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Hlinka Gretzky Cup

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To have the Hlinka Cup in Canada really provides a head start to the scouting season, especially for home observers. This year's tournament feels like a major hockey event, especially with the television coverage and the appearance of various NHL executives.

Two weeks of hockey every August would be a phenomenal, starting with the WJC Summer Showcase and then the Hlinka Cup. Normally, these few weeks would have been a dull period for hockey fans.
 
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Swipes said:
Hadamczik doing a great job :laugh:
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I wonder if there's any chance Hadamczik gets the boot. Especially if the Czechs lose to Finland. He got a good birth age group to work with and failed big time. I don't hate on Hadamczik like some, but I would much prefer a younger coach to him.
Given he "coincidentally" has his grandson (who even plays on the first line) though, I don't expect it. He will stay till the U18 WJC no matter how terrible results he has.
 
ijuka said:
This crop of defenders is the worst one in a loooong time. Kokkonen is fine(Though not superstar level) but everyone else is very mediocre. Such a massive step back... It's been years since Finland last had this weak D. When was the last time, even? 2014?
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Stop the panicking goddammit.
With these training matches has no meaning when puck drops in U18 WJC's next April.

Canada has won 9 of 10 last Hlinka tournaments which should not be a surprise
Meanwhile USA and European hockey nations Including Finland have always struggled in this tournament.
But still Finland has been 4 straight years in U18 WJC gold medal game.

It's just a strange thing as soon as Finland lose few junior hockey practice games
so immediately after each loss everything is on the ass in Finnish junior hockey.

And being honest U18 WJC gold medal is much valuable than some random Hlinka tournament win.
Finland will be medal games in next years U18 WJC's.
PS may be recovered.
 
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ChicagoBullsFan said:
Stop the panicking goddammit.
With these training matches has no meaning when puck drops in U18 WJC's next April.

Canada has won 9 of 10 last Hlinka tournaments which should not be a surprise
Meanwhile USA and European hockey nations Including Finland have always struggled in this tournament.
But still Finland has been 4 straight years in U18 WJC gold medal game.

It's just a strange thing as soon as Finland lose few junior hockey practice games
so immediately after each loss everything is on the ass in Finnish junior hockey.

And being honest U18 WJC gold medal is much valuable than some random Hlinka tournament win.
Finland will be medal games in next years U18 WJC's.
PS may be recovered.
Click to expand...
Given you have more top players overall at Hlinka as opposed to the April U18 WJC, no, medal from the WJC is not "much valuable".
I don't understand why you hate everything and everyone that mentions Finland sucked so far. Any team can have a bad tournament, it's sport.
 
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ChicagoBullsFan said:
Stop the panicking goddammit.
With these training matches has no meaning when puck drops in U18 WJC's next April.

Canada has won 9 of 10 last Hlinka tournaments which should not be a surprise
Meanwhile USA and European hockey nations Including Finland have always struggled in this tournament.
But still Finland has been 4 straight years in U18 WJC gold medal game.

It's just a strange thing as soon as Finland lose few junior hockey practice games
so immediately after each loss everything is on the ass in Finnish junior hockey.

And being honest U18 WJC gold medal is much valuable than some random Hlinka tournament win.
Finland will be medal games in next years U18 WJC's.
PS may be recovered.
Click to expand...

Of course the Finnish dude thinks that the u18s are more important as they get to send their best guys while the CHL playoffs are going on and the Canadians can't.
 
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mammothCacti said:
Of course the Finnish dude thinks that the u18s are more important as they get to send their best guys while the CHL playoffs are going on and the Canadians can't.
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Is it a problem or personal insult for you i'm not high some f***ing preseason junior hockey tournament
which is named by former NHL coach ( Ivan Hlinka) and greatest NHL player ( Wayne Gretzky) ever.

I'm very sorry for that i'm not here barking and bashing my country's U18 national team after every lose which they face in meaningless preaseason junior hockey tournament.
Have a nice day.
 
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Wooren said:
Given you have more top players overall at Hlinka as opposed to the April U18 WJC, no, medal from the WJC is not "much valuable".
I don't understand why you hate everything and everyone that mentions Finland sucked so far. Any team can have a bad tournament, it's sport.
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We're missing the likes of Kakko for example. He's a major part of the U-18 WJC team next year.
 
It’s a pre-season tourney. We send our B/C team to it. Shows you how highly we regard it.
If anything, it’s a good platform to view the upcoming draft class whereby players can put themselves on the radar. Player success is far more important than team success at this thing. Jmho
 
Jussi said:
We're missing the likes of Kakko for example. He's a major part of the U-18 WJC team next year.
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Yes we are.
And being honest at least Kasper Simontaival is only 2002 born player in next years U18 WJC team.
Christoffer Sedoff is a candidate to make in that team but he's not locked like Kakko, Lundell, Nikkanen, Aaltonen etc are. But Kakko's participating to U18 WJC's is depend on that how far TPS goes in liiga playoffs.
 
ChicagoBullsFan said:
Yes we are.
And being honest at least Kasper Simontaival is only 2002 born player in next years U18 WJC team.
Christoffer Sedoff is a candidate to make in that team but he's not locked like Kakko, Lundell, Nikkanen, Aaltonen etc are. But Kakko's participating to U18 WJC's is depend on that how far TPS goes in liiga playoffs.
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Yes, and also what his role with TPS is at that time. If its' the same as Rasmus Kupari, he could easily be cleared.

Complaining about Finland's performance at a non-IIHF tournament is still completely pointless, since for the federation and the team, it's how well they do in the last torunament of the season that matters, not the first. Niemelä said something similar in the May issue of Jääkiekkolehti. In fact I checked it, he said everything they had worked on, started clicking at the December 5-nations tournament.
 
Jussi said:
We're missing the likes of Kakko for example. He's a major part of the U-18 WJC team next year.
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Who else are you missing? Looking at the roster, it seems like the best line-up possible minus Kakko.
If you go roster by roster at both events, Hlinka comes at the top as being closer to best-on-best tournament. Neither is perfect though.
 
Jussi said:
We're missing the likes of Kakko for example. He's a major part of the U-18 WJC team next year.
Click to expand...

Because he played in the U20 summer showcase.

This tournament is as close as we can get at the U18 level to best-on-best. Granted the Americans don't send their USNTDP team but that's by choice not because those players would be unavailable to participate.
 
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snipes said:
Because he played in the U20 summer showcase.

This tournament is as close as we can get at the U18 level to best-on-best. Granted the Americans don't send their USNTDP team but that's by choice not because those players would be unavailable to participate.
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I am kinda baffled how the great american juniors rarely translate to mens international success. Because USA seems to have the deepest junior pool in the world now.
 
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