kk87
Registered User
Yup, for sure. It'll be a good tournament. There will be five or six teams that can contend for gold, which will be exciting. Can't wait to see how it plays out.
WJC: Prediction Time
- Thread starter YMCMBYOLO
- Start date
Yup, for sure. It'll be a good tournament. There will be five or six teams that can contend for gold, which will be exciting. Can't wait to see how it plays out.
ChicagoBullsFan
Registered User
Is it for you and those Canadian fans a horrible crime, to be trustful and believe to your own country's ( Finland) chances.
To succeed in world juniors, which are held in Finland.
The more i read this pointless and very childish arguing, the more becomes even more apparent.
That winning world junior gold is only, Canada's, USA's, Czech's and Sweden's exclusive right.
We Finns often say, the higher you levitate that higher you'll drop down.
See you in world juniors.
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Agree with you.
One thing is for sure, this young group of Finns are hungry for the gold and nothing else!
However, I'm sceptical, mostly due to what happened in 2013 when Finland had a stacked team that beat USA, and CAN in the pre-tournament games, and ended up 7th place or something like that.
Even the almighty and haughty "Don Cherry," said that Finland was a favourite to win gold.
Something along the lines of: "I know the Finns are chockers, but don't be surprised if the Finns win gold"
We had pretty damn inept coaching in that tournament, and most of the failures of that group can be directly accounted to our bench bosses. Not saying things can't go downhill this time too, but compared to Harri Rindell, Jalonen orbits a sphere of his own.
No one ever said that. It's just hilarious when someone thinks Finn's domination and gold medal is a sure thing.
Any one who thinks that their team will dominate is either trolling or dazed and confused.
Good thing it's just one guy in this case
1. Finland
2. Canada
3. Sweden
4. USA
Finland will lose one of first two games but then go undefeated for the rest of the tournament. Canada will go undefeated until the GMG when Finland beats them. Russia will not advance out of the group stage (to everyones surprise).
Top Scorer: Rantanen (Fabbri, if released)
Top Defenseman: Forsling
Top Goalie: Blackwood
Denmark relegated after losing in 6 round shootout vs Belarus.
2. Canada
3. Sweden
4. USA
Finland will lose one of first two games but then go undefeated for the rest of the tournament. Canada will go undefeated until the GMG when Finland beats them. Russia will not advance out of the group stage (to everyones surprise).
Top Scorer: Rantanen (Fabbri, if released)
Top Defenseman: Forsling
Top Goalie: Blackwood
Denmark relegated after losing in 6 round shootout vs Belarus.
Canada4Gold
Registered User
- Dec 22, 2010
- 43,051
- 9,237
Everyone except 1 team advances from the group stage. If Russia doesn't then Denmark plays them and not Belarus. Belarus would never beat Russia anyway.
8 teams make it out of the Group Stage. So if Denmark is being regulated after losing to Belarus... how does Russia not make it out of the group stage?
Oh please Finnish fans...your team is good but you are NOT the favorite going in to this. Your defence is average and that will be the difference - Canada, USA, and Sweden all have elite scorers that you won't be able to handle. Secondly, this team I will admit is definitely the strongest you have had in a few years...but the hype you guys are giving and the pressure on the team on home ice I think will be another contributing factor to your eventual failure.
I hope not, I can't remember the last time I saw such a good team offensively from the Us.
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helax
General Hockey Fan
- Apr 2, 2013
- 719
- 164
With the addition of Adrian Kempe and William Nylander gives me a really good feeling for this years Tre Kronor! It is a team even att all positions, with some SHL stars as Axel Holmström, Oscar Lindblom, Gustaf Forsling and Felix Standström adding even more flavor to the squad!
Sweden
Finland
Canda
Sweden
Finland
Canda
Eye of Ra
Grandmaster General of the International boards
After 10 months of hibernation, it's good to be back on HF boards! Here's my early take on things:
Like many others, I'm impressed with the potent offensive lineup that the Finns are putting out this year. Though they may not have the back end of some other teams, and their goaltending is a question mark, they should still be considered a real contender this year. Really looking forward to watching Puljujarvi again!
Canada remains a favourite, like every year, though they're getting hit even harder than usual by the NHL clubs' insatiable urge for entry level contracts. Don't expect to see any of the six eligible NHL guys get loaned out. I thought Virtanen was a good possibility, but the Canucks are getting hammered by the injury bug at the moment. Canada still has some good scorers (Point, Marner and Strome are going to rip it up), and a super solid D corps, albeit without the usual star power. I'd still prefer them to bring more than two goalies to camp, but these guys are both solid.
The USA seems to feature a vaunted offense every WJC and this year is no exception. Like Canada, they are missing a generational player in Jack Eichel that could have put them over the top. Nevertheless, there are still loads of high caliber scorers here, though I have to mention that I have been high on the American team for the last several years and they have disappointed as often as they have impressed.
Russia seems to be lacking the usual star power we are used to. There are still some good scorers here, but not the usual Ovechkin, Malkin, Bure etc. that we are used to. They will have to play a solid team game, although with Bragin at the helm, you can bet that they will be capable. I think goaltending is BIG concern for this club. The Super Series was pretty spotty compared to normal for the goalies, but my guess is Ilya Samsonov gets the job.
Sweden is a reliable favourite at this tourney and if they get Wiliam Nylander loaned out, I think you will see them challenge for the title once again. I have yet to go onto their thread and research their lineup yet, so at this point my intel on the team is sparse.
I think these are the top five teams in placement, though it's too early to say in which order I'd like to rank them. I'll get to that in due time. As always, it's going to be some great hockey, and I can't wait!
Like many others, I'm impressed with the potent offensive lineup that the Finns are putting out this year. Though they may not have the back end of some other teams, and their goaltending is a question mark, they should still be considered a real contender this year. Really looking forward to watching Puljujarvi again!
Canada remains a favourite, like every year, though they're getting hit even harder than usual by the NHL clubs' insatiable urge for entry level contracts. Don't expect to see any of the six eligible NHL guys get loaned out. I thought Virtanen was a good possibility, but the Canucks are getting hammered by the injury bug at the moment. Canada still has some good scorers (Point, Marner and Strome are going to rip it up), and a super solid D corps, albeit without the usual star power. I'd still prefer them to bring more than two goalies to camp, but these guys are both solid.
The USA seems to feature a vaunted offense every WJC and this year is no exception. Like Canada, they are missing a generational player in Jack Eichel that could have put them over the top. Nevertheless, there are still loads of high caliber scorers here, though I have to mention that I have been high on the American team for the last several years and they have disappointed as often as they have impressed.
Russia seems to be lacking the usual star power we are used to. There are still some good scorers here, but not the usual Ovechkin, Malkin, Bure etc. that we are used to. They will have to play a solid team game, although with Bragin at the helm, you can bet that they will be capable. I think goaltending is BIG concern for this club. The Super Series was pretty spotty compared to normal for the goalies, but my guess is Ilya Samsonov gets the job.
Sweden is a reliable favourite at this tourney and if they get Wiliam Nylander loaned out, I think you will see them challenge for the title once again. I have yet to go onto their thread and research their lineup yet, so at this point my intel on the team is sparse.
I think these are the top five teams in placement, though it's too early to say in which order I'd like to rank them. I'll get to that in due time. As always, it's going to be some great hockey, and I can't wait!
Gold Canada
Silver Finland
Bronze Switzerland
Top Goalie McDonald
Top Scorer Matthews
Top Player Matthews
Top D Sanheim
Silver Finland
Bronze Switzerland
Top Goalie McDonald
Top Scorer Matthews
Top Player Matthews
Top D Sanheim
czechcanadian
Registered User
Finnish fans are obviously going to be excited about there team. And rightfully so. It's a really intriguing group no doubt. But being the home team isn't always beneficial. High media pressure and high expectations from the fans isn't going to help. Yes they could win Gold. But yes they could also fail miserably. The World Juniors are impossible to predict. And having a good team on paper means absolutely nothing. And that's been proven EVERY SINGLE YEAR.
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ChicagoBullsFan
Registered User
Of course we are excited our team.
But Jukka Jalonen is merited coach, and i'm sure he can prepare the team and motivate players to keep their focus on the ice better than Jortikka last year.
Jukka Jalonen is only Finnish hockey coach in the world, who's coached men's national team in gold medal.
That happen 2011 in Bratislava Slovakia.
Also Jalonen knows already what, to expect when Finland is tournament host.
Jalonen was behind the bench, when Finland hosted IIHF men's world championships 2012.
Media in hype in Finland will be huge as everyone knows Teemu Selanne's team Finland game jersey, will retired top of the rafters in Hartwall Arena.
30th December before Finland Slovakia game.
Also Saku Koivu,Jere Lehtinen and Ville Peltonen, gets their national team jerseys retired in world juniors.
Finnish Ice Hockey Association will retire, those jerseys 26th December before Finland Belarus game.
However maybe Canadian fan's wont believe Finland's chances to succee in this tourney, but we do and that's only what matters.
We are home team now, and the home-crowd support is for us.
It'll be huge boost for Finland when 13,000 peoples ( Capacity of Hartwall arena in hockey games is 13400 peoples) stands behind our lions.
And cheer for our young lions every single game.
Of course it's also, big challenge to our team.
But now we have better coaching staff than last year.
Our young team is hungry for gold nothing else.
PS Welcome to Helsinki
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ChicagoBullsFan
Registered User
We always do better when expectations are lower, so please let them have their fun. I'd like everyone to stay healthily negative so we can make the greatest junior team Finland has ever rolled on the ice seem like underdogs and require that extra grit they bring to the table usuallyWhat a hell you talking about
MardyBum
Registered User
Too early to do player predictions, want to see who actually makes the squad first.
I think the US is absolutely stacked on offense though, and will have pretty great chemistry.
Milano Dvorak Tuch
Tkachuk Matthews Roslovic (if they go with it due to previous chemstry)
Connor White Boeser
Thats a scary top 9. Not even including guys like DeBrincat if they bring him, Bracco etc. (Forgive me if I forgot any obvious USA fans lol).
Canada is stacked on D.
Only thing i'm not sure on is goalies, as I dont know half the Euro ones >_>.
I think the US is absolutely stacked on offense though, and will have pretty great chemistry.
Milano Dvorak Tuch
Tkachuk Matthews Roslovic (if they go with it due to previous chemstry)
Connor White Boeser
Thats a scary top 9. Not even including guys like DeBrincat if they bring him, Bracco etc. (Forgive me if I forgot any obvious USA fans lol).
Canada is stacked on D.
Only thing i'm not sure on is goalies, as I dont know half the Euro ones >_>.
