GDT: Quarter-final • Jan. 2 • Finland 8, Slovakia 5

[Nordic*]

Didn't Sweden score 9 goals on Slovakia? I was drunk so I din't remember, but it was 8-10 goals?

Finland should beat them with relative ease.



Unfortunately.

 

[WayneBruce]

I hope Finland wins this, and I think they will get an easier win than expected.

 

[slovakiasnextone]

Didn't Sweden score 9 goals on Slovakia? I was drunk so I din't remember, but it was 8-10 goals?

Finland should beat them with relative ease.



Unfortunately.

LOL, gotta love this kind of logic. Well, yeah, Slovakia lost to the Swedes 1-9, but oh do you remember that the Swiss tied the Swedes in regulation? So by your logic the Swiss should have beaten Slovakia with relative ease, shouldn´t they have? Oh wait, but they didn´t.....I´m not saying that this game won´t be a blowout, because it is possible, but Slovakia´s play/result in a meaningless preliminary round game against Sweden has nothing to do with it...

 

[Nash]

My only prediction is that Finnish players will repeatedly tap their sticks on the ice calling for passes every couple of minutes. I've never seen a team do this as much as this squad. I was taught to only do that when you are wide open. I've just found this particular habit of the Finnish team very odd.

 

[FiLe]

LOL, gotta love this kind of logic. Well, yeah, Slovakia lost to the Swedes 1-9, but oh do you remember that the Swiss tied the Swedes in regulation? So by your logic the Swiss should have beaten Slovakia with relative ease, shouldn´t they have? Oh wait, but they didn´t.....I´m not saying that this game won´t be a blowout, because it is possible, but Slovakia´s play/result in a meaningless preliminary round game against Sweden has nothing to do with it...

I'll never get it over me for defending a damn Swede (j/k!), but I think the point here is that Slovakia hasn't exactly been the most effective team in keeping their own net clean, no matter whether they win or lose. It was never about "X beat Y so Z should have done so too", but "Y's been letting in n amount of goals overall of which game against X is just one example".

Unless Finland totally collapses (again, they keep telling me), it's hard to see them allowing five or more goals in one game. Anything below that is something you see in hockey nearly every night, but in order to win, especially against a team that does have better record in every department, you need to start by patching up your own end. If the Slovaks can do this, then they have a fair shot at winning and certainly deserve it if they do in the end.

My only prediction is that Finnish players will repeatedly tap their sticks on the ice calling for passes every couple of minutes. I've never seen a team do this as much as this squad. I was taught to only do that when you are wide open. I've just found this particular habit of the Finnish team very odd.

I haven't noticed nearly all of the Finnish players doing that, but there have been one or two who seem to love doing this (I'm looking at you, Joonas Donskoi) quite extensively, which might warp the perception a bit.

 

[thomast]

3-1 Finland

 

[QnebO]

My only prediction is that Finnish players will repeatedly tap their sticks on the ice calling for passes every couple of minutes. I've never seen a team do this as much as this squad. I was taught to only do that when you are wide open. I've just found this particular habit of the Finnish team very odd.

I learned to do it when opponent has the puck and you're on hes blind sind, positioned on logical position for opponents player to be... Maybe they've been just trying "old timer" for opponents. That probably wont work in this level, but at beer hockey you get the puck sometimes

 

[Emppu]

5-0 Finland (3A Mi.Granlund, 1G1A Salomäki)

 

[Vasilevskiy]

Finland should win this one

 

[Jyssy]

I predict a very similar game than against the Czechs with slovaks having fewer scoring chances. Aittokallio with a shutout, Finland wins 4,5-0.

 

[slovakiasnextone]

I'll never get it over me for defending a damn Swede (j/k!), but I think the point here is that Slovakia hasn't exactly been the most effective team in keeping their own net clean, no matter whether they win or lose. It was never about "X beat Y so Z should have done so too", but "Y's been letting in n amount of goals overall of which game against X is just one example".

Unless Finland totally collapses (again, they keep telling me), it's hard to see them allowing five or more goals in one game. Anything below that is something you see in hockey nearly every night, but in order to win, especially against a team that does have better record in every department, you need to start by patching up your own end. If the Slovaks can do this, then they have a fair shot at winning and certainly deserve it if they do in the end.

I haven't noticed nearly all of the Finnish players doing that, but there have been one or two who seem to love doing this (I'm looking at you, Joonas Donskoi) quite extensively, which might warp the perception a bit.

Your point is right, but that´s not what Nordic´s post said, his post nowhere says that Slovakia has had problems with letting too many goals as you say, his post mentions the one and only game against Sweden and he bases his assumption of Finland winning this game easily solely on that (Since he doesn´t even seem to know how exactly his own teams´ game against SVK finished, I have some doubts about him knowing the exact scores of out other games). "Didn't Sweden score 9 goals on Slovakia? I was drunk so I din't remember, but it was 8-10 goals?

Finland should beat them with relative ease." Where does this mention that Slovakia had not been the best team in keeping their net clean overall in the tourney? Nowhere. But my point is that what they did before doesn´t really matter it´s in the past. The fact also is that before the Switzerland game the Slovak team had only scored 5 goals in 3 games (and 3 of them against Latvia, one of those 3 being an ENG), but in the Switzerland game they scored 6 goals. So who knows maybe this game against Finland will be the one where they let in less than 3 goals, the fact that they have let 17 in their previous 4 games has as little influence on today´s game as the fact that they only scored 5 in 3 games before the Switzerland game.

Also, he pointed the Sweden game, which was the one that Slovakia had the least to play for in the preliminary round, so I´d expect that the coaches/players would put much more effort into a play-off game than they did into a meaningless preliminary game (which was played a day before the Game No.1 for us against the Swiss), for example I doubt the coach will start the back-up in tonight´s game or double shift our 4th line at any point of time in this game.

 

[Jussi]

My only prediction is that Finnish players will repeatedly tap their sticks on the ice calling for passes every couple of minutes. I've never seen a team do this as much as this squad. I was taught to only do that when you are wide open. I've just found this particular habit of the Finnish team very odd.

That's mostly Donskoi, apparently he always does that (even in SM-liiga) to indicate his position to his linemates. He's not even calling for a pass when he does that.

 

[Jere26]

Same thing I said before the Czech match can probably be applied to this game: Slovaks should stay out of the box in order to have a good chance at winning this hockey game. Finns stay at bottom with the fewest minor penalty minutes of all teams (only 24PIM after 4 games, very disciplined), Slovaks nearly twice as many, but not to the extent of the Czechs. This could be a close one, for Sweden's joy.

 

[FiLe]

Your point is right, but that´s not what Nordic´s post said, his post nowhere says that Slovakia has had problems with letting too many goals as you say, his post mentions the one and only game against Sweden and he bases his assumption of Finland winning this game easily solely on that

If you look at that single post alone, it is hard to see it as anything else than a Swedish fan gloating over a Swedish blowout, I'll grant you that. But placed in the context of the posts made in this thread just before this one - well, while the gloating aspect certainly is still there, it also does back up those earlier notions. Does he really need to repeat the thing that has been said pretty elaborately in just a post or two before?

Finland should beat them with relative ease." Where does this mention that Slovakia had not been the best team in keeping their net clean overall in the tourney?

In the context, my friend, in the context. Besides, what else should he say? If you look at the setting going into this game, yes, Finland SHOULD win, easily. They're not Switzerland. They've got the hottest goalie in the tournament, a highly talented defense and loaded offense led by a guy who, by some accounts, is the best player not in the NHL. And they've not been playing bad either. Honestly, it would be a huge upset if Slovakia somehow managed to inch past them. Considering we should all know this already, do we really need to write this open every time we wish to express it?


Now, WILL they win it? That I can't say, and neither did Nordic. It's a single night of hockey, and anything can happen in a single night of hockey. Slovakia certainly brought their A game to the table versus Switzerland, but the odds are that even that won't do if Finland decides to bring their own. But if they don't, well... like I said, we'll just have to wait and see.

 

[Saku11]

I predict narrow win to Finland with Aittokallio saving their *****.

 

[hirawl]

We are at the stage in the tourney when the best of the best will really step up and show why they are considered such exceptional talents in their age group. Expecting a Mikael Granlund show tonight. 2+2 for Micke.

I can't wait! Let's go!

 

[IceHockeyDude]

Anyone wants to stream the game? Another option is to pay 7e for Katsomo.

 

[Zolik37]

Anyone wants to stream the game? Another option is to pay 7e for Katsomo.

I am pretty sure there will be a slovak stream for this game.

 

[IceHockeyDude]

I am pretty sure there will be a slovak stream for this game.

Okay, thats nice to hear.

Eventhough i don't speak a word of slovakian. It is a little bit like russian isnt it?

 

[FiLe]

Anyone wants to stream the game? Another option is to pay 7e for Katsomo.

Plenty of networks are apparently showing this, including TSN. I'm sure there'll be a stream or two.

 

[Jussi]

Plenty of networks are apparently showing this, including TSN. I'm sure there'll be a stream or two.

I just wonder how the Winter Classic moving to a later time will affect the broadcasts. I would assume Viasat Hockey will cover that game before this one? There's been plenty of good quality Viasat Hockey streams so far.

 

[slovakiasnextone]

Okay, thats nice to hear.

Eventhough i don't speak a word of slovakian. It is a little bit like russian isnt it?

If you actually end up watching the Slovak stream consider yourself very lucky that you don´t speak it But yeah it is similar to Russian being a fellow Slavic language, though Slovak is Western Slavic and Russian Eastern Slavic.

 

[OiledUp]

Should be a fairly easy victory for Finland, Slovakia should suit them well with their stay at home approach. The finnish team's weakness seems to be against hard forechecking teams, since the d corps is so so.

Still this is hockey so anything could ofc happen but Suomi are huge favourites imo.

 

[Spawnisen]

I don't think you guys haveto be worried baout finding a stream. I'm sure a few will pop up

 

[Loffer]

Easy win for Finland. Didn't they win 3-0 in a precompetition? Now they will double that, 6-0. Mikael Granlund 1+2, Pulkkinen 2+1, Armia 1+1, Salomäki 1+1, Ruuttu 1+0.