World Junior Championships (All WJC talk here)

[RedBaronIndian]

To be fair to Friedman, that was not his impression but rather the impression relayed to him by his source.

Fair enough. I just finished reading his article. Other exception I take to that article

25. Draft eligibles who struggled: Rasmus Ristolainen (Finland) got biggest criticism. "Wasn't sharp, didn't like to get hit and took rough penalties." Countryman Alex Barkov didn't dominate as was hoped: "Still a stud... but was not nearly the 200 foot player I expect."

Ristolainen was the best Finnish defender ahead of drafted guys like Pokka and Maata. He is now being thought of as a top 10 draft prospect for 2013 draft due to his showing in the tournament.

27. Draftees who looked good: Alex Galchenyuk (Montreal) -- "Stud." (Every NHL executive loves that word.) Mikhail Grigorenko (Buffalo). Joel Armia (Buffalo): "Most pure sniper I've seen in awhile... makes goalies look silly with release and reach... when motivated he was like man with boys." Yaroslav Kosov (Florida): "Played both ends of rink and didn't give up. Looks like a smart pick." Tomas Hertl (San Jose): "gained a step. Excellent vision, hard to contain." Got mixed reviews on Filip Forsberg (Washington).

Armia had a very up and down tournament. When he was on he was lights out, but most of the other times he was very selfish with the puck and tried to do too much himself without utilizing his linemates. Many Finnish fans felt that he should have been benched because of this. I remember this very clearly and even commented on it in the FIN vs SUI GDT.

 

[ChiGuySez]

Comment was in quotes so it appears he was just quoting some source. He said in his comments in the article he saw little of the tournament.

As far as Teravainen goes, Im gladly eating crow. Didnt like the pick on draft day. Wanted a dman badly. Finland up to that point wasnt producing any junior talent of note and none of note for almost the past decade. Smaller sized players who looked like it would be questionable if they would be able to make the transition to NA hockey. TT isnt larger but looks like Kane jr. Vision and shiftiness and producing at every level.

 

[Jussi]

Here's a fun thing

I've seen lots of Finland fans saying TT was arguably their best forward throughout the entire tournament.

Today in Friedman's 30 Thoughts, he quotes a scout

28. Draftees who struggled: Teuvo Teravainen (Chicago). Had 12 points in six games, but "very unmotivated performance until tourney was already over."

You can choose who you want to believe.

I watched all of Finland's games because they were rare day time games for me. He started on the third line (due to the Finnish coach wanting to spread the scoring) with 2 meh linemates in the warm up games whom TT had to carry and he did do that admirably. Injury to one of the Finnish forwards pushed him to the second line with Barkov. Barkov and TT clicked really well and TT was very good especially on the PP(very Karlsson like, he may have learned a thing or two from him at Jokerit).

I think his best game was against Switzerland (which was a do or die game) where the Finns dug themselves a bit of a hole. He scored 2nd and 3rd goals on PP where he got his shot through traffic both times. We finally may have someone competent enough to play the point on PP and not shoot a million miles wide of the net.

He had an average game against Sweden and was on fire in the relegation round against Germany and Slovakia. IMO, He would definitely be in contention for Finnish forward of the tournament. I think highly of Friedman and generally respect his views, but in this instance he is plain wrong and his opinion may have been clouded by poor showing of the Finnish team in the tournament.

I concur with this opinion. TT was the forward who looked most like himself. It wasn't his fault the whole teams played like crap (ie. coaching failure). He wasn't taking dumb penalties like Salomäki or turning the puck over constantly like Armia.

 

[UsernameWasTaken]

I concur with this opinion. TT was the forward who looked most like himself. It wasn't his fault the whole teams played like crap (ie. coaching failure). He wasn't taking dumb penalties like Salomäki or turning the puck over constantly like Armia.

i was surprised, disappointed on finland's behalf, at the way wjc went for you guys - i thought you would crash the party for one of us/russia/canada/sweden

still - your team was impressive. i think you will probably end up in the wjc medal hunt soon - hopefully next year...it would be very sweet if you guys played the 'upset artist' next year in malmo