GDT: Quarterfinal - May 18 - USA (0) vs Finland (2)

[ijuka]

Compare the leading centers this game, Eichel vs Aho... And then consider that Aho is almost a year younger.

Many people will be surprised in the near future.

 

[DoubleGold]

I know Jesse has had an up and down (mostly down) tournament, but can someone give me a little scouting report from today's game alone. Thanks.

Seemed quite active at the start of the game but then disappeared, which has been usual in this tournament. He doesn't make many glaring mistakes but he simply seems to vanish on ice.

 

[DoubleGold]

Compare the leading centers this game, Eichel vs Aho... And then consider that Aho is almost a year younger.

Many people will be surprised in the near future.

Aho's hockey IQ is a lot higher than Eichels, that's for certain.

 

[ijuka]

I know Jesse has had an up and down (mostly down) tournament, but can someone give me a little scouting report from today's game alone. Thanks.

Well, I'm not sure how to say this... But I was concentrating on Puljujärvi the entire time and he wasn't really doing very many useful things. He barely touched the puck and he had pretty ineffective positioning. Wasn't really open to make plays etc. and he accomplished absolutely nothing in that game, which has been the theme for him. It feels like he's still constantly surfing outside the play. No glaring mistakes, I guess. But I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing. As an example here, take Laine during last year's WHC. Laine made pretty bad mistakes nearly every shift. But well, he was in position to make those mistakes and he at least was making some kind of a play a lot of the time(Even if many of those failed). Puljujärvi wasn't really doing anything.

 

[SanDogBrewin]

US team never even woke up for this game, terrible tactics by Blashill and zero adjustment

Straight out of Bylsma's 2014 Sochi handbook.

 

[Mehar]

Shocked to see the final score. I thought the US would take this one, after seeing the way Finland played against Canada, and the way the US beat Russia. I support Team Canada, but the US is always the other country i hope does well. Very disappointing result.

 

[Xokkeu]

Aho's hockey IQ is a lot higher than Eichels, that's for certain.

Aho is better than like 98% of players.

 

[CantLoseWithMatthews]

Compare the leading centers this game, Eichel vs Aho... And then consider that Aho is almost a year younger.

Many people will be surprised in the near future.

Eichel has more raw talent by quite a wide margin, but I'd say Aho has the attitude you want in a player. He's always going to try his best all over the ice, and trying to improve the weaknesses in his game. If Eichel can't do the same then I might agree with you that Aho can close the gap

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

Eichel has more raw talent by quite a wide margin, but I'd say Aho has the attitude you want in a player. He's always going to try his best all over the ice, and trying to improve the weaknesses in his game. If Eichel can't do the same then I might agree with you that Aho can close the gap

I'd take Aho over Eichel all day.

 

[Vohaul]

Aho just keeps impressing with his overall play, he's already THE leading offensive dynamo in the national team at 19 years old. This boy is going to be something special for a long time to come.

Aho, Rantanen, Savinainen and Säteri played really well. Honka has been a big positive too during the whole tournament. This team always had much more potential than they were showing so far, glad they're improving game by game.. Top 4 with one the weaker Finn teams in recent history is a decent result already but go and grab a medal boys..

Sweden is going to be a tough opponent.

 

[Rob]

This was the best team the USA had in years. I really thought they had a chance at bringing home the gold. I know the tournament is low on the radar but it has to be a disappointment for USA Hockey.

 

[Lempo]

If you know history of Finnish hockey you might know that Finland plays their best game when they're clear underdogs.
Team USA underestimated underdog and that's worst mistake whom every hockey team can do.

Ah the depths we are willing to go to keep our vaunted underdog position. The early tournament performance is going to play merry hell with our Top 3 hockey country claim.

 

[mattihp]

Ah the depths we are willing to go to keep our vaunted underdog position. The early tournament performance is going to play merry hell with our Top 3 hockey country claim.

This. Sometimes I miss the days of burning all of the energy in the group play and being all out of gas in the final or semifinal.

 

[Lempo]

I just realized they were playing Eichel-Gaudreau pairing, and the one getting points was Juhamatti Aaltonen.

How can you not love this tournament?

 

[mattihp]

I just realized they were playing Eichel-Gaudreau pairing, and the one getting points was Juhamatti Aaltonen.

How can you not love this tournament?

Clearly the better player

 

[Loffer]

The Sun King has this apt saying: 95 % preparation and mental focus is a 50 % performance. Never truer than in this game on the great Team USA side.

 

[weetabix]

That's true, but we certainly defended well. If you want to look some stats, USA attack was on attacking blueline when going over (or our defensive blue-line) accordingly:
21 outnumbered
16 equal-numberer
0 overnumbered.

So we gave zero 5-4,4-3, 2-1 or whatever situations. We really defended well as the numbers show.

 

[Nithoniniel]

That's true, but we certainly defended well. If you want to look some stats, USA attack was on attacking blueline when going over (or our defensive blue-line) accordingly:
21 outnumbered
16 equal-numberer
0 overnumbered.

So we gave zero 5-4,4-3, 2-1 or whatever situations. We really defended well as the numbers show.

That's interesting stuff. Well done.

Oh, and the term you're looking for is zone entries.

 

[Sentinel]

That's true, but we certainly defended well. If you want to look some stats, USA attack was on attacking blueline when going over (or our defensive blue-line) accordingly:
21 outnumbered
16 equal-numberer
0 overnumbered.

So we gave zero 5-4,4-3, 2-1 or whatever situations. We really defended well as the numbers show.

Great consolation.

 

[SanDogBrewin]

I just realized they were playing Eichel-Gaudreau pairing, and the one getting points was Juhamatti Aaltonen.

How can you not love this tournament?

Eichel and Gaudreau played together, in maybe two games, earlier in the tournament. After that those two only played together on the powerplay.

 

[Lempo]

Eichel and Gaudreau played together, in maybe two games, earlier in the tournament. After that those two only played together on the powerplay.

I was going by our play-by-play guy, he's... not very informatively accurate. His notions like "They are playing these two together now" may every now and then omit the little detail that it's PP or something like that.