The lions bowed to Sweden 2-3 after the winning goal competition. According to expert Ismo Lehkonen, the Finnish game needs small filings both in the trough and perhaps in the line-up.
The lions lost to Sweden in the World Ice Hockey Championships after winning the race on Wednesday 2-3 in Tampere. Sports Expert Ismo Lehkonen raises three excerpts from playing Finland in this story.
1. The final game does not produce goal points
The lions’ long rotations of the attacking head were low against Sweden, especially in the first and third rounds. Finland quickly lost the puck, and only in the second installment, the Lions’ strongest, could they build goals from the end games.
Finland’s goals came in the second installment from the counterattack and the starting pattern when the defenders Mikko Lehtonen and Sami Vatanen hit every two minutes in the second installment.
– Above all, it’s about the courage to protect the puck, make stop-and-go stops and change direction. If help comes to the attacking head, the puck must know what the game plan is. You can’t improvise there, Lehkonen says.
Lehkonen thinks that more play could be considered as a medicine, for example. Part of the Lions game is also to avoid risks in the attack area so that opponents don’t get to attack quickly.
– I think the coaching management is thinking very hard about the best option, because there will be teams that play a quick change of direction game.
2. Confirmations help with opening play
In order for direct and long attacks to be built at a good pace, it must be possible to roll away under pressure. The lion had challenges against Sweden, and the feed quality was not always enough in Tre Kronor’s compression.
– When your opponent is properly applying pressure to three or four players, how do you get fast, direct attacks from there with fast passes? Today, the defenders were well involved, and that was a good thing.
Lehkonen is waiting for the Dallas defenders to join the Lions on Thursday Miro Heiskasen and Esa Lindellin bring a lot more to the opening game.
– The duo has done the job with great quality. Especially with small delusions and quick steps, Miro is able to lift his leg himself. It’s a big deal if you can lift yourself, bypass the bitter and find breaking feeds.
3. “Granlund needs to get better on the puck”
Lehkonen was already wondering last week whether the NHL should be one of the quality cuts Mikael Granlund plant then in the middle instead of the edge. Now the Nashville gambler has been Sakari Mannisen and Teemu Hartikainen alongside the edge of the No. 1 chain, and in the Sweden match, he was left without points for the first time.
After the break, Finland will play against Britain on Friday and Austria on Saturday. According to Lehkonen, these are games where experiments could still be done.
– What if Granlund were tried as a cent? I would venture to say that yes, coaching also thinks about it a bit, because he has to get on the puck better, that’s a clear thing.
– (Head coach) Jukka Jalonen though, usually don’t want to go awry if it works ok. That is usually enough for him, because even now it has been seen that Finland’s pentathlon is not leaking and the defense is in order.
Finland has scored six goals in the tournament in five equal weeks, one with equal and six with overwhelming force. Lehkonen reminds that it would be worthwhile to find precision weapons that result in even five results.
– We can’t quite rely on force majeure if the enemy doesn’t take the cold in important games.
The Lions will resume the World Cup on Friday at 4.20pm against the UK.