Ice Hockey World Championships | Jukka Jalose’s special bet at the World Championships – “What the hell?”

Sport|Ice Hockey World Championships

Tampere

Jukka Jalonen unexpectedly decided to mix up the Lions’ pack in the closing moments of Saturday’s match against Austria.

Jalonen, who made only moderate chain changes throughout the tournament, made a splash by mixing up the Lions’ first and second players when there were only less than ten minutes left in the game.

Sanoma’s MM editors Ville Touru and Teemu Suvinen think Jalonen’s trick is special and go over it in the video above the article.

The two are especially surprised by why Jalonen wanted to break the chain that worked brilliantly Kaapo Kako–Antti Suomela–Kasperi Kapanen.

After the chain changes, Kapanen moved to the first chain Sakari Manninen and Mikko Rantanen alongside, and Teemu Hartikainen took Kapanen’s place in the second chain.

“In my opinion, this was a wink from Jalose and a wake-up call for the team. He wanted to show that such a level is not enough, especially for the number one chain,” says Suvinen.

“It’s still a very strange trick, because Kako and Kapase’s chemistry met.”

Touru says that he was really embarrassed when he noticed the changes.

“I also had a ‘what the hell’ feeling, when the best chain in Finland had been Kakko–Suomela–Kapanen,” says Touru.

The Lions have only one match left in the first series, and the situation is not stable at all.

“It is really surprising that it is not known at all with which chains Finland will start its last match of the first group. It’s still a special kind of muddling at this point,” says Touru.

The video also discusses the Lions’ quarter-final prospects.

Leijonat will play the last match of the initial group on Tuesday at 20:20 against Denmark.