After he scored that first goal, yes a goal, all the friends were yelling about the SICK effort. Immediately after I saw it getting challenged and I thought how frigging bizarre cause from the initial look there didn't seem to be anything there to re-wind apart from the highlight. I fast-forwarded most of that slow motion feed (cause I thought it was 100% good goal) but from one angle I saw Palve close to the net with a defender between him and the goalkeeper. What actually turned out bizarre was that they overturned the goal which was as clean as any goal would be that involved net front presence. So instead of a sick individual goal we're left with a sick decision. Was so mad I didn't want to hear the official excuses. I suppose Palve may have had some insignificant contact with the keeper, but who knows. Nonetheless even his skates were off the blue ice and Kakko certainly wasn't obstructing anyone. I didn't care about some text-book details at that point anymore than I do now. HPK's coach doing backflips or whatever on the bench right after the decision was announced alone tells the story. Just an awful officiating, not only in that one goal but throughout the entire game. The level of incompetence still baffles me. This game wasn't HPK vs TPS but HPK & REFS vs TPS(/Kakko) with an outcome no better than any bad joke. Anyhow, Kakko skating around the net, twisting and turning in the corner, finding an opening and tearing his way from the wall to the net while being chased or poked by 2-4 players - pretty much the entire line - yet still scoring almost out of sheer will, will always remain his first "true" playoff goal for me. Just an unbelievable effort.
But yeah posters here are right, TPS is now all about Kakko and this particular D eligible kid has a world on his shoulders while carrying a professional team in a playoff race. The team's strategy isn't working, lines are as dysfunctional as they could ever come (aside from one) and all the key & veteran players who've been highly praised just sleeping and beyond terrible to watch. Palve scored one goal, but later on he royally messed up the only chance they had at the end when he was supposed to protect the empty net. This was right after Kakko had just scored his second and narrowed the lead to one goal (3-4) with maybe ~ the two minutes left in the clock while fighting to bring his team back. Instead of trying to do anything sensible, Palve just skated, parked and mispositioned him not between the puck/opponent, but somewhere else instead while practically paving the way for a sure goal (just the wrong one). Geez, it was like watching someone surrender to a thief who threatened with a plastic knife. Anyway this was maybe the best game I've ever seen Kakko play (there are so many that it's difficult to tell). HPK didn't have the tools to contain him and most of the times it seemed like he was just doing whatever he liked out there. Of course all the slashing, cross-checking if what not miraculously gets overlooked by the refs while they're too busy looking video tapes from his goals. HPK is one the worst teams in the playoffs so at least there's still hope.
I've said this before, but I wouldn't mind seeing Kakko in the WJHC. He'd be far too good for a U18 tournament but at the same time he'd be the best asset anyone could come up with as far as achieving the gold medal comes. The WHCs are the bigger deal and at this point I don't think no one is going to rob him off the ticket from that plane, not even if Finland got more enforcements from the NHL than they hoped for. He's just too good to be left out, not to mention the country probably going mad if he wasn't selected. Still, such a shame TPS turned out this way this year, I really would have enjoyed seeing them make past the quarter finals just to see more of the Kakko. Unfortunately the sun doesn't seem to be shining too bright as far as the entire team goes and right now that particular dream is slipping away.
Anyway I've never seen anything quite like this in FEL from player so young. The great thing about Kakko is that not only can he control the game and great scoring chances to his team mates, he can score himself in so many ways while having pretty insane creativity as far as the goal scoring itself comes. He doesn't shy away from contact at all. Quite the contrary, not only does he already possess the physique to engage defenders who are making a living playing hockey, but it's like he enjoys it. Then again if you could make grown up men look like amateurs while skating through, around, if not over them without losing the puck, who wouldn't? With that said, which ever the team it is that gets a ticket to draft him with an opportunity to complete Kakko's transitioning to center is going to be very very lucky. On the other hand should they take a pass with him, I think that decision would haunt them gravely for the next 10-15 years. If someone haven't seen a full game of him yet and thoroughly appreciated watching P. Forsberg in action back in the day, I would fully recommend watching one of the following games, all the sixty minutes of it.
And even with that scenario, he still would have plenty of rest before the Worlds. Laine played way more games during his draft year than Kakko.
