Well. That was it then. And I'd say it's mostly on Jalonen. He got a bit too complacent here.
On one hand, it's hard to fault the man. He was simply doing what's worked so well over the last four years. Don't freak out after the first setback, but give it time and see if everything clicks.
Only it's a fine line between giving it time and giving it too much time. And now Jalonen stumbled over that line. He should have reacted sooner, seen how we could get more out of supposed heavy hitters.
Now, we had issues up and down the lineup, both with forwards and defense, so it's not like one should dump it all on the first line not clicking. But, regardless - despite all of his assists, the fact that Rantanen didn't pot a goal in the preliminary round should have been a big warning sign that he's not utilized properly. Jalonen ignored it, partly due to his belief that patience will prevail, partly because he was left with little choice. Our middle-six did start to click towards the tail end of the group stage, so breaking up those 2nd and 3rd lines in favor of the 1st might have led to diminishing rewards.
Perhaps he could also have picked some different names. There's no single individual forward we should call out, but man it was obvious that Anttila is past his due date. Also, he probably should have picked MaG and just use that well-baked unit - as it would have given him more options to try different between our NHLers. Again, it's hard to wonder if it wasn't due to complacency, as it would have caused a musical chairs effect down the lineup, putting some familiar in jeopardy.
Our defense was not up to speed either. Too slow, not enough puckmovers. This was, however, an issue that was baked in by the time the team was named. Again, could Jalonen have made different choices? About a week before the tournament began, he had Saarijärvi and Kemiläinen in the lineup, and probably a plan to add Vatanen. But then Saarijärvi got injured in camp, Vatanen in the Swiss league finals, and Kemiläinen simply sucked on the final EHT.
Finally, goalies. Again, I think Jalonen might have gotten a bit too complacent by giving his familiar Olkinuora a spot in the playing tandem after the season he had. When Olkinuora looked a bit shaky in the game vs. Germany and Larmi didn't exactly deliver a clinic against USA and Sweden, was there really no time to see what Heljanko might bring to the table? There is no saying that he would have been the savior between the pipes for sure, but now Jalonen never even gave him a chance.
So, to sum up - Jalonen made some pretty egregious mistakes, partly likely due to his own complacency, partly because of having some circumstantial setbacks. If there's a silver lining here, it's that Jalonen is a coach who's shown that he can learn from his mistakes. He will be behind the bench for one more year, so we might see a bit less complacent edition of him in what looks to be his farewell tournament.
One last thing, which is by no means the fault of the coaches or the players, but damn the atmosphere in Nokia Arena sucked hard. I was green with envy watching the Latvian fans rock the house in Riga. Somebody needs to smack the Liitto bigwigs, then play them a side-by-side recording of the audiences in Riga and Tampere. It's the effin' hockey capital of Finland, and the arena resembled a church at times. Un-freaking-acceptable.
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