Comment | Young Lions did not look like a winning team

Moncton

Young Lions The opening series of the World Cup was stomped in a harsh way.

Although Finland even won the shooting statistics against the United States 31–30, the lion team did not have much of a chance in the match.

Tomi Lämsän The Young Lions did not look like a winning team by any measure.

Successful teams are unified bundles with four functional chains. They rely on top-class goalkeeping and special situation play.

Finland had none of these. And even after the first series, there is no really clear identity.

And as it was already known before the tournament, the player material doesn’t stand up to comparison with the pre-tournament favourites.

Lämsä also started to bring this up at the moment of defeat.

“The Yankees’ skating power and speed is incredible. There are four guys on the field who can play that level of slop. Stick hardness and the need to fight are things that we have to watch closely in Finnish hockey when we think about what winning here means,” Lämsä said.

Lämsa’s words are certainly true and it is worth thinking about how the SM league marinates players for the small rink game and the level of demands that university players set for Finnish professionals in a narrow rink.

And the competition team does not have SM league players with a big role – Lämsä also brought this up:

“We are on the road to learning. What kind of players we have, what kind of roles they come into this situation… We learn from every game. They are bright-eyed young men who are moving forward. There is no ready-made package here.”

But not even Läms can completely go behind the player material. Although Finland has, for example, had better-known teams in the golden seasons of 2014, 2016 and 2019, Finland has also been able to play better in the past, even if the opponent had better quality material.

And there are great talents in this team as well.

They have been used in a special way. Joakim Kemellin the games started as the 13th striker. Another top talent by Brad Lambert no potential has been seen, and he hasn’t been offered a proper screen either. Aron Kiviharju is of course only 16 years old, but they didn’t even dare to test him, but left him in the reserve outside the competition team. Even a questionable solution, when you take into account the problems of the package head.

New Year’s Eve in the late game, home Finland’s time in the early hours of the morning in 2023, it was confirmed that the Young Lions’ quarter-final opponent is Sweden, whose game coughed like Finland in the preliminary round.

What kind of Finland will we see in that match?

It’s hard to predict anything other than the fact that the choice of goalkeeper is bound to hit Jani Lampinenwho was more convincing than the veskars in the first series.