First pro steps made difficult for Rask

2005 draftee Tuukka Rask got the start in Ilves's tenth game of the season. The team's defense lines have leaked all season and HIFK got their game going against Ilves, burying 6 out of 44 shots. Two games later the team's starter Juha Pitkämäki was torn apart by the stars of Kärpät, who fortunately slowed down and settled with beating Rask once in the final period. In the following game Rask again entered the crease after the game had started and Tappara had beat Pitkämäki twice. Rask held the fort for a while but suffered four blows in the game. Against HPK Rask was finally properly prepared and supported, but the opposing snipers had too much talent to handle. Ilves lost a 3-2 lead in the third period and Rask was marked a fourth goal against in the shootout.

Thus far Rask has faced some 40 shots per 60 minutes in SM-Liiga. Fortunately he has played regularly in Junior A where he leads the league in save percentage, so he still gets a chance to perform consistently.

 

I see that Teemu Laakso has 6 points in 9 games in the juniors. Any word on if he could get a call up to HIFK's senior team?

 

Teething problems, next season Rask will carry Ilves to the SM-Liiga finals..
Would be cool if ilves had a great defense, then we could compare Rask now to Lehtonen then.. unfortunately, thats not the case.

 

Laakso's nagging injury (ankle?) kept him out of even the first regular season games. It took only a couple of games for him to re-adjust, off the top of my head he has tallied points in 4 or 5 of the last 5 or 6 games.

IFK has immense depth on defense, but now with Ville Varakas loaned to Pelicans and Ladislav Benysek often scratched due to exceeding the limit on foreign players, they may eventually have use for a call-up. Depending on what type of defenseman they need, they could also choose a physical force in Rami Hovinen, who is also a WJC candidate like Laakso.

It wouldn't surprise me if Laakso ended up entering the draft with zero pro experience.

 

Ankle, groin, knee, you name it. Didn't look good there for a while, but he's OK now.

And no, it wouldn't surprise me either.


BTW, sorry for bringing up such a relatively old post, just did a search on Laakso and replied to anything that I felt like replying to.