WJC: Team Finland 2018 U20 WJC Roster Talk

[BL92]

I really don't see what sacking Ahokas would achieve and hiring a NA coach isn't going to do miracles, on the contrary, I think it would take more than it would give. Finland struggling on small ice is simply due to the fact that our players aren't used to it.

Ahokas is fine for now and I have a hell of a lot more confidence in him than Rautakorpi. Let's just move on and send the Czech's home. I think Finland grew as a team in the last game.

 

[Razamanaz]

Short memory Finland ... oder was!?

A couple of years back Ahokas was Jesus Christ Superstar when he led Finland to the gold medal in U-18 - now he is suddenly Judas' Priest.

Remember; players play and coaches coach.
So he (Ahokas) can't hux flux jump onto the ice and make ... miracles.

I'ts up to the players out there to do it .

So step up Tolvanen, Kuokkanen, Vesalainen and the lot ... and that a lot!

For Christ sake.

Czech ain't unbeatable .

 

[Asiantuntija]

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.

Absolutely fine in my ass. He has been way too slow and totally lost his confidence at group games. It would be nice if he could turn it around, but at the moment his game is weak. We can continue to discuss about this after we see how he does against Czech Republic.

 

[Razamanaz]

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.

Spot on bro'.

It seems like some Finns needs a lifeline if it all goes to hell - even before the tournament is over and out!

Sweet Jesus ...

On the other hand/side the Swedes think it's all honky dory and they will win it easy like Abba did back in 1974 in Brighton ...

...even if they haven't played all that well over the whole tournament!

 

[Ippenator]

Short memory Finland ... oder was!?

A couple of years back Ahokas was Jesus Christ Superstar when he led Finland to the gold medal in U-18 - now he is suddenly Judas' Priest.

Remember; players play and coaches coach.
So he (Ahokas) can't hux flux jump onto the ice and make ... miracles.

I'ts up to the players out there to do it .

So step up Tolvanen, Kuokkanen, Vesalainen and the lot ... and that a lot!

For Christ sake.

Czech ain't unbeatable .

You are otherwise right, but unfortunately Ahokas made some pretty darn bad choices picking his team this year, and also his deployment has been questionable, very stiff and unreactive. But sure, I agree that the coaching is absolutely much better than it was under Rautakorpi last year.

 

[JustaFinnishGuy]

''You aren't a real fan if you bash the team''
The reason people bash their team is either them wanting the team to succeed and venting frustration or them being oblivious to the showings on the ice. Doubt Finns want to see Finland lose. It's just frustration and short-term thinking.

 

[Razamanaz]

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.

X-cuse me mister; but shut the crap up.

Finland has probably the best school-system in the world right about now - what it seems anyway.

Of course Finland hockey-players understand English, easy ... but they don't dare to speak it!

Lex Puljujärvi ... from now on.

 

[Razamanaz]

... and how come Finland posters have 14,000(!) more posts than the Swedes on this international HFboard if they are so freakin' bad at the English language?

Sweden have a population of over 10 million people ... Finland 5,7 or so.

Well; we maybe aren't so scared of makin' fools of ourselves by misspelling and crap like that ...

 

[kelsier]

Ha, I asked earlier what's going to happen if/when USA scores 5 goals against us and got the answer slammed right back at me. Even Tolvanen's great performance wasn't enough to save us.

Ahokas was the wrong choice as the head coach (if there ever even was any better candidates on the table) as he started a sequence of events leading up to where we are now. The team was badly built using/adapting old school methods while hoping they would somehow work in the NA rinks. Leaving out skill centers like Kotkaniemi and Somppi - when anyone could see that centering was going to be the weakest link from the get go - was the worst mistake in that design. Of course there was little reason to expect Kuokkanen to turnout such as disappointment considering he nearly made Carolina's opening roster and having the experience on his side. To turn out this useless that he hasn't been able to deliver anything at top six level in the WJC has nevertheless been a surprise. Ahokas made a few right calls with first being dropping Kuokkanen out of 1st line and second, promoting Kupari back in the lineup. Too bad Kupari didn't really have any offensively capable players to work with yesterday. Ahokas "compensated" those good calls with more bad calls with letting Kuokkanen on the ice when USA scored the last goal and leaving him on the ice when we desperately needed an equaliser. Just before the 5-4 goal with ~3mins on the clock I actually told my gf that if this guy is on the ice, we won't see overtime, which is exactly what happened. Think he lost his battle behind USA's goal and well, the rest is now history. Naturally you can't blame the failure on one player but I think he is just the pinnacle of the definition in our case. So far there hasn't been many who have delivered.

Of course the tournament isn't over yet but I wouldn't get my hopes up too high. The team Finland is living prove of having a commanding blueline means very little if your strategy and other pieces aren't in place. We've seen that whenever playing on the small ice, it would be beneficial to have some sort of advisers behind the bench/scenes working with the (Finnish) coach to overcome the small ice transition problems.

 

[Legend Leinonen]

The hyperbole here...

So, USA match ended up being a flip of the coin match, which Finnish team this time lost. Overall a good game then.

Despite the good performance against USA I still have a hunch this team won't go far. Luckily I've been wrong a-many-times.

 

[Hokinaittii]

Team has played better and improved in every game so far. Important goals yesterday for Tolvanen and Vesalainen. I see the potential of them surprising people when elimination rounds begin.

 

[CPFC]

Every match has been an improvement and hopefully it continues tomorrow. Although Finland is not going to beat the big boys with Luukkonen in net. He's giving up easy bounces and overplays the situations. Like the 4th US goal yesterday, for some reason he glided almost completely away from the net and then the puck bounced to the other side of the goal, giving the US player an easy tap in.

 

[FiLe]

... and how come Finland posters have 14,000(!) more posts than the Swedes on this international HFboard if they are so freakin' bad at the English language?

Sweden have a population of over 10 million people ... Finland 5,7 or so.

Well; we maybe aren't so scared of makin' fools of ourselves by misspelling and crap like that ...

This argument is like wondering why aren't there any standing urinals in the women's locker room.

In any case, the reason I cited is a very real one as to why they don't hire foreign coaches to helm the junior teams.

 

[Razamanaz]

Wow, I don't even have a reply to this.

But me thinx you're way wrong ... or drunk.

 

[Erikfromfin]

Gold medal is coming theres no hätä. Finns dominated against Slovaks and Danes, they finally got going vs usa and referees ruined canada game... beat Czech in quarters get revenge of Canada in semis and beat usa/russia/sweden in gold medal game... theres still so much untapped potential in this team, I have no doubt victory is coming

 

[HockeyHistorian]

There's a lot of untapped potential for sure, but the problem is in the tapping of said potential. However, I think they should be able to beat the Czechs.

Ikonen has been a disappointment. I wish Turkulainen was in the team.

 

[Razamanaz]

Gold medal is coming theres no hätä. Finns dominated against Slovaks and Danes, they finally got going vs usa and referees ruined canada game... beat Czech in quarters get revenge of Canada in semis and beat usa/russia/sweden in gold medal game... theres still so much untapped potential in this team, I have no doubt victory is coming

That's the the spirit ... no chicken shit what so ever (det är bara för Sverige, remember?) ... hakka päälle!.

Go on. Finland boys. Jesus ... och Satan 'ere we go against the Russians. Last time around.

https://www.sf.se/film/NCG228587/okand-soldat

 

[hirawl]

Cringe oh how I missed you. Every year the same sad story with the majority of the posts in the Finnish WJHC roster thread. Cringe all over.

 

[Razamanaz]

That's the the spirit ... no chicken **** what so ever (det är bara för Sverige, remember?) ... hakka päälle!.

Go on. Finland boys. Jesus ... och Satan 'ere we go against the Russians. Last time around.

https://www.sf.se/film/NCG228587/okand-soldat

... even if the Czech gonna pay the prize this time round.

 

[JustaFinnishGuy]

Cringe oh how I missed you. Every year the same sad story with the majority of the posts in the Finnish WJHC roster thread. Cringe all over.

Last year should have been all roses and participation medals.
I didn't participate in that presumed bloodbath but the criticism isn't unwarranted. Just because you win one year doesn't let you off the hook for several other bad finishes.

 

[Eternalize]

Spot on bro'.

It seems like some Finns needs a lifeline if it all goes to hell - even before the tournament is over and out!

Sweet Jesus ...

On the other hand/side the Swedes think it's all honky dory and they will win it easy like Abba did back in 1974 in Brighton ...

...even if they haven't played all that well over the whole tournament!

I have no idea what this is based on. If anything, North Americans seems to be the ones expecting Sweden to win. Haven't heard a single swede say that they're expecting gold. I definitely never did.

 

[BB88]

Our chance in this tourney is Tolvanen getting hot and having multi goal games. That's the hope, as well as Heiskanen transfering his dominating game to NA as quickly as possible.

We can't trust our goalies to steal us a game.

 

[Razamanaz]

I have no idea what this is based on. If anything, North Americans seems to be the ones expecting Sweden to win. Haven't heard a single swede say that they're expecting gold. I definitely never did.

Oh, boy then you haven't lived in Scandinavia bro'.

As a Finn living in Sweden that is uuurk! ... but we don't take lip easy!

 

[krutovsdonut]

you guys need to relax. the finnish team is not dominant but it is in the mix and good enough to beat any team in the tournament on a good night.

 

[Eternalize]

Oh, boy then you haven't lived in Scandinavia bro'.

As a Finn living in Sweden that is uuurk! ... but we don't take lip easy!

I live in Sweden though? And what does that have to do with anything? And this is about this specific WJC, not anything else that you might have heard.