Not sure touching the puck 25 times in one period (75 in a game) without a shot can be seen as a good thing without a few assists.
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Not sure touching the puck 25 times in one period (75 in a game) without a shot can be seen as a good thing without a few assists.
vaiski
Registered User
- Dec 27, 2015
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I thought he played as expected today. He made a couple of mistakes but overall didn't look out of place. The powerplay wasn't clicking at all, hard to blame him for getting only one opportunity to one-time the puck.
I'm not sure how many games he has played on NHL ice before, but the number is close to 0. Pretty impressive how well he managed to adjust against the hardest competition he has ever faced. He tried to use the between the legs 1v1 move on Hjalmarsson but was played off the situation cold. That should be a good lesson for him.
I'm not sure how many games he has played on NHL ice before, but the number is close to 0. Pretty impressive how well he managed to adjust against the hardest competition he has ever faced. He tried to use the between the legs 1v1 move on Hjalmarsson but was played off the situation cold. That should be a good lesson for him.
This is how I assessed his performance, too. He obviously will improve, but he was much more than a bystander as an 18 year old playing top end competition on a smaller ice surface. He looks like he can adjust quickly and as he gains confidence his impact will increase.
That's pretty agreeable. My take was he was there. Not horrible and not good, just a body on the ice learning.
TDK67
Registered User
- Apr 17, 2016
- 3,261
- 969
To be fair he was right in the middle of the play of that goal getting scored. It's not like he was leaving the ice or just coming on as it happened.
But yes, +/- is generally unhelpful.
By the way, one of the Jets HFB regulars, who also happens to be an excellent advanced stats guy tracked Laine's Corsi stats... +4/-3. Small sample with so much PP time, but that's 57% CF%.
TheBeastCoast
Registered User
Yeah that is a ridiculously small sample but he held his own at the very least. The expectations for him and Matthews shouldn't really be anything more then that.
Exactly. I'm sure both will have games where they look great, and some where they don't.
This tournament is a perfect tune up for Laine and Matthews.
BB88
Registered User
- Jan 19, 2015
- 41,753
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That's mostly on Marjamaki.
He did have few nice passes that could have lead to something if the players were ready.
TDK67
Registered User
- Apr 17, 2016
- 3,261
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Yea, this might be too critical of me, but I kind of expect solid tape-to-tape passing from him on the PP since the man advantage is more conducive to puck movement and I already know he's a great player. So clean passes with time and space are an average event/expectation that isn't noteworthy in my opinion.
I was more interested in how he does with the puck on his stick when he's pressured and/or covered at even strength. Is he getting a shot on net, is he completing passes, is he winning 1:1 battles, etc.
That said, I'm not a professional coach or scout or anything so me dissecting ~14 mins of play is generally meaningless. At the end of the day, the fact that he looked OK (in my eyes) against a really solid Swedish group while being an 18 year old coming off of an injury is a testament to the fact that the kid is pretty damn good.
Also, I'm reiterating the term "OK" because some people are saying he was one of the best Finns and that's not what I saw. Barkov, Granlund, Koivu, Maata & Rinne were the best Finns IMO, but again, what do I know
Actually, it is because if all 5 guys on your line touch the puck without any of them making a bad play, it always eventually ends with a shot on goal.
Touching the puck and getting it back to a teammate without the opposing team getting it is more than many players can seemingly accomplish and if everyone does this, it never ends up with the opposing team before a shot on goal.
Speaking of assists, he set Jokipakka up for an empty net. It's not his fault Jokipakka misses.
JetsHomer
Registered User
- Nov 29, 2011
- 10,941
- 3,146
Yea, this might be too critical of me, but I kind of expect solid tape-to-tape passing from him on the PP since the man advantage is more conducive to puck movement and I already know he's a great player. So clean passes with time and space are an average event/expectation that isn't noteworthy in my opinion.
I was more interested in how he does with the puck on his stick when he's pressured and/or covered at even strength. Is he getting a shot on net, is he completing passes, is he winning 1:1 battles, etc.
That said, I'm not a professional coach or scout or anything so me dissecting ~14 mins of play is generally meaningless. At the end of the day, the fact that he looked OK (in my eyes) against a really solid Swedish group while being an 18 year old coming off of an injury is a testament to the fact that the kid is pretty damn good.
Also, I'm reiterating the term "OK" because some people are saying he was one of the best Finns and that's not what I saw. Barkov, Granlund, Koivu, Maata & Rinne were the best Finns IMO, but again, what do I know
I thought basically everyone looked sloppy, the Sedin's were the best players on the ice (surprise surprise, they showed chemistry) the Finns are clearly outclassed in talent by Sweden but I thought Flippula was easily the best Finnish forward with Barkov, Granland and Laine all playing just decently.
So we are in agreement. He did not play well enough to get a point nor a shot on net.
Glad we can agree. I would expect more from him next game.
JetsHomer
Registered User
- Nov 29, 2011
- 10,941
- 3,146
I like see him showing off his passing. Shows his haters that he's more than a one dimensional sniper
I wouldn't call people who think he is a player with a cannon but not overly well rounded haters. I would call them people calling what they have seen as they have seen it. He could be more, but so far he has one skill far above the others.
He is a guy you expect a high amount of goals from, if he isn't doing that the rest of his game will need to round out more. A complete player he is not... yet.
TDK67
Registered User
- Apr 17, 2016
- 3,261
- 969
Agree with everything except I'd give Barkov and Granlund more credit. Barkov capitalized on a giveaway brilliantly and Granlund was buzzing around a lot while putting on the most shots on net for Finland.
I liked the shot on Barkov's ass. He waited for Barkov to come block vision and the top corner was likely a guaranteed goal. At least he had the presence of mind to go for it, too bad he shot slightly too soon. At least he showed that he can think rationally.
BB88
Registered User
- Jan 19, 2015
- 41,753
- 22,238
Yea, this might be too critical of me, but I kind of expect solid tape-to-tape passing from him on the PP since the man advantage is more conducive to puck movement and I already know he's a great player. So clean passes with time and space are an average event/expectation that isn't noteworthy in my opinion.
I was more interested in how he does with the puck on his stick when he's pressured and/or covered at even strength. Is he getting a shot on net, is he completing passes, is he winning 1:1 battles, etc.
That said, I'm not a professional coach or scout or anything so me dissecting ~14 mins of play is generally meaningless. At the end of the day, the fact that he looked OK (in my eyes) against a really solid Swedish group while being an 18 year old coming off of an injury is a testament to the fact that the kid is pretty damn good.
Also, I'm reiterating the term "OK" because some people are saying he was one of the best Finns and that's not what I saw. Barkov, Granlund, Koivu, Maata & Rinne were the best Finns IMO, but again, what do I know
Hopefully Marjamaki wakes up.
He treats Koivu as the #1C, and starts him on the offensive zone in for powerplays. Which is the 1st mistake.
So Laine unit starts most of their pp's from the own zone, which leads to the 2nd problem, the zone entries were garbage, need to step up and fix that.
3rd problem is that when they got in the offensive zone Vatanen wanted to take the shooter role, when everyone knows that Laines shot should not be ignored, the scoring will be a problem for this Finnish team and not using Laines shot definitely won't help.
4th problem surprisingly was Vatanens bad decision making/passing, most of his passes to Laine were easy to predict and Swe forward broke those plays off with ease.
They never really got the powerplay going.
He is a high end playmaker as well, with his elite shot.
There are ton of posters here who have only watched his highlights and are experts of his play.
Vatanen was just pure ass.
At least twice when he shot a one timer Laine was completely open, like one situation Laine was in the middle of the circle with no one even near and Vatanen shoots at a 3-person wall. Overall Vatanen had 2 slappers right into a blocking player, one weak ass wrister and at least one(likely more) "pass" to Laine that was easily interrupted.
I just can't comprehend why in the situations where a pass was good he shot instead. This happened at least 3 times.
Not that Laine was very good in the second or third periods, either. He accomplished very little apart from a couple of good plays. The first period gives me some faith, however.
They were using a useless approach on the rush through the neutral zone on the PP. Two or three times Laine would rush the puck through the neutral zone and then drop it to Jokinen who swung around behind Laine. Laine's momentum was stopped at the opposing blue line, while Jokinen usually couldn't find a lane to pass or enter the zone. The Swedes had that play completely smothered, or maybe Jokinen wasn't very good at executing the play. Back to the drawing board.
Laine got the puck up like once, the only one who was consistent was Barkov for that unit IIRC.
Highlights(A limited amount of limited quality):
https://streamable.com/m6y6
BB88
Registered User
- Jan 19, 2015
- 41,753
- 22,238
Marjamaki has the wrong guys doing the carrying and making the plays. This should be Barkovs team on ice.
I like Barkov-Laine, it could work very well, there's potential even now already, but hating the Laine-Barkov-Jokinen again.
That powerplay reminds what Florida did with Jagr on the powerplay at times and didn't work.
With teams like Sweden you need speed, you have to try to surprise them, and not let them set up. You go nowhere with that.
Saturdays game will be interesting, I hope they have made changes.
Atleast Selanne noticed they weren't using Laine and I'm glad Laine was angry at himself.
Well atleast Vatanen (normally) is a great player so hopefully we can say it was just rust.
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