Mestaruus
Registered User
- Apr 11, 2011
- 4,997
- 1,915
well you know how it goes, you can sometimes struggle against these much weaker teams with a weaker then can be roster, superior players usually count and better players available today and this game wouldn't have been lost.And I think they didn't play well on the big sheet myself, they weren't very dangerous overall today despite the clear advantage in shots and very loosey goosey devil may care defensively at times. On the flip side I thought the boys from Kazakhstan played a great game on the big ice tailor made to keeping the puck outside as much as possible and limiting dangerous chances. A Game plan that if executed could give them their best chance to pull off a big upset.
They have a damn good coach behind the bench there so I am sure they can sort out their limitations here and make the adjustments needed to be a factor at this tournament.
KAZ played the way they should play indeed. Referees not giving penalties to either team was kind of interesting though. It was one PP for each team during the entire game. I think this maybe benefited KAZ more, because usually the puck possession team (Finland 67% if I remember right) draws more penalties. They could play tougher because of it. I mean the game wasn't very dirty but it wasn't clean either.
I'm not too upset, because it's a growing experience and reality check for the Finnish team now and Finland always needs one result like that to succeed. Plus this forces our coach to change few lines that aren't working. One example is having Lundell as a winger instead of center currently.