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RW Kaapo Kakko - TPS, Liiga (2019 Draft) Part 2

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Kakko played well today. Off course playing as a center was new situation for Kaapo in men's games but in my opinion he played well. Little problems in defending in offensive game Kaapo was same Kaapo like always. TPS has had difficult days in last two weeks and they have took only one win in last four games but Kaapo has still been in his own level. WJC will show how Kaapo could play with other juniors but Finland has a good team and this would help him. But if I should bet I would be sure that Kakko doesn't play as a center in WJC.
 
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One assist last night on the PP makes his season totals 7+11 in 26 games. For reference, Patrik Laine had 8+8 in 24 games before the WJC. Puljujärvi had 12 points in 32 games.

I'm not saying he is going to be better than Laine or anything, but he sure has done well so far. I just hope he has a good WJC run and he will find another gear after the tournament is over like Laine did. It tends to happen with young players, they somehow get that extra boost after WJC.
 
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Hokinaittii said:
One assist last night on the PP makes his season totals 7+11 in 26 games. For reference, Patrik Laine had 8+8 in 24 games before the WJC. Puljujärvi had 12 points in 32 games.

I'm not saying he is going to be better than Laine or anything, but he sure has done well so far. I just hope he has a good WJC run and he will find another gear after the tournament is over like Laine did. It tends to happen with young players, they somehow get that extra boost after WJC.
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Lets just say he's done very well without optimized usage on the PP (except for the last past games with Kakko in the first PP unit in a distributing role) and all things considered I don't think his point totals do him much justice.

As for Laine, Kakko has been given much better circumstances than Laine ever had in Tappara at his D year. He certainly had less talent around him and used to play Ilomäki and Peltola (who conveniently had a career year with 39 points in 59 games) in the second line with less minutes. Meanwhile Kakko has mostly been in the first line and as much as I've critiqued Filppula (his scoring ability in particular), he is much, much better than the two previously mentioned used to be back then. Quite certain he will outscore Laine's point totals from the regular season, but he's going to have to pull some rabbits out of the hat to outplay Laine's D year playoff performance that is completely unprecedented in the history of the league.

Anyway I really enjoyed seeing Kakko in the middle (while it wasn't actually even the first time at FEL level) and though he's still clearly adapting, I think he's going to make a heck of a center in the long run. Going to be thrilling seeing how much he can up his game in the post season after the WJC which has often had a high impact on the youngsters who've thrived there. No reason not to expect anything but Kakko excelling against a few year(s) older peers if he can already do this against the grown ups. Kakko hasn't splashed the headlines lately so there's clearly something coming very soon!
 
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I don't know if this has been discussed much here, but I've been wondering when will Kaapo switch to longer hockey stick? The current one is ridiculously short and I remember reading some article where it was mentioned that he had not done anything for it despite being recommended to use longer one.
 
Aleksis said:
I don't know if this has been discussed much here, but I've been wondering when will Kaapo switch to longer hockey stick? The current one is ridiculously short and I remember reading some article where it was mentioned that he had not done anything for it despite being recommended to use longer one.
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Seems to work OK for him, like it did and does for Malkin, Forsberg, Gretzky, Coffey, Kovalev, Hemsky... There are a ton of guys that have been great with a smaller stick.
 
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Mr Plow said:
Just curious but does he play on both wings as well? I was looking at Bob's preseason draft rankings tonight and I saw him listed as a LW which surprised me.
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I think he did last season when he played his first Liiga games, this season he has only played RW and center a little.
 
Jyssy said:
Did not, watching Kärpät-JYP.
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Basically the HPK defense and goalie screwed up, the puck bounced to middle and Kakko put it in the empty net.

And now he scores again...lol. I have to shit on him a bit more.

Also when i said that his line looked bad, i meant that they couldn't get out of their own zone and were not able to get possession. When Kakko gets to the offensive end he shines.
 
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Paul Maurice said:
Basically the HPK defense and goalie screwed up, the puck bounced to middle and Kakko put it in the empty net.

And now he scores again...lol. I have to **** on him a bit more.

Also when i said that his line looked bad, i meant that they couldn't get out of their own zone and were not able to get possession. When Kakko gets to the offensive end he shines.
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Keep going lmao. Hat trick hopefully !
 
Damn hatty wasn't far away. Had a terrific game and most importantly he did it while playing center. The fourth goal was on him as well with that long toss to the opposing zone, even if the defender completely fked it up. Think a little later he set Suoranta up from the end wall to the front net but of course the guy couldn't capitalize. As was pointed out earlier his line mates aren't anything particularly special but that didn't stop Kakko. Don't know why he wasn't used at the end when they had two goal lead and empty net ahead. Guess that's just the usual "only the vets play the last minutes" @ FEL thing.

If he keeps playing like this maybe PPG isn't out of reach. That would be a new mile stone for the D eligible kids in the future. It's a long and rocky road though and would need him to push on the next gear. No matter whatever the f**k happens, oh boy does that country's C depth start looking good these day.

Go Kakko gogo!
 
Kaapo has 9 goals, 20 points in 27 games so far with TPS this season. That's a 0.74 PPG pace, higher than Laine's 0.72 PPG pace during his draft season.

Laine had a 0.37 goals-per-game pace with 17 goals in 46 games. Kakko is at a 0.33 goals-per-game pace right now with 9 goals in 27 games, a pace of 15 goals in 46 games.

Kakko is a more complete player than Laine -- a much more varied skill set. He's been doing really well in Liiga.
 
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Blade Paradigm said:
Kaapo has 9 goals, 20 points in 27 games so far with TPS this season. That's a 0.74 PPG pace, higher than Laine's 0.72 PPG pace during his draft season.

Laine had a 0.37 goals-per-game pace with 17 goals in 46 games. Kakko is at a 0.33 goals-per-game pace right now with 9 goals in 27 games, a pace of 15 goals in 46 games.

Kakko is a more complete player than Laine -- a much more varied skill set. He's been doing really well in Liiga.
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I’d say that his stats don’t even show the whole truth, the kid is top 2 player for his team every single night.
 
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