WJC: Team Finland 2024 U20 WJC roster Talk.

[NyQuil]

Turned your tournament around from the early games where Perkele > Sisu.

Good luck in the bronze game!

 

[Jukurit]

Finland really missed Kemell in this tournament. Not much skill on this team. He would've been a huge addition.

 

[Statsy]

Finland really missed Kemell in this tournament. Not much skill on this team. He would've been a huge addition.

It's a game like this where having one more gamebreaker might just make the difference. It did for the US.

 

[bossram]

Ultimately just not enough talent on this year's squad, but they gave the USA quite a scare and played hard.

The pregame odds for this were like USA -300, which I thought was absolutely absurd.

 

[OKR]

When you consider the low talent level on this team, I think Mikkola has actually done a pretty good job so far.

I don’t even think the talent level was the real issue, just that the players didn’t perform even close their best level.

Nyman, Hämeenaho and Helenius were supposed to be key players, they all played poorly by their standards and yet they still made it to the semi-finals, had they played even close to their best ability they could’ve seriously challenge for the gold.

 

[ChicagoBullsFan]

Well... Helenius, Kiviharju and Väisänen are one year older next year. Just like Vali, Vinni, Halttunen, Kangas, Pieniemi, Kumpulainen and Hemming.
The talent level could actually be a bit higher with better defense. Hope one of these goalies can become even better.
Halttunen with Helenius, Hemming and Kiviharju on PP could be lethal next year. Let's hope!

Perhaps even Aatos Koivu, Suoniemi, Nurmi, Hynninen, Alasiurua, Vesterinen, Rautiainen, Kiiskinen, Leppä, Miettinen etc.

Also Tuomas Uronen is eligible to play next year's U20 WJC's.

It's a game like this where having one more gamebreaker might just make the difference. It did for the US.

You cannot create a chocolate-candy on utter shit powerplay and skill level
no matter how much you try. Paskasta ei saa konvehtia as we Finns say.

 

[SantosHalper]

Great game and great tournament. Mikkola deserves a lot of credit and deserved his new contract. More than mediocre age class and still reach the medal round. We can be proud of this result.

But the Finnish hockey association and Liiga orgs should start investing skating coaches. 2nd period was a perfect example, USA picked up a gear and we were left behind. Our team game and effort been once again great, just think how better we would be with skating.

 

[Ace Card Bedard]

Finland played a tough, hard-backchecking style and it nearly got them to the gold medal game.
Kokko played great too.

Go get that bronze!

 

[Jukurit]

just think how better we would be with skating.

Finland with better skating players would be unstoppable!

 

[IceHockeyDude]

Bronze would be cool.

 

[LOFIN]

Probably should reconsider hiring these coaches from Kärpät, especially the ones that have failed miserably.

 

[Svedu]

Mikkola should actually get fired now. Can't take Liitto seriously one bit. This is an epic meltdown, no matter if it's about the bronze or the gold. I actually blame the coaches. To lose the last period in the tournament with 5 goals is unacceptable.

V*ttu, täys sysipaska.

And Kokko, I wish you the best in your career but you were nothing but utter Kakka in this tournament.

 

[wenkmen82]

After this loss muss be Mikkola immediatelly fired. We have better player as Czech team, but passivity in both games (US, CZECH) lost us both games, mainly with Czech team... Our power play in this game is ridicule, although we have top scorers in squad. This team deserves better couching!!!!

I hoped, that these kind of loses is history for finnish hockey, but now rises old memories.

 

[FinPanda]

The coach responsible for our special teams should be fired. What an atrocious penalty killing.. I can blame the players but imo this is more on coaching than on the boys. Very disappointing.

 

[Svedu]

I hope this motivates Konsta even more and these other younger lions who can comeback once and twice. Lesson learned and bring some more fire and work on your skating guys. I believe Konsta has the potential to bring us one needed gold in these two next coming years.

But, have to say I prefer a new coach next year.

 

[Mestaruus]

I as well would like to see some other head coach next year, but we'll have to watch him coach again. I don't know if J.Jokinen and Kuhta did much there either. At least Mikkola could change the assistant coaches, so we could have some hope next year, although Mikkola himself is probably the main reason for the bad coaching.

Who decided to extend Mikkola's contract anyway? It sounded like a questionable decision during the moment it was announced already, but it looks like a very bad decision right now. It was decided a bit too soon. Even Raipe Helminen to me looks like a better U20 head coach compared to Mikkola.

The #1 goalie choice has been wrong. We had Vali with 2-0 record and Kokko who now has 1-4. One of Vali's wins was against Sweden and that for me was the biggest achievement of the tournament for team Finland. The game was rather meaningless in terms of group positions, but Sweden gave their full 100% in that game in my opinion. Slovakia win was the other positive single game result. Slovakia had a good team, but we probably made them look slightly better than they are.

Only positive thing was the even strength play, but that's about it. With that PK and PP, we don't deserve to medal. We are lucky we got to be 4th, but the potential with better special teams would've been all the way to the gold. That for me is a coaching issue, when both PK and PP are awful.

 

[ChicagoBullsFan]

Finland played a tough, hard-backchecking style and it nearly got them to the gold medal game.
Kokko played great too.

Go get that bronze!

Kokko was a f***ing total sieve today who couldn't catch nothing.
But our cheese defence and bozo filled coaching staff didn't help Kokko's job either.

If Mikkola remains U20 head coach as rumored next year.
I will start cheer teams who plays against Finland and
i'll do that only because i hate Lauri Mikkola so badly.

Hopefully that idiot won't ever coach my SM liiga team ( HIFK )
and if he does i will start cheer for Jokerit or Kiekko-Espoo if Lauri Mikkola ever shows up to HIFK,

 

[Mestaruus]

I hope this motivates Konsta even more and these other younger lions who can comeback once and twice. Lesson learned and bring some more fire and work on your skating guys. I believe Konsta has the potential to bring us one needed gold in these two next coming years.

But, have to say I prefer a new coach next year.

Hopefully they are able to fix this in the next U18 home tournament. If they take the gold, I'll be able to forget what happened in this tournament.

 

[ChicagoBullsFan]

After this loss muss be Mikkola immediatelly fired. We have better player as Czech team, but passivity in both games (US, CZECH) lost us both games, mainly with Czech team... Our power play in this game is ridicule, although we have top scorers in squad. This team deserves better couching!!!!

I hoped, that these kind of loses is history for finnish hockey, but now rises old memories.

If i was you i wouldn't hold my breath to wait any changes in Finnish hockey.

Rumors are telling that our hockey association
and it's kiss my ass sauna club who's both run by arrogant and cocky idiots
are already decided to extend that brain-dead bozo Mikkola to remain U20 head coach next 2 years.

f***ing bravo and hooray goddammit.

 

[FiLe]

Well, that was... one of the most inept single-period coaching performances I've seen in a while. And I've seen some.

Junior hockey is volatile, and can sometimes catch even a seasoned coach with his pants around his ankles, but it should never be THIS volatile and the coach should never have to look THIS down for his pants.

When they announced Mikkola, I wrote, "I have a problem with Mikkola being named head coach. But I have an even bigger problem with the fact that I can't think of any better names available for the job." I stick by those words.

Sure, it's easy to list names of coaches who were without a day job at the time, but that's different from those coaches being available and interested. Even more so if we are to consider coaches willing to stay on for more than one tournament.

Ya see, this has been a problem for Liitto for a while. They're sick and tired of recruiting a U20 coach, getting five months of effective performance out of them, and then watching that coach run away for greener pastures. Over the last 15 years, they've got more than one tournament out of two coaches - Jussi Ahokas and Antti Pennanen.

The final straw was Kari Jalonen leaving before he even started in the job. Sure, being offered the post of the head coach of an elite country is an opportunity that doesn't come by every day, so Liitto let him go, but they were not happy about it. To add insult to injury, when they scrambled to find Tomi Lämsä to replace him, they were hoping for a coach who might stick around, but he said "kthxbye" after just one tournament as well.

So, this is how we got Mikkola. They deliberately went looking for a coach who would hopefully be competent enough, but who wouldn't be offered better gigs at the first sight of success. It was less about him being a sauna buddy and more like him being a "suitable body".

I honestly don't blame Liitto for wanting a longer-term coach. But perhaps they should now be looking into making the post more enticing for a reasonably competent coach rather than taking a flier on someone who isn't high on other parties' recruitment lists.

It will be interesting to see what they're going to do with Mikkola. So far, his extension has only been reported by the yellow press - they haven't officially announced it yet. So, do they follow through with an official announcement with this little disaster still in fresh memory, or is it - once again - back to square one for them? Guess we'll know in the coming weeks.

 

[Mestaruus]

Well, that was... one of the most inept single-period coaching performances I've seen in a while. And I've seen some.

Junior hockey is volatile, and can sometimes catch even a season coach with his pants around his ankles, but it should never be THIS volatile and the coach should never have to look THIS down for his pants.

When they announced Mikkola, I wrote, "I have a problem with Mikkola being named head coach. But I have an even bigger problem with the fact that I can't think of any better names available for the job." I stick by those words.

Sure, it's easy to list names of coaches who were without a day job at the time, but that's different from those coaches being available and interested. Even more so if we are to consider coaches willing to stay on for more than one tournament.

Ya see, this has been a problem for Liitto for a while. They're sick and tired of recruiting a U20 coach, getting five months of effective performance out of them, and then watching that coach run away for greener pastures. Over the last 15 years, they've got more than one tournament out of two coaches - Jussi Ahokas and Antti Pennanen.

The final straw was Kari Jalonen leaving before he even started in the job. Sure, being offered the post of the head coach of an elite country is an opportunity that doesn't come by every day, so Liitto let him go, but they were not happy about it. To add insult to injury, when they scrambled to find Tomi Lämsä to replace him, they were hoping for a coach who might stick around, but he said "kthxbye" after just one tournament as well.

So, this is how we got Mikkola. They deliberately went looking for a coach who would hopefully be competent enough, but who wouldn't be offered better gigs at the first sight of success. It was less about him being a sauna buddy and more like him being a "suitable body".

I honestly don't blame Liitto for wanting a longer-term coach. But perhaps they should now be looking into making the post more enticing for a reasonably competent coach rather than taking a flier on someone who isn't high on other parties' recruitment lists.

It will be interesting to see what they're going to do with Mikkola. So far, his extension has only been reported by the yellow press - they haven't officially announced it yet. So, do they follow through with an official announcement with this little disaster still in fresh memory, or is it - once again - back to square one for them? Guess we'll know in the coming weeks.

A good view on things there. I wasn't personally aware that extending his contract isn't official yet. Hopefully the deciders still change their minds on who to hire. I hope that they give a chance for some head coach coaching in Finnish A-juniors league rather. Gambling on one of those, isn't such a big worry compared to having in the next U20 tournament almost a certain failure or at best having a mediocre performance and that's the maximum Mikkola is capable of.

Some years ago, didn't Raipe get a second chance for U20 coaching as well, which was not based on good results. Raipe was underachieving with the good player material he had back then. This case is similar in that way.

If Mikkola's contract right now is just based on words and gentlemen's agreement, betrading him right now wouldn't be nearly as hard decision as some years ago kicking Rautakorpi out while a U20 tournament was going on. Kicking Rautakorpi out was the right call, but that raised a big media storm, which many hockey people didn't like. It's as necessary to reverse the decision on Mikkola now as it was necessary to kick Rautakorpi out back then.

 

[karhukissa]

Fire his ass now! Weak excuse of a coach. How do you spot a weak coach? He couldn't do any changes during the game, he didn't react to USA's change to press high with 2 men. He couldn't do any changes when Czechs started to roll.

First two games his tactics were something that's unseen in Finnish hockey, then he had to make changes and Sweden was surprised by us going back to traditional Finnish hockey. But he can't coach that style properly. Pennanen had he's flaws too with being stubborn, but atleast he knew the right tactic.

Adios Mikkola.

 

[ijuka]

Noa Vali, who I thought was clearly the better goalie before the tournament started btw, 2 games 2 wins .929

Niklas Kokko, who I thought was clearly the worse goalie before the tournament started btw, 5 games 1 win .870.


So why this goalie decision? Well, Kokko plays for Kärpät, and Mikkola has coached Kärpät for almost 20 years. I wonder why he chose the Kärpät goalie to be the #1 goaltender even though he played far worse than Vali.

Fire his ass now! Weak excuse of a coach. How do you spot a weak coach? He couldn't do any changes during the game, he didn't react to USA's change to press high with 2 men. He couldn't do any changes when Czechs started to roll.

First two games his tactics were something that's unseen in Finnish hockey, then he had to make changes and Sweden was surprised by us going back to traditional Finnish hockey. But he can't coach that style properly. Pennanen had he's flaws too with being stubborn, but atleast he knew the right tactic.

Adios Mikkola.

Czechia never really "rolled", they had 29 shots on net. Kokko just was terrible.

 

[FiLe]

Noa Vali, who I thought was clearly the better goalie before the tournament started btw, 2 games 2 wins .929

Niklas Kokko, who I thought was clearly the worse goalie before the tournament started btw, 5 games 1 win .870.


So why this goalie decision? Well, Kokko plays for Kärpät, and Mikkola has coached Kärpät for almost 20 years. I wonder why he chose the Kärpät goalie to be the #1 goaltender even though he played far worse than Vali.

I dunno if you noticed, but Vali fell ill and was not in the lineup in the medal round games. Vinni was the backup.

They could have picked Vali over Kokko in the QF, but that probably wouldn't have stopped Vali from catching the bug. And Kokko did win that game.

This is not to say that Kokko's performance didn't leave a lot to be desired, but you can't field a goalie (or any other player) who isn't healthy.

 

[ijuka]

I dunno if you noticed, but Vali fell ill and was not in the lineup in the medal round games. Vinni was the backup.

They could have picked Vali over Kokko in the QF, but that probably wouldn't have stopped Vali from catching the bug. And Kokko did win that game.

This is not to say that Kokko's performance didn't leave a lot to be desired, but you can't field a goalie (or any other player) who isn't healthy.

They weren't going to play him now anyway. And who knows what he does or doesn't do if he plays instead.

The point was that Vali should have been the #1 goalie before tournament, and at the very leaast he should have been the one after groups.