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GDT: Group A - May 11 - Slovakia vs Finland

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How our Slovak roster is better than Fins? Kako next NHL star. We played well yesterday. But I expect today will be our not very good day and we do a lot of mistakes after yesterday's big team effort. 1-3 Finns.
If we keep the game from yesterday it will be close game and can end up on both sides...
 
dusansvk said:
How our Slovak roster is better than Fins? Kako next NHL star. We played well yesterday. But I expect today will be our not very good day and we do a lot of mistakes after yesterday's big team effort. 1-3 Finns.
If we keep the game from yesterday it will be close game and can end up on both sides...
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I don't know if Slovakia's roster is better, I'm just saying that an argument can be made for once.

Kako is in all likelyhood a future NHL star. But how good would he be in the NHL right now? Panik level? Tatar level? Better than both? We haven't seen enough of him against high quality competition to know for sure. Just remember how hyped Jesse Puljujarvi was a few years ago. He's defenitly worsse than Tatar, and even Panik for that matter.

Finland has more depth up front, no doubt. But on defence Slovakia is much better. Sekera and Cernak are top 4 defensemen in the NHL, and has the potential to be one of the best shutdown pairings in this entire tournament. The 2nd pairing is Marincin/Jaros. It may not sound very impressive on HFboards, but they are used to defending against much better forwards than the likes of Toni Rajala, Marko Anttila, Harri Pesonen every day in the NHL.

It's fairly close on paper, and based on results from yesterday it's likely to be a close game tonight, unless either team's goalie completely craps the bed.
 
Finland scoring five or six goals against two good NHL defensemen, and two other NHL defensemen, would be surprising with this forward group. Slovakias 7th defensemen right now is Michal Cajkovsky. This is a guy that played so well on a PTO in preseason that he earned a contract with the Carolina Hurricanes (even if both parties agreed to terminate it 1/4 into the season.
 
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Lankinen confirm

Maalilla:
30 Kevin Lankinen
Varalla:
35 Veini Vehviläinen
1. kenttä:
25 Toni Rajala - 15 Arttu Ilomäki - 19 Veli-Matti Savinainen
4 Mikko Lehtonen - 55 Atte Ohtamaa
2. kenttä:
82 Harri Pesonen - 65 Sakari Manninen - 24 Kaapo Kakko
40 Petteri Lindbohm - 28 Henri Jokiharju
3. kenttä:
41 Joel Kiviranta - 21 Juhani Tyrväinen - 20 Niko Ojamäki
70 Niko Mikkola - 7 Oliwer Kaski
4. kenttä:
76 Jere Sallinen - 91 Juho Lammikko - 12 Marko Anttila
50 Miika Koivisto - 58 Jani Hakanpää

Leijonat - Leijonien lauantai-illan vastus on kisaisäntä Slovakia, ottelu käyntiin klo 21.15 - Suomen kentälliset
 
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Finnish D might be unknown to others but it really is a pretty solid D compared to other WC defence corps Finland has had. Sure it lacks NHL experience, but Finland has been lacking in that department in the last 10 years. Offence is "worse" in few decades if you look leagues where players come from and "names". Team Slovakia has on paper better first line but after that i would say its quite even. Slovak defence is on paper a lot better than finnish, but like i said its not that bad D compared to recent years and wehave been doing quite good what we have. Goalie department is on same level. No matter is it NHL,KHL,AHL or SM-league goalie standing there and we know we can trust him.

Even game, but i have to say finland wins 3-1.
 
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Snaibberi said:
Finnish D might be unknown to others but it really is a pretty solid D compared to other WC defence corps Finland has had. Sure it lacks NHL experience, but Finland has been lacking in that department in the last 10 years. Offence is "worse" in few decades if you look leagues where players come from and "names". Team Slovakia has on paper better first line but after that i would say its quite even. Slovak defence is on paper a lot better than finnish, but like i said its not that bad D compared to recent years and wehave been doing quite good what we have. Goalie department is on same level. No matter is it NHL,KHL,AHL or SM-league goalie standing there and we know we can trust him.

Even game, but i have to say finland wins 3-1.
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I looked at our previous WHC rosters and even though this is an unknown team, this team has some very good players. We have played many tournaments without a single NHL players on defense.

Slovakia is the better team on paper though.
 
FinPanda said:
I looked at our previous WHC rosters and even though this is an unknown team, this team has some very good players. We have played many tournaments without a single NHL players on defense.

Slovakia is the better team on paper though.
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I really don't think we are the better team on paper. Yeah, we have Tatar, Panik plus a couple of solid forwards and quite good defense. Other than that, your players are definitely superior. Anyway, I hope it's going to be a close and entertaining game.
 
Jakub1904 said:
I really don't think we are the better team on paper. Yeah, we have Tatar, Panik plus a couple of solid forwards and quite good defense. Other than that, your players are definitely superior. Anyway, I hope it's going to be a close and entertaining game.
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You have a home ice advantage too.
 
Elvs said:
Finland scoring five or six goals against two good NHL defensemen, and two other NHL defensemen, would be surprising with this forward group. Slovakias 7th defensemen right now is Michal Cajkovsky. This is a guy that played so well on a PTO in preseason that he earned a contract with the Carolina Hurricanes (even if both parties agreed to terminate it 1/4 into the season.
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You do realise that all the young guys in the Finnish team are under nhl contracts next season.

The one thing Finnish team has is speed, high tempo press. Liiga has changed a lot in the few years.
 
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These two teams are close enough that debating which one is marginally better on paper is kinda fruitless. We should rather be pondering how their individual playstyles fit against each other. Slovakia did a great job beating USA, which was clearly the better on-paper team, but looked very, very disorganized.

Finland, in contrast, is USA's polar opposite. Not laden with big names, but they are perhaps the most cohesive team in the tournament. So from Slovakia's perspective, they will be a wholly different puzzle to crack. And Slovakia, similarly, has notable differences to Canada. Both teams would do well to move on from the tournament opener and take nothing from it save for the confidence boost.
 
Atte Ohtamaa. Worst defenseman of Kärpät. Then on the 1st pairing for the national team. I just don't get it.
 
Brun0 said:
You do realise that all the young guys in the Finnish team are under nhl contracts next season.

The one thing Finnish team has is speed, high tempo press. Liiga has changed a lot in the few years.
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The Sekera-Cernak pairing is still better (on paper) than any pairing Finland has and they have the capacity to be one of the best pairings in this whole tournament. They did play a strong opening game as well.

I'm not saying Marincin-Jaros is great just because they are NHL'ers, but they are probably interchangeable with two of Finlands D pairings. Marincin is a Maple Leafs whipping boy, but the reality is him and Jaros are used to defend against better forwards than this Finnish roster has on a every day basis in the NHL. They are decent 2nd pairing for WC competition, and they were +3 against the U.S.

Fehervary on the third pairing is also under NHL contract already with the Washington Capitals. He's a 2nd round pick of theirs and while he'll probably spend much time in the minors, there's a good chance he'll be called up and make his NHL debute next season.

So if we're discussing amount of player under NHL contracts, Slovakia actually has ten of those right now on this roster. Rybar is signed by the Red Wings and is their 3rd goalie. Marian Studienic is signed by the Devils and plays with their farm club, and led his AHL team in points in the first half of the season. This is a stronger Slovak team than we're used to seeing in the World Championships. Kristof is also a good player in Liiga.

Not saying that Slovakia are favourites to win this game, but it wouldn't be nearly as surprising as news headlines will make it out to be if they pull it off. I wouldn't even deem it a surprise. It'd be like the Arizona Coyotes winning one game against the Tampa Bay Lightning. It happens.
 
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Oulu Blackhawk said:
Does Rybar play also the second game of the back to back after USA-game?
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Expect Ciliak to start. At least before the tournament the coaching staff was saying they will try both goalies in the first two games and have said nothing to contradict that after the game yesterday. I would bet that Rybar starts Monday against Canada, but most likely we will see Ciliak today. I hope he can do a good job too.
 
Ivo said:
Expect Ciliak to start. At least before the tournament the coaching staff was saying they will try both goalies in the first two games and have said nothing to contradict that after the game yesterday. I would bet that Rybar starts Monday against Canada, but most likely we will see Ciliak today. I hope he can do a good job too.
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Ciliak is confirmed
 
Brass Bonanza said:
We have Kaapo Kakko.
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But Slovakia has:

tenor.gif
 
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