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WJC: Team Finland 2018 U20 WJC Roster Talk

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Based on last game:

Vesalainen-Kuokkanen-Tolvanen
Koivula-Räsänen-Heponiemi
Innala-Ikonen-Kupari
Nurmi-Koppanen-Tuulola
Jääskä

Välimäki-Heiskanen
Juolevi-Jokiharju
Vaakanainen-Kotkansalo
Salo

Luukkonen(Halonen)
 
21 skaters, one still needs to be cut.

And hoo boy, Turkulainen got cut. Poostorm incoming in 3...2...1...

Luostarinen getting cut surprised me a bit too, given the centre situation. Of course, between Kuokkanen, Räsänen, Ikonen, Koppanen and Kupari, there's still the regular amount.
 
I am a little disappointed that Turkulainen got cut. I would have picked him over Jääskä, Innala or Kupari for sure.
 
Boxscore against Czech Republic

1-0 Koppanen
1-1 Kaut (Necas, Galvas) PP
1-2 Zachar
2-2 Kuokkanen (Tuulola, Kotkansalo)
3-2 Innala (Ikonen, Kupari)
4-2 Tolvanen (Kuokkanen, Jokiharju) PP

Saves: Korenar 36, Luukkonen 13
 
Vesalainen is a bull. He's the perfect third wheel on that first line, creating time and space for Tolvanen and Kuokkanen as well as retrieving pucks for them. Something Heponiemi might not be able to do. I don't know where this misconception of Kristian's bad skating and low hockey IQ is coming from. And I have high hopes for that second line also; Räsänen being a rather very cerebral center with excellent defensive abilities and Koivula is still a skilled player. He's just playing in a crappy team in Liiga. Him and Hepo might be a surprisingly dynamic duo!
 
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Ahokas isn't very good at math, Heponiemi (best passer in tournament)+Tolvanen (best scorer in tournament)=more goals, worth trying?
 
At least the internal roling of that first unit is very clear - it's the traditional sniper-playmaker-power forward combo. Easy to see what Ahokas is thinking here.

While having an additional playmaker in Heponiemi instead of Vesalainen would by no means be an odd sight either, right now it's got three highly skilled players whose attributes should complement each other nicely.
 
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Vesalainen-Kuokkanen-Tolvanen
Heponiemi-A.Räsänen-Koivula
Innala-Ikonen-Kupari
Nurmi-Koppanen-Tuulola
Jääskä

Heiskanen-Välimäki
Juolevi-Jokiharju
Vaakanainen-Kotkansalo
Salo-E.Räsänen

Luukkonen
Lehtinen
Halonen
 
The guys at Jatkoaika are saying that Ahokas is on tape saying Turkulainen needed to crack the top-6 in order to make the team. He apparently didn't want Jerry in the bottom-6, because he doesn't play PK for JYP.

This really goes to show how old school Ahokas is as a coach -- he seems to be one of those guys, who still believes in a strict top-6/bottom-6 division, instead of more modern systems that roll three or four scoring lines. If that team has problems with scoring, people are going to take a look at all those omissions (Turkulainen, Kotkaniemi, Somppi, etc.) and call for his head.
 
Eight defenders when you're absolutely stacked in the blueline? I wonder what's the reason behind that. Sure injuries happen, but we're talking about 1,5 weeks' tournament, not to mention, it's more likely that a forward gets injured based solely on numbers. When you have a clear #1D in the team surrounded by others who could handle the task (like Juolevi for instance who already played the part in the gold winning team), one would think there's less need for defencemen. Meaning you would probably want to play Heiskanen as much as possible anyway. As for forwards I'd rather run three scoring lines instead of two, which seems to be how the modern hockey is trending. But yeah, this sheds light on why Somppi, Kotkaniemi and Turkulainen were either never in the plans or got dropped out in the last cut. Oh well, at least Kupari made it.
 
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I'm not particularly surprised to see Turkulainen being left out of the team. Tiny finesse players quite often struggle to make a difference at World Juniors, just think about last year and how insignificant Petrus Palmu was despite performing very well in the OHL.

It's necessary to have some bottom-6 forwards that perform well in short handed situations, so that the team can spread the workload in a tight schedule like the World Juniors. It's worth noting that Turkulainen doesn't have much experience from playing on the penalty kill if we look at the recent history. Last season Turkulainen played 48 regular season games in Liiga and received 61 seconds of ice time during short handed situations. This season Turkulainen has played 29 regular season games in Liiga and has recieved 43 seconds of ice time during short handed situations.

Another thing that came to mind is that Turkulainen has only 1 point from his last 9 Liiga games, he isn't necessarily the hottest player right now. Admittedly he's done better in Champions Hockey League, but nonetheless he hasn't been the most consistent offensive producer as of late.
 
If You look at the 2 games, the five firstrounders of defence has +1 together and the 3 others has +8.
 
So who is going to play PK? Ahokas wanted a strong role players but forgot to take a penalty killer for the second unit? Koppanen-Nurmi and Räsänen-?? Innala? Jääskä is a good PKer but don't see a role for him 5vs5. Ikonen, Vesalainen and Kuokkanen are other options.
 
Tormentor said:
I'm not particularly surprised to see Turkulainen being left out of the team. Tiny finesse players quite often struggle to make a difference at World Juniors, just think about last year and how insignificant Petrus Palmu was despite performing very well in the OHL.

It's necessary to have some bottom-6 forwards that perform well in short handed situations, so that the team can spread the workload in a tight schedule like the World Juniors. It's worth noting that Turkulainen doesn't have much experience from playing on the penalty kill if we look at the recent history. Last season Turkulainen played 48 regular season games in Liiga and received 61 seconds of ice time during short handed situations. This season Turkulainen has played 29 regular season games in Liiga and has recieved 43 seconds of ice time during short handed situations.

Another thing that came to mind is that Turkulainen has only 1 point from his last 9 Liiga games, he isn't necessarily the hottest player right now. Admittedly he's done better in Champions Hockey League, but nonetheless he hasn't been the most consistent offensive producer as of late.
Click to expand...

Turkulainen is 10 times better skater(would have probably been the best skater in Finnish team) in pretty much every way than Palmu which is crucial difference in small ice. Can't remember last time when a guy like Turkulainen (JYP's leading scorer in Champions hockey league, playing absolutely great two-way hockey in Liiga) has been dropped. Hopefully Ahokas knows what he's doing leaving potential game changing froward out of the team.
 
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