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I didn't like them doing Barkov-Jokinen on OT. Yeah, they got the points on the OT goal but you can hardly call 1 shot on goal and 20 seconds of puck possession in 3 minutes successful.
To me, Barkov-Laine is a much more functional duo so I'm not sure why Jokinen is treated as the main part and Laine as the third wheel. Jokinen had like 2 decent passes and 0 highlight plays, nothing even resembling a highlight play. On the other hand, the play died on his stick several times.
And yeah, Barkov was like the only one who could consistently perform zone entry. Laine had some success too but several bad ones as well. Jokinen just should not be used for it.
To me, Barkov-Laine is a much more functional duo so I'm not sure why Jokinen is treated as the main part and Laine as the third wheel. Jokinen had like 2 decent passes and 0 highlight plays, nothing even resembling a highlight play. On the other hand, the play died on his stick several times.
And yeah, Barkov was like the only one who could consistently perform zone entry. Laine had some success too but several bad ones as well. Jokinen just should not be used for it.
Just so you are aware, no sport uses combine heights. Come this fall he's not going to be listed at 6'3.75", but likely 6'5", and the debate was about discrepancies in listed heights between players such as PLD, Matthews and Laine. Listed heights are never accurate, and in a way they're not supposed to be, so debating listed heights for aesthetic appeal and intimidation on spreadsheets is not "ignoring facts" or making "biased conjectures" even though I feel the aesthetics on paper are overrated.
teravaineSAROS
Registered User
- Jul 29, 2015
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No yea I agree he was decent, people are judging from a sniping point of view because he's our designated sniper (which is a high expectation considering he turned 18 like 2-3 months ago), he showed he's a good playmaker and checks well but you could also see he's young.
I'm not really worried, I mean he was facing the team with the tournaments best defense and wasnt too bad doing it despite not having played that level of opposition before.
I'm not worried at all, I can't remember anyone who would have played better on that level at that age. And nobody will face a defense that stacked in any league in the world, on day to day basis. Sweden is an incredibly stacked team especially on defense and yet Laine was able to do mostly good things with the puck. And his team won the game too.
We did not get to see the shot we already know is one of the best around, and that's why it felt like an off game for him, but he was one of the better players in a team that beat Team Sweden, which is a top 4 national team on the planet. He was able to hang with some of the best the world has to offer, without utilizing his best weapon.
No. People are questioning how tall he actually is. we know. He was officially measured. In June. We know
Yes, we know what height he is in the afternoon but what I at least am wondering is how tall he is in the morning
Woll Smoth
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MardyBum
Registered User
Well, two throwaway matches left. Hopefully he finds his his groove by the end of the second one.
- Feb 23, 2014
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The setting is really catered more for Laine here I think. Team NA has no previous history to build on and consists wholly of young & hungry guys who may quite conceivably on some level be looking to have an edge on each other and who can kind-of legitimately get compared to each other, future-career-pospects-wise.
Laine on the other hand gets to walk into a ready table really, as the team is pretty much set with no questionmarks on issues such as leadership, and some of the teammates have long experience, also of tournaments on this level, that they likely have little problem parting with for the benefit of their younger teammates.
- Feb 23, 2014
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Why do you think he and Pulju were taking those 4-hour afternoon naps just before the games.
Another thing is that the team has no options. They have no replacement for Laine. The only other right-handed shot at all is Donskoi and they have no one with close to as good of a shot as Laine in general.
I guess that does tell its tale about how limited Finland is in general when it comes to goal scorers but I expect them to have a lot of patience with Laine all the way to the end. There really is no alternative available to Finland that's superior to "Let's hope he finds the next gear in this next game".
With regards to the right-handed shot issue, by the way, it's a bit of a shame that they didn't take Joel Armia as he could at least have been a right-handed shot RW on one of the bottom 2 lines.
its impossible for a just drafted 18 year old to struggle against the best players in the world in his 1st game against them .
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The Winter Soldier
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- Apr 4, 2011
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BB88
Registered User
- Jan 19, 2015
- 41,753
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Team Finland, Vatanen, Marjamaki, Jokinen. We also had 3 penalties on the 1st 8 mins which set the 1st 30 mins nicely, the team had 4 shots on the 1st 30 mins. Vatanen seemed to screw every play today, which lead to Laine taking more of a playmaking role, and I thought he was more comfortable on the powerplay, not great but getting there slowly.
I hate this overhyping so ........ng much, some hype him like crazy and the expectation is to dominate, which is insane, he's playing against Backstrom line and when he looks like he belongs to that roster it's not enough, he sucks because he isn't dominating.
Only few players have looked good, absolutely hate how (most of) Vatanen, Jokinen, Lehtera, Filppula, Teravainen, Pokka, Lindel have looked.
If the whole team was looking good and Laine bad I'd get the critisism, but that's not the case, but again thanks to that stupid overhyping normal/ok/good is not acceptable, he has to dominate.
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He's 18 years old playing in a world class tournament with established NHL stars. Some Finnish fans are suffering an ugly bit of cognitive dissonance.
Give him a break. He'll be a very good player in time.
UsernameWasTaken
Let's Go Hawks!
TDK67
Registered User
- Apr 17, 2016
- 3,261
- 969
I see. Thanks for the insight. And to be clear, other people called him bad, not me, but I agree it's probably due to unreasonable expectations. The only thing I'd say is concerning from a purely stat-watching perspective is the SOG + PP time.
One of the reasons Ovi is the best goal scorer of all time is because he also leads the league in SOG pretty much every year (iirc). High shot volume is obviously necessary to be a high goal scorer so I'd hope Laine can put the puck on the net more often, especially with the time and space available on the PP.
BB88
Registered User
- Jan 19, 2015
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He's been often open, but no one has been feeding him, that's been mostly on Vatanen/Jokinen, the passing on that Barkov pp unit has been embarrassing, which I like said has seemed to lead Laine being more of a passer.
If you honestly watch the games without the numbers on their Jerseys you wouldn't pick #29 as the rookie, he definitely hasn't been great but so few have, Barkov and that's about it.
Finns love to attack their guys when things aren't going as hoped, hype them like hell 1st and them beat them down like crazy.
I'm impressed that he's been able to keep up, this Swe team to me is top2 team in the World and that defense an absolute dream. This makes NHL's 1st half seem easier.
TDK67
Registered User
- Apr 17, 2016
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Cool cool. Makes sense. Thanks again. Really appreciate the well written response and composure.
Swedes have done a good job cutting off the angles. Laine either needs to be proactive in his movement so they can get him for a shot or someone needs to break the D down to create the hole to find Laine. On smaller ice its a lot easier to cut off that cross-ice pass, which teams are going to focus on doing to Laine due to his shot. Its only his second game on small ice, against a defence with elite mobility. With better diagramming, weaker defenders and time he'll figure it out.
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