Jukka Jalonen sneered at the journalists – Made a comparison to the Soviet Union

– A very tough game. On Wednesday, some smart journalist threw that a forced bun match. That was one hell of a game. Harder than the Sweden game. A tougher challenge came from France than from Sweden. You can ask the players, for example.

That was announced by the head coach of the Lions Jukka Jalonenwhen France fell 5–3 in the opening series of the World Cup on Wednesday.

In what ways was France tougher than Sweden?

– It made us much tighter. I guess you saw the game?

France was more active than Sweden.

– Struggled well, fought, tore and scraped.

The Lions’ offensive line formations have raised questions.

– Can we consider changes. But we don’t believe that if someone’s game doesn’t work, changing it would improve it. For example, the first chain had 10-0 places against Sweden. Now it was 6-1 even. There is no result yet, but at some point it will. We’re not terribly flustered.

Many of Finland’s 5.5 million hockey experts would see Mikko Rantanen and Kaapo Kako in the same chain.

– Surely you would see. They are both from Turku and friends with each other. Maybe we’ll put it in at some point. But will the game of either of them improve if we put them together?

How do you experience the pressures from the outside?

– It always happens. For example, our number one chain is good. There aren’t many like that in this tournament.

Five lefties

Rantanen, Kappo and Kasperi Kapanen are after four matches without hits.

– At some point, patience pays off. As we have seen, these are not foolproof stories. If you think that NHL players are much better than those who play in Europe, then the nets would be in trouble all the time – they are not. Everyone is probably doing their best, Jalonen stated.

– Maybe you put more pressure on them. For example Juho Lammikon in light of the statistics, the chain has been really good in the last games. It works great, but the efficiency is lacking, he continues.

A journalist asked Jalose if he is worried about “Finland’s quite tight start to the World Cup”.

– Worried is too strong a word. I don’t have that kind of worry like you or the general public do. There may be panic there, but we don’t have it, the master pilot declared.

– We were not at our best in the Jenkit game. The Sweden game was very good, we should have won it. We weren’t at our best here, but all credit to the opponent, Riihimäki’s host added.

After the match against Sweden, the head coach criticized Finland’s superiority. Against France, Finland hit one advantage bag. Finland has hit a total of three overpowering hits in the Games.

– There was a better blank. Yes, it’s starting to improve too. Four games have been played, so we are in the early stages.

What is noteworthy about the Lions’ number one superiority is that all the men play with a lefty bat.

– Just the same as last year, when Mikael Granlund was at Mikko Rantanen’s place. It worked just fine then. Back in the day, even in the Soviet Union, five lefty guys were pulled – and that worked quite well too.