude]

we took a 5min major and conceded 2 gqals while missing a penalty shot, the score turned to 2-3 instead of 3-1. it was a close game which could have gone either way.

I agree it won't be easy for Suomi to win but it's not an impossible task. I'd like to see a Sweden-Finland QF and there I'd certainliy cheer for Finland and that's not because I dislike Sweden but out of experience it's better for us to avoid them in single elimination games....

 

[Artorius Horus T]

Some, one, here, is saying that we should put Säteri against Switzerland, because he plays better... is supposedly better goalie...
well i counter point to that notion,.... he has 1 W and 3 L, with s% barely above .900, about 20th from all goalies..

How can anyone justify selecting a goalie who "plays better" instead of the one who has gotten better results and have better stats..

Larmi 2 W - 0.50 gaa, .972 sv% (17,5 saves per game)
Säteri 1 W 3 L - 2.00 gaa, .902 sv% (18,5 saves per game)

 

[FinPanda]

Against Switzerland

80 Saku Mäenalanen – 24 Hannes Björninen – 25 Pekka Jormakka

12 Jere Innala – 64 Mikael Granlund (C) – 81 Iiro Pakarinen

21 Patrik Puistola – 27 Oliver Kapanen – 13 Jesse Puljujärvi

15 Juha Jääskä – 57 Arttu Hyry – 19 Konsta Helenius

Pakkiparit:

3 Olli Määttä (A) – 62 Jesper Mattila

4 Mikko Lehtonen (A) – 38 Veli-Matti Vittasmäki

2 Rasmus Rissanen – 7 Oliwer Kaski

50 Juuso Riikola – 18 Vili Saarijärvi

Maalivahdit:

29 Harri Säteri

Varalla:

33 Emil Larmi

 

[illone84]

That team is full of Finnish hockey legends. I was too young to be alive when we won that gold though.

I was 10 and pretty sure I had a bit of sparkling wine that evening ahahha

 

[FiLe]

That team is full of Finnish hockey legends. I was too young to be alive when we won that gold though.

It was basically four players (Kurri, Selänne, Tikkanen, Numminen) short of what would have been our best-on-best team at the time.

 

[SantosHalper]

80 Saku Mäenalanen – 24 Hannes Björninen – 25 Pekka Jormakka

12 Jere Innala – 64 Mikael Granlund (C) – 81 Iiro Pakarinen

21 Patrik Puistola – 27 Oliver Kapanen – 13 Jesse Puljujärvi

15 Juha Jääskä – 57 Arttu Hyry – 19 Konsta Helenius

Finally Puustinen is out of the lineup but Innala seems to have season ticket. Interesting "4th line" though, might work. 2 guys creating space for Helenius and let him do some magic.

It was basically four players (Kurri, Selänne, Tikkanen, Numminen) short of what would have been our best-on-best team at the time.

No love for Sonja Lumme?

 

[FinPanda]

Finally Puustinen is out of the lineup but Innala seems to have season ticket. Interesting "4th line" though, might work. 2 guys creating space for Helenius and let him do some magic.

I don't like Innala on the lineup, he can get nothing done and is a waste to use him on the powerplay. The guy has had so many good scoring chances and empty netters..

 

[FiLe]

No love for Sonja Lumme?

Oh, yeah, lovin' me some Sonja. Five players, then.

 

[Sanf]

It was basically four players (Kurri, Selänne, Tikkanen, Numminen) short of what would have been our best-on-best team at the time.

Pretty much yes. One could argue Ruuttu (he was candidate to Nagano still) and Ketterer, but neither would be obvious. Törmänen and Nummelin were "stamped" during the games, but I can´t remember who they were hoping for.

I also remember that we lost five of six pretournament games (twice Czechs and Sweden and Germany once). Then the first game of the tournament and lot of people considered the whole thing doomed. but thats OT.

edit. yes forgot Lumme too

 

[Mestaruus]

Got my wish with Helenius playing and on the wing instead of center position. Funny how it turned around so that now SUI might have a steak (if CZE won't beat CAN on regulation) in the game and we don't, but my feeling is that we'll beat them anyways. I understand how good Switzerland's PP is and their top players, but still feeling like we'll beat them. We'll channel our inner Brits and win a meaningless game.

Against Sweden in the QF I feel much different though. For that game I think that this team just doesn't have what it takes. We'll beat them once out of 8 games or something, maybe that will be that 12.5% game. My expectations were low in 2019, but still much higher than they are for this team.