Winnipeg Jets rookie forward Patrik Laine, who helped Finland win the gold medal at the 2016 IIHF World Junior Championship, was among many who were surprised by the underwhelming performance of his country at the 2017 WJC in Montreal and Toronto.
Finland will enter its final preliminary-round game against Switzerland on Saturday (6 p.m. ET; NHLN, TSN) with three regulation losses and in fifth place in Group A of the tournament. It will need to win a best-of-3 relegation series against Latvia at Bell Centre in Montreal beginning Monday in order to assure a spot at the 2018 WJC in Buffalo; the loser is relegated to Division I Group A.
Finland is the first country to play in the WJC relegation round after winning the gold medal in the previous tournament.
The Finnish Ice Hockey Association fired coach Jukka Rautakorpi on Friday and replaced him with Jussi Ahokas, who led Finland to the gold medal at the 2016 IIHF World Under-18 Championship.
"Obviously after last year's tournament, it's hard to see that," Laine said Saturday. "We can't do nothing about it anymore. We just have to play well at the end of the tournament and just hope they can beat Latvia."
At the 2016 WJC, Laine tied for the tournament lead with United States center Auston Matthews (Toronto Maple Leafs) with seven goals. He also had 13 points and a plus-8 rating playing on a line with Jesse Puljujarvi (Edmonton Oilers) and Sebastian Aho (Carolina Hurricanes) to help lead Finland to its second WJC gold medal in three tournaments.
Finland was missing eight of its top 10 scorers from the 2016 WJC, including Laine, Puljujarvi, Aho and Mikko Rantanen (Colorado Avalanche) who are playing in the NHL.
"I think always when someone gets fired it's a weird thing during a tournament," Laine said. "That was their decision. It was a weird thing, but I can't do really anything about it."
Switzerland's 5-4 shootout win against Denmark on Friday eliminated Finland from medal contention.
"I was watching the Switzerland game, and yeah, it was crazy," Laine said. "It's not a good result for the Finnish team and it's not good situation but [stuff] like that happens and you just have to deal with it."
Entertainment Plaza - TV, Movies, Sports, Music, Soaps
http://almosthuman.gdk.mx/
Babe Of The Month - Vote Now!
http://members.shaw.ca/almosthuman99/babeofthemonth.html
Hunk Of The Month - Vote Now!
http://members.shaw.ca/almosthuman99/babeofthemonthman.html
No comments:
Post a Comment