William H Bonney
Registered User
Certainly, a disappointing result as it's a game they should have won, as the shots were even, but the dangerous scoring chances heavily favored the US. The team played well though all things considered, especially since Finland has had a lot more preparation time together than Team USA. Tough break when your team puts in all 3 goals but you lose 2-1.
Olkinuora played really well, but the team could have been better about making his life difficult. Missed the net too much on some prime chances, and didn't bury some prime chances (i.e. Garland breakaway, Labanc missing tap-in into an open net, etc.)
On defense, Wolanin and Jones were the clear standouts. Jones continued to get better as the game wore on and was a constant threat on the ice. I hope he gets a heavy workload tomorrow.
At forward, Garland and Robertson were quiet to start, but once they got going they were unsurprisingly our best forwards. Blackwell and Robinson were also pretty good, although they tailed off from their 1st-period performance when they were constant threats. The team needs a better performance from Labanc going forward as he wasn't effective today and Donato is still one of the most frustrating guys to watch. Chmelevski was very noticeable in his 13th forward / 4th line minutes in the first ~50 minutes, reminiscent of his performance in the 2019 WJC where he was one of our best forwards but was always buried on the bottom line. I hope we see him cemented in the top 9 going forward, which I'm hopeful about since the staff rewarded him with an increased role late in the 3rd.
Petersen was fine but wasn't tested as much as Olkinuora, either. I imagine we'll see Oettinger tomorrow on the quick turnaround.
Olkinuora played really well, but the team could have been better about making his life difficult. Missed the net too much on some prime chances, and didn't bury some prime chances (i.e. Garland breakaway, Labanc missing tap-in into an open net, etc.)
On defense, Wolanin and Jones were the clear standouts. Jones continued to get better as the game wore on and was a constant threat on the ice. I hope he gets a heavy workload tomorrow.
At forward, Garland and Robertson were quiet to start, but once they got going they were unsurprisingly our best forwards. Blackwell and Robinson were also pretty good, although they tailed off from their 1st-period performance when they were constant threats. The team needs a better performance from Labanc going forward as he wasn't effective today and Donato is still one of the most frustrating guys to watch. Chmelevski was very noticeable in his 13th forward / 4th line minutes in the first ~50 minutes, reminiscent of his performance in the 2019 WJC where he was one of our best forwards but was always buried on the bottom line. I hope we see him cemented in the top 9 going forward, which I'm hopeful about since the staff rewarded him with an increased role late in the 3rd.
Petersen was fine but wasn't tested as much as Olkinuora, either. I imagine we'll see Oettinger tomorrow on the quick turnaround.
