WJC: Team Finland 2023 U18 WJC Roster Talk.

[SantosHalper]

Peltonen, Miettinen and Kuusla not claimed according to this IIHF roster

IIHF - Finland

You are correct, i had a brainfart. I forgot to add Kuusla and some how i got Peltonen and Jokinen mixed up, i almost got Hynninen and Miettinen mixed up as well. Anyway not many changes to the line up.

Järventie - Kumpulainen - Uronen/Halttunen
Alasiurua - Helenius - Uronen/Halttunen
Nurmi - Hynninen - Kiiskinen
Eliseev - Leppä - Lind

Kiviharju - Junkkari
Pienimieni - Muhonen
Kangas - Väisänen
Jokinen

Vinni
Vali
Vedenpää

 

[ChicagoBullsFan]

Peltonen, Miettinen and Kuusla not claimed according to this IIHF roster

IIHF - Finland

Did Finland made any roster cuts after Canada and Slovakia game?
Seems that Peltonen, Miettinen and Kuusla have cutted out.

 

[ChicagoBullsFan]

Halttunen better shine in these games if he really wants to get drafted 1st round.
Now it is time to prove what type player Halttunen is and is he NHL prospect at all.
Or is he only good SM liiga / euro player Halttunen's draft season has been huge disappointment
so if this tournament follows same curve what Halttunen has showed in SM liiga
then he can forget that 1st round pick.

 

[SantosHalper]

Kuusla wasn't cut from the team, in the 4th line against USA. 4th line looking better with Kuusla.

 

[ChicagoBullsFan]

What is Finland's THE gameplan into own defensive zone can someone tell that
because i havent seen at all good or very good defensive effort in own end yet.

3 puck-handling mistakes in own end now and 3 goals too.
If that cheese defense won't get better before quarterfinal we won't win any medal.

 

[Jukurit]

What is Finland's THE gameplan into own defensive zone can someone tell that
because i havent seen at all good or very good defensive effort in own end yet.

3 puck-handling mistakes in own end now and 3 goals too.
If that cheese defense won't get better before quarterfinal we won't win any medal.

4 out of 7 defensemen being 2006 born probably explains those mistakes.

 

[ChicagoBullsFan]

4 out of 7 defensemen being 2006 born probably explains those mistakes.

Lame excuse.
Merikivi has ZERO page in his game-book for defense.
Jukka Jalonen would be infurious that cheese defense if Men's team would play like that in own end.

 

[SantosHalper]

Lame excuse.
Merikivi has ZERO page in his game-book for defense.
Jukka Jalonen would be infurious that cheese defense if Men's team would play like that in own end.

Remember U20 QFinal 2016? Jukka wasn't mad then, but yeah defensive game and powerplay needs more work. Im still optimistic, potential is there and the team seems to have fun.

 

[illone84]

Remember U20 QFinal 2016? Jukka wasn't mad then, but yeah defensive game and powerplay needs more work. Im still optimistic, potential is there and the team seems to have fun.

Could be worse. Could have lost 8 zip to Sweden like Kanada

 

[ChicagoBullsFan]

Remember U20 QFinal 2016? Jukka wasn't mad then, but yeah defensive game and powerplay needs more work. Im still optimistic, potential is there and the team seems to have fun.

Merikivi is not even half THE coach what JJ is.
It wasn't Vinni who lost this USA game it was MERIKIVI

And why i blame coaching here's a reasons.
1 No goalie change and timeout when panic
and pressure in own end was infernal and USA goals poured
2 Zero effort in defense
3 Too many A sector's scoring chances for USA star players.

Merikivi gives me huge Tomi Lämsä vibes and i don't care how this tournament ends.
He needs to get banned for rest of his life of all national team coahing jobs.

 

[Jukurit]

Anybody else think Väisänen has been easily Finland's worst defenseman? Brutal mistakes.

 

[ChicagoBullsFan]

Can someone tell who goddamn idiot is responsible for Finland's defense coaching.
Absolutely ZERO EFFORT zero grit and thoughness, no defensive zone defense game
no game-books and game-plans in defensre absolutely nothing.

Our ''defenders'' looked like peewee pylons who cannot do jack-.shit in own end.
Väisänen and Muhonen should be 6'2 / 6'3 tall but they looked like midgets
and they're softer than soft-embo's toilet paper.

Actually whole f***ing defense is soft.
I'm not ever seen as pathetic ''defense'' in those 20+ years what i'm followed hockey.
Were'not gonna win any medal with that cheese defense.

Anybody else think Väisänen has been easily Finland's worst defenseman? Brutal mistakes.

I do.
Bench Väisänen for rest of the tournament
and bring Peltonen in maybe he can bring some grit and toughness in our shaky cheese defense.

 

[SantosHalper]

Merikivi is not even half THE coach what JJ is.

No one is comparing them, my point was that Jalonen had different outlook when he coaching U20 team than when he is coaching men's team imo.

Anyway tournament is not over yet, QFinal is going to be big test to the defensive system. You have excelent point, why didn't Merikivi take a timeout. He took one in game against Switzerland and things didn't even look very bleak then. Failure now doesn't matter much, as long as they learn from it.

 

[ddlennon]

Decent attempt that eventually got ruined by too many mistakes, on the other hand its only a groupstage game and the most important matchups are yet to come,.

Still woulda rather see vali get the start especially since he already managed to beat usa in february ( they didnt have their 06s up yet) and vinni just looks like he cant read whats gonna happen and struggling with following the game because of the speed

 

[ChicagoBullsFan]

Decent attempt that eventually got ruined by too many mistakes, on the other hand its only a groupstage game and the most important matchups are yet to come,.

Still woulda rather see vali get the start especially since he already managed to beat usa in february ( they didnt have their 06s up yet) and vinni just looks like he cant read whats gonna happen and struggling with following the game because of the speed

Getting 8-4 ass-whooping for becoming U18 world champion team USA WASN'T VINNI's FAULT.
Vinni is a goalie and if you have followed hockey before you should know that goalie
IS NOT RESPONSIBLE for defense coaching.

It truly wasn't on Vinni it was 99,99% pathetic and f***ing soft cheese defense
why game went like it went. Show me all those USA goals which were Vinni's fault.
Vinni didn't shit into bed and let his team down but our cheese defense and abysmal coaching did.

It is not Vinni's job to get those peewee pylons to play good and tight team defense.
That job belongs to COACHING STAFF.

So long when we don't have good and though defense even in 1 game we won't win any medal.

 

[Kibe]

Man imagine getting that worked up after a loss to the best team in U18's.

 

[Jukurit]

Forwards: Pretty good, can definitely score some goals
Defense: Seems pretty bad. Looks like Swiss Cheese against good teams
Goaltending: Question mark, Vinni mediocre, Vali played only 1 game against weak team

 

[ChicagoBullsFan]

 

[ChicagoBullsFan]

What a disgrace this U18 WJC ''team'' was.
Aboslutely shittiest U18 WJC team since 2014.

I didn't see many future NHL players in this roster.
Halttunen was Finland's top scorer and had good OK tournament.
Kiviharju also did his best but couldn't do more.

But where was the rest? yeah i didn't see much of them.
Helenius was OK too but still something was missing.

Merikivi was weakest link as a coach and team looked exactly the same with a coach.
I don't blame goalies because do not have responsibility of that how team plays together.

But is it hars and brutal truth this team was mediocre and i don't see succes in U20 WJC's if Merikivi remains / retains as a coach he needs to get fired if the goal is winning U20 WJC gold 2025.
Vittu mitä paskaa ja vittu että vituttaa.

 

[SantosHalper]

Finland is getting in to a slump. Like Ika said after the game that he's been asking the same questions for 5-6 years now, which means that there's being the same problem's age class after age class. This problem run's deeper than one national team coaching decision. Finland is losing in skating, strenght and in basic shooting and passing skills.

One thing Ika didn't ask, is the U20 Liiga weaker now than it was 5-6 years ago? At the U20 Worlds Ika asked why the Liiga/Mestis experience doesn't show on ice? I would ask the same, this U18 team had men's league experience and it didn't show at all. Drastic changes has to be done or Finland is going to have a long medal drought.

 

[Erikfromfin]

Finland is getting in to a slump. Like Ika said after the game that he's been asking the same questions for 5-6 years now, which means that there's being the same problem's age class after age class. This problem run's deeper than one national team coaching decision. Finland is losing in skating, strenght and in basic shooting and passing skills.

One thing Ika didn't ask, is the U20 Liiga weaker now than it was 5-6 years ago? At the U20 Worlds Ika asked why the Liiga/Mestis experience doesn't show on ice? I would ask the same, this U18 team had men's league experience and it didn't show at all. Drastic changes has to be done or Finland is going to have a long medal drought.

More worryingly they will win mens world champs again and everyone will think finnish hockey is good.

 

[SantosHalper]

i don't see succes in U20 WJC's if Merikivi remains / retains as a coach he needs to get fired if the goal is winning U20 WJC gold 2025.

You mean U18? Lämsä is the U20 head coach and Merikivi moves on. The next U18 head coach is the current U17 head coach Marko Kauppinen, and the U18 head coach after Kauppinen is going to be the current U16 head coach Matti Tiilikainen. Finland has had this system since 2013

Jussi Ahokas
U16 2013-14
U17 2014-15
U18 2015-16(won gold)

Juuso Nieminen
U16 2014-15
U17 2015-16
U18 2016-17(won silver)

Tommi Niemelä
U16 2015-16
U17 2016-17
U18 2017-18(won gold)

Mika Marttila
U16 2016-17
U17 2017-18
U18 2018-19

Anssi Laine
U16 2017-18
U17 2018-19(won silver)
U18 2019-20(covid)

Petri Karjalainen
U16 2018-19
U17 2019-20
U18 2020-21

Mika Marttila
U16 2019-20
U17 2020-21
U18 2021-22(won bronze)

Lauri Merikivi
U16 2020-21
U17 2021-22
U18 2022-23

Marko Kauppinen
U16 2021-22
U17 2022-23(won bronze)
U18 2023-24

Matti Tiilikainen
U16 2022-23
U17 2023-24
U18 2024-25

 

[SantosHalper]

More worryingly they will win mens world champs again and everyone will think finnish hockey is good.

1000%

Self-deception at worse, let's enjoy while we still can. If the direction doesn't change, long drought ahead.

 

[Jukurit]

Finnish hockey is definitely not doing good right now. Finnish leagues are weak, not many drafted players, a lot of draft busts and disappointments, prospects can't skate. Sad.

 

[ijuka]

Finnish hockey is definitely not doing good right now. Finnish leagues are weak, not many drafted players, a lot of draft busts and disappointments, prospects can't skate. Sad.

It is pretty incredible how almost all Finnish prospects have problems with skating. But it makes sense. As I've watched young players(say 12 to 15) play in junior games, the good skaters need to wait around and can just about never make use of their speed. The play is so slow that fast skating is completely useless. Compare to Canadian leagues of the same age, and it's night and day. The players are constantly skating hard, at full speed. In Finnish minor leagues, a player might skate all out for a total of 5 seconds out of 20 minutes of ice time.

It's like it's an intentional decision. So the weaker skating players "don't feel bad" or something.