Not a great but ok game by Finland. 1st line was great (Räty 1+3, Kemell 2+2 and Hirvonen 1+2), and Niemelä, Heimosalmi and Meriläinen were good. Also Simontaival and Järventie looked quite ok. Lambert scored a nice goal and showed how great his skating is, but not much of anything else, and the coach Pennanen said in an interview that he didn’t feel that Lambert’s play was really convincing and trustworthy enough, so he got benched. From the defencemen Puutio was godawful, and made mistakes after mistakes, with and without the puck.
Can’t say that I’m very convinced with Pennanen as a coach. He’s not actually a really bad coach, but he is a too rigid and stubborn robot-hockey coach, who can’t really adjust his tactics with the opponents too well. But the players and his basic system might still be enough for medals, and you never know what can happen with players like Räty, Hirvonen, Niemelä and Kemell in the team. Finland might have a chance for even winning gold, but in my opinion it’s BS to say that Finland is the biggest gold medal favorite after all.
Can’t say that I’m very convinced with Pennanen as a coach. He’s not actually a really bad coach, but he is a too rigid and stubborn robot-hockey coach, who can’t really adjust his tactics with the opponents too well. But the players and his basic system might still be enough for medals, and you never know what can happen with players like Räty, Hirvonen, Niemelä and Kemell in the team. Finland might have a chance for even winning gold, but in my opinion it’s BS to say that Finland is the biggest gold medal favorite after all.
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