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WC: General Talk '14 — Finland (Part II)

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Apparently Peltonen will be one of the assistants. Terrible idea at this point I'm afraid. He's going to coach IFK's A-juniors, right? Which I think is not that bad of an idea as he has just retired and needs practice as a coach. However, he should not be in the NT's coaching team yet. Now he's another incompetent and inexperienced former player in the group. I'm saying all this as a person who's a big fan of his.

The good news is that apparently Marjamäki is staying.
 
Per Iltalehti, the coaching team consists of Marjamäki, Kai Rautio* and Peltonen.

Seeing Peltonen's name, my initial thoughts were, "great, another Raipe". The good news is however that in a group like that, I don't think Peltonen's position as someone who makes many tactical decisions is highly likely. It was reported in fall that Jalonen himself wanted him there, so I believe KJ has some specific role figured for him. If I were to take a guess, he's likely there for the mental side of things.

And apparently Jere Lehtinen is the new GM, as reported. Here's hoping that with his working morale, we actually have a guy who, you know, does something. Whatever it is.


*He didn't convince anybody while coaching HPK last season but apparently earned his mantle as KJ's assistant during the Lev run.
 
Peltonen also has some issues with Kekäläinen and co. Its not the best possible for me but not gonna kill him before he starts going.
 
FiLe said:
Per Iltalehti, the coaching team consists of Marjamäki, Kai Rautio* and Peltonen.
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I think it's mostly KJ wanting familiar faces around. Rautio has been working with him since 2008 and Peltonen was the captain for that '11 championship run with HIFK. I'm thinking Peltonen will be mostly dealing with the players at an individual level while taking a sort of apprentice role with the strategies and whatnot. I guess he can also take over the mascot role from Kurri. As long as Jalonen himself wants him there it's fine by me.
 
Excluding Peltonen, that group kinda reminds me of the original J.Jalonen staff, which consisted of Risto Dufva and Timo Lehkonen. Dufva had already been an assistant to Erkka, so the dynamic is kinda the same here. The staff is otherwise pretty raw, so Marjamäki is bringing at least some major tournament experience. And Rautio plays the trusty sidekick role. This could also play into why they wanted Peltonen. The guy has been around the NT for 20 seasons, whereas the total of the rest of the staff account to one that Marjamäki brings.

Of course, that Jalonen group kind of backfired as Lehkonen's skills were not exactly up to the task and Dufva didn't essentially have positive influence either. It was never outright stated of course, but I always got the vibe that RD affected some choices in a manner that were good for his own career, but not necessarily for the team at hand.

Well, Marjamäki strikes me as a person with more integrity though, so I guess we'll see if this group fares a little better.
 
FiLe said:
Well, Marjamäki strikes me as a person with more integrity though, so I guess we'll see if this group fares a little better.
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Dufva is and always was kind of a big personality, and as such I think he's not very well suited for an assistant position. Marjamäki on the other hand seems to work quite well as a part of a team, and no doubt he knows that the head coaching job will be his in due time so long as he keeps doing good work. On paper it looks like a solid coaching staff, but as always we'll have to wait and see how it plays out.
 
FiLe said:
Excluding Peltonen, that group kinda reminds me of the original J.Jalonen staff, which consisted of Risto Dufva and Timo Lehkonen. Dufva had already been an assistant to Erkka, so the dynamic is kinda the same here. The staff is otherwise pretty raw, so Marjamäki is bringing at least some major tournament experience. And Rautio plays the trusty sidekick role. This could also play into why they wanted Peltonen. The guy has been around the NT for 20 seasons, whereas the total of the rest of the staff account to one that Marjamäki brings.

Of course, that Jalonen group kind of backfired as Lehkonen's skills were not exactly up to the task and Dufva didn't essentially have positive influence either. It was never outright stated of course, but I always got the vibe that RD affected some choices in a manner that were good for his own career, but not necessarily for the team at hand.

Well, Marjamäki strikes me as a person with more integrity though, so I guess we'll see if this group fares a little better.
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I read an article by Rantanen in 2012 which strongly implied the assistant coaches were changed because J. Jalonen needed a more convincing coaching staff in general, one that would help him gain the trust of important players. Needless to say it worked out quite well.

As for Marjamäki, I think his goal is to take over from K. Jalonen eventually. I'm not sure if Dufva ever wanted that.

I still think having Peltonen behind the bench at this stage is too early, even if it's only meant as a mental coaching job. He's too newly retired, which usually means he's still too immersed as a player. A few years from now I would probably feel different, but now this seems about as great of an idea as taking on Raipe would have been.
 
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I'm very iffy on offering former players spots in national team (coaching) staff as well when they don't have the (coaching) credentials yet. It inevitably comes across as Liitto-paid thanks for the years of player service, and soon sours the goodwill for the player. Do people these days think of Juti as a NT player icon, or a "what is he even paid to do?" team mascot?
 
The deal behind Juti is especially shady. As the story goes, Juti was planning to run for the parliament from the same region and on the same party platform as Kale. The Hippo was afraid he'd grab some votes that would otherwise end up to him, so he practically handed Juti a do-nothing job in the Liitto to keep him out of the way. (Though in the end, Kale did not get elected either.)

While I think it never looks good when a player legend is taken to a job like this fresh off the retirement, I'm willing to give Peltonen the benefit of doubt. Unlike Juti or Kurri, the man is a) actually intelligent (as far as hockey players go, at least), and b) we still don't know what his role among the staff is going to be and how it will respond to his skills.
 
So... the information about Rautio turned out to be false. This puts a whole new spin on Peltonen's role. Third coach can also affect the game-time decisions, unless the dynamic has changed.

Otherwise, it looks good. Finally the day we got rid of Juti & Kurri is here. Here's hoping that their successors actually do something. It would be a start.
 
Jereee!!! Been waiting for this a looong time. Kurri just didn't fit the GM role.
 
I hope Peltonen doesn't get much responsibility. If he does, it's definitely another sign of stupidity in Liitto.

As long as that happens and there are no dick-measuring contests between the Nose and certain players (like there was originally with J. Jalonen), I'll be happy.
 
Gaps said:
As long as that happens and there are no dick-measuring contests between the Nose and certain players (like there was originally with J. Jalonen), I'll be happy.
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Luckily, said contests only happened with the old guard, and almost all of them have now retired.

Our key guys born in the 80s had no issues with the authoritarian style of the former Jalonen, so it'd be a bit strange if they suddenly found the new one intolerable to work with.

Still, it'll be interesting to see what kind of fit his coaching style is with certain players. For example, Jori Lehterä really struggled with J.Jalonen, but prospered under Erkka.
 
I think the most important thing about Peltonen is that Jalonen and Lehtinen made the call, not Kummola or any liitto bureaucrat. KJ knows him personally and as the article linked by FiLe points out he has been somewhat involved in coaching decisions as the captain as well. He's green for sure, but the right people think he's up for it so I'm completely willing to give him a chance(though in the interest of transparency I should point out that my personal allegiances might also play a part in that).
 
Scouting North America will be huge thing as most of the top young players have moved there now. Our depth in Europe is going to be worse than it's been in years.
 
FiLe said:
Really? Yet we have more players in the KHL than ever. Doesn't resonate.
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Meant young players. Other than Saros, Lehkonen, Donskoi and Husso, there isn't really anyone with realistic change for WC next year.
 
JJTT said:
Meant young players. Other than Saros, Lehkonen, Donskoi and Husso, there isn't really anyone with realistic change for NT.
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Really? Did have a ton of them, say, five years ago? I don't seem to recall.

The thing is, there is no such thing as a "NT-worthy youngster playing in Europe". All of those should be in North America if they're worth anything.

So that statement still doesn't make sense. Those five years ago we didn't have a ton of them on this side of the pond either. Except, back then we didn't have 'em anywhere.

Why make it seem like we've taken steps back while, in reality, we have nothing but gone forward?


The lack of AHL scouting has been a big issue in the past couple of seasons, but there's no need to complain about the European depth. I'm glad this new management's taking steps to chart the AHL as well.
 
Its nice that they are improving AHL scouting for now but in ideal world Finland National team has 0 players from AHL. Its a development league afterall. Maybe in 5-10 years time our player pool in NHL and top of KHL will be wide enough to fill any roster with complete players from highest levels. Just saying thats a pipeline dream for future.
 
Erikfromfin said:
Its nice that they are improving AHL scouting for now but in ideal world Finland National team has 0 players from AHL. Its a development league afterall.
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In ideal world the Finnish National Team has players from nowhere but the NHL. Compared to the Show, every other league is a development league.

The AHL is full of players who are close to NHL level, but not quite. Said players, however, can be stars if they come to Europe. This is exactly the kind of mentality we've been criticizing here. A player is "lost" if he's stuck in a North American league other than the NHL, but all of a sudden becomes NT worthy when he crosses back over.
 
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