WJC: Team Finland 2018 U20 WJC Roster Talk

MatthewFlames

Registered User
Jul 21, 2003
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'Murica
The biggest dissapointment for me so far has been the coach Ahokas though. The players he left out (Kotkaniemi, Nyman, Somppi and E.Räsänen first of all), is just plain stupidity. It seems that Ahokas is a much more conservative coach than I thought he would be, which doesn’t really promise a very good result for Finland in this tournament.

Also left out Talvitie, who is gritty and competitive, something which this team lacks at the moment, and is a true C, who could provide balance in the top 6. He's having a good season and performs well at International tournaments. To me, that's another disappointment from the coaches.

I wonder which guy should be the centerman on that 2nd line, Heponiemi or Kuokkanen? Neither of the two gentlemen has been anything special as a center in this tournament...

Talvitie... oh wait...
 

behemolari

Registered User
Dec 1, 2011
6,058
2,581
I actually thought that Innala was pretty good in this game. His speed along the boards through the neutral zone really helped Finland's transition game tonight.



Koppanen has been surprisingly good in this tournament. Not a fancy player, but does many things right. Needs to get faster though, to become more effective at higher levels.

I think Koppanen should be promoted to 1C at this point, not kidding
 

kunekune

Registered User
Feb 17, 2016
2,076
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Why in the hell is Ahokas coaching this team?

Repeat last year and sack the coach.
 

DieTomi

Auston "50 Goals" Matthews
Aug 4, 2017
612
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Hamilton
upload_2017-12-31_15-48-30.png

Heiskanen and Valimaki with an awful showing
 

ChicagoBullsFan

Registered User
Jun 6, 2015
6,155
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Finland
No matter the final score in Tueday's game.
Ahokas was wrong selection to U20 head coach and he should be resign after the tournament.

I think it's time to try Canadian or American head coach in Finland's U20 team.
We have to fix all those issues what he had adjusting with North American ice surface.
And north american coach is best option to do those fixes.
 
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FiLe

Mr. Know-It-Nothing
Oct 9, 2009
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1,367
I'm not going to say this or that to whether Ahokas should get sacked or no. (Realistically, that probably won't happen unless the QF is a complete blowout.) But I'm going to say it's hilariously sad that people still don't realize how unique and opportunistic the circumstances were that led to Rautakorpi's sacking mid-tournament, and now expect it could just happen anywhere, anytime, just like that.

For the umpteenth time, Rautakorpi wouldn't have been sacked if there hadn't been a perfect replacement right at hand. Sadly, it's not every year when we have a coach whom Liitto already has under contract, who already knows most of the players - and who conveniently happens to be hanging around at the venue as it is.
 
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FiLe

Mr. Know-It-Nothing
Oct 9, 2009
6,996
1,367
I think it's time to try Canadian or American head coach in Finland's U20 team.
We have to fix all those issues what he had adjusting with North American ice surface.
And north american coach is best option to do those fixes.
No, he wouldn't be. If you want to know why, youtube "Puljujärvi interview".

And Jesse wasn't, isn't, and won't be an unique case. There are few like him in every U20 squad. And that's why they won't hire a junior coach who doesn't speak Finnish.
 

ChicagoBullsFan

Registered User
Jun 6, 2015
6,155
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Finland
No, he wouldn't be. If you want to know why, youtube "Puljujärvi interview".

And Jesse wasn't, isn't, and won't be an unique case. There are few like him in every U20 squad. And that's why they won't hire a junior coach who doesn't speak Finnish.

Mr expert is good and tells his own recipe to fix Finland adjusting problems on North American ice.
Our junior coaches do not have information or any clue on that what playing in smaller ice requires.
And SM liiga's management staff are too stupid peoples to realize bring smaller rinks in liiga.
 
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Mick Riddleton

“A day without sunshine is like, you know, night.”
Apr 24, 2017
14,181
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Niagara
I would go with Koppanen at 2C. Räsänen will do a great job balancing out the first line with Vesalainen & Tolvanen.
I agree, while he is not overly fast, he covers a lot of ice being so tall, its deceiving. He is a safe centre, plays the goalie side of the puck and body and can create turnovers. rarely makes mistakes, maybe he is a 3rd line centre and a good PK guy
 

FiLe

Mr. Know-It-Nothing
Oct 9, 2009
6,996
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Mr expert is good and tells his own recipe to fix Finland adjusting problems on North American ice.
Our junior coaches do not have information or any clue on that what playing in smaller ice requires.
And SM liiga's management staff are too stupid peoples to realize bring smaller rinks in liiga.
I see it whistled right past your head what I was trying to say. Fine, in plainer words then: We have too many junior aged players who are highly skilled at hockey, but don't know enough English (yet) to understand the instructions a foreign coach would give them. So the problem is not an NA coach not knowing what to do, the problem would be him getting his message across. The result would be the same, however - he wouldn't be as effective as you imagine.

Of course, that can partly be circumvented in situations like practice where you can have an assistant translating to those whose understanding of English is Pulju-level (or what it was in 2016), but there's obviously no time for that when it's actual gametime. So being fluent in Finnish is going to be one requirement for our junior coaches at least for some time still.

Well, there have been a few exceptions, like Jortikka, who only speaks Turku.

---

In other news, looks like we'll be playing the Czechs in the QF. I'm not going to call it a cakewalk, but they're fully beatable. Definitely the most agreeable opponent of those available. Especially now when our offensive heavy hitters seem to be finding their sea legs. So after all the [female dog]ing and moaning some of you are so fond of, we've arrived at pretty much where we expected to be.

Looking forward though, if we do clear that hurdle, we're going to be massive underdogs in the probable SF vs. Canada.
 
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1OApick

Registered User
Jun 29, 2016
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Kupari looked a lot better C than W. I Ikonen is our worst player. Also Heiskanen was bad last night. Heponiemi should be better.
 

Asiantuntija

C.Ronaldo > L.Messi
Nov 4, 2016
2,211
376
We must change goalie for next game or we can forget the title, it can't be worse than Luukkonen.
 

Hockeyisl1fe

Registered User
Dec 8, 2016
2,368
793
Also left out Talvitie, who is gritty and competitive, something which this team lacks at the moment, and is a true C, who could provide balance in the top 6. He's having a good season and performs well at International tournaments. To me, that's another disappointment from the coaches.



Talvitie... oh wait...
Talvitie? I don't know, he would've been a 4th liner at best. I'm more confused about cutting Luostarinen.
 

Hockeyisl1fe

Registered User
Dec 8, 2016
2,368
793
We must change goalie for next game or we can forget the title, it can't be worse than Luukkonen.
Just stop posting in here, please. You are probably the most clueless poster here, do you really think Lehtinen/Halonen are upgrades to him? Change your name too, it doesn't fit.
 

Hockeyisl1fe

Registered User
Dec 8, 2016
2,368
793
And I understand constructive criticism, but I hope all the posters here who constantly just bash this team won't be celebrating if we manage to succeed in this tournament after all.
 
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Asiantuntija

C.Ronaldo > L.Messi
Nov 4, 2016
2,211
376
Just stop posting in here, please. You are probably the most clueless poster here, do you really think Lehtinen/Halonen are upgrades to him? Change your name too, it doesn't fit.

It seems to be like someone has hangover from NY. Both could be better options & it's worth of try because Luukkonen has been absolutely terrible whole competition. He gives easy rebounds and is simply too slow to catch the pucks. Not a winning goalkeeper at all, reminds me about Mason with those rebounds. Ever heard about ignore button?
 

Ippenator

Registered User
Jan 6, 2016
5,667
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It seems to be like someone has hangover from NY. Both could be better options & it's worth of try because Luukkonen has been absolutely terrible whole competition. He gives easy rebounds and is simply too slow to catch the pucks. Not a winning goalkeeper at all, reminds me about Mason with those rebounds. Ever heard about ignore button?
Luukkonen has been absolutely fine. For sure those two other goalies would not at least be any better than him.

Finland’s problems have been completely related with coaching and deployment problems as well as too many mediocre or even bad forward performances. It is completely clueless to start blaming our goalie in this situation.
 
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1OApick

Registered User
Jun 29, 2016
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746
Luukkonen has been absolutely fine. For sure those two other goalies would not at least be any better than him.

Finland’s problems have been completely related with coaching and deployment problems as well as too many mediocre or even bad forward performances. It is completely clueless to start blaming our goalie in this situation.
Yeah cant see why everyone is bashing Luukkonen he is fine. He could have played better but he is our 1st goalie.
 

FiLe

Mr. Know-It-Nothing
Oct 9, 2009
6,996
1,367
UPL has let in a couple he'd no doubt want back, but most of the goals Finland has allowed have been direct results of skaters' defensive lapses.

Before anyone starts disparaging our supposedly elite defense, let it be said that our d-men have been perfectly fine mano-a-mano. In one-on-one situations they've very consistently managed to eliminate the threat posed by the sole opposing forward. But whenever our opponents have got man-advantage charges, three-on-threes or even two-on-twos, there's been a surprising amount of bad positioning. It appears that our management has at least partially failed in organizing our patterns in two-way play.
 

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