FinnGoalie
Registered User
- Jul 24, 2007
- 525
- 10
Quit comparing Finnish and swedish teams. i am an fin and i know finland is a challanger in the tournament and sweden is a gold medal canditate. I would take Jere Sallinen and eero elo over Haula. Jere Sallinen is very physical player. Hes energetic and plays every shift 110%. Not a point machine but he can do points and hes perfect for 3-4line. Eero Elo is big and very skilled. J. Sallinen and E. Elo are very good for a mask man for PP. As we know finland has very good PP players. Laakso and Vatanen has very good shot and they quarterback pp very well. Especially Laakso. He makes smart moves and has the patience to search a good shooting opportunity. Vatanen shoots to often and from the bad spots. He isnt very calm. With small pressure he can make bad moves. Granlund and Rajala are very good players to run PP. Elo, Sallinen and Hartikainen are good players infront of net. Good team overall. Goaltending is the weakest part atm. This team lacks a sniper like pulkkinen. 2 line of higly talented offensive players. 2 Line of very energetic players with size to shutout starplayers. Good team. Black horse for the tournament. Could beat canada in good day. Vatanen and Granlund are the players to watch.
This post sounds about right here...content-wise that is
As a note to some Finnish fans, I think you get too carried away about the overall talent Finnish team possesses. It's true that there's more Elite League players than before, but you have to remember that SM-liiga is not the same it used to be. Because of the financial and other reasons, teams pick their 3rd/4th liners more easily from talented juniors than using established older (expensive) players. It's a good thing for youngsters, but it also brings down the overall level of the league.
Having the best Finnish team in a long time still doesn't mean that the team is on par with THE best in this tourney. Finns definitely have the talent to challenge properly, though. It still would require them to play up to their potential as a whole team.
just my 2 cents...