Without help, Rahut Rasmus Ristolainen and Noora Rädy come to mind, Vesa Parviainen writes.
Joel Blomqvist is the Pittsburgh Penguins second round NHL reservation from 2020. Mika Kylmäniemi / AOP
As a follow-up to the Lions and Female Lions, the Young Lions have now also had their choice when by far the most meritorious goalkeeper Joel Blomqvist was expelled from the camp preparing for the World Cup in August.
Let’s make a small comparison here.
Blomqvist has played 24 league matches and 7 playoffs in his career.
According to the selected goalkeepers, Leevi Meriläinen’s league experience (0) is not comparable, as he played in the Canadian Junior League OHL last season.
Juha Jatkola has played 7 and Rasmus Korhonen 5 regular season games. They have not played any playoffs.
Blomqvist’s rejection rate last season in the regular season was 94.0, Jatkola’s 88.4 and Korhonen’s 89.6. The percentage of seafarers in OHL was 89.1.
The average number of goals scored by Blomqvist was 1.32, Jatkola 2.98 and Korhonen 2.69. Meriläinen’s reading in OHL was 3.29.
In both statistics, Blomqvist was number one in the Finnish Championships.
The readings are obviously not entirely comparable when the goalkeepers played on different teams behind a different defense and one even in a different country, but Blomqvist stats are in any case completely sovereign.
And it hasn’t even been mentioned yet that he won the same stats in the playoffs with his astonishing readings of 95.0 and 1.10.
It’s quite a bomb that the head coach drops his team with such a tough class.
Antti Pennanen is a top coach who is guaranteed to know the statistics and the abilities of the players much more deeply than presented here.
He justified his decision in two ways, firstly by the superiority of Jatkola and Meriläinen in last season’s national team events.
Antti Pennanen showed Joel Blomqvist the place of the closet. Jaakko Stenroos / AOP
The justification is comprehensible but not comprehensive. Blomqvist’s screens in the SM League – practically the toughest player in the league – meant nothing.
Pennanen also mentioned his commitment to the national team, and most obviously it now weighs the most in the horizontal cup.
Blomqvist made the reins for the national team by missing out on the April Four Country Tournament in the final race.
The choices for him – just like in the cases of Ristolainen and Rädy – have a taste of disciplinary restitution.
The radical solution emphasizes the responsibility of the head coach.
Pennanen has taken a conscious risk. If there were no qualified bearers in between the three watchmen to be chosen past Blomqvist, he would be held accountable.
Joel Blomqvist was disappointed. Tomi Natri / AOP
No coach will fail to select a player whose absence, in his opinion, impairs team performance.
Competitiveness consists of many things other than the stock exchanges and statistics of individual players.
Pennanen now clearly emphasizes the unity of the team and does not look at the “soloist” with a good, not even the most important playing position of the team, even though on Wednesday in the handset he talked things through with Blomqvist.
For the individual, however, the solution is unreasonably borderline – especially when the coach cites the player’s desire to invest in an NHL career as a justification.
An NHL career is often in some way at odds with representing Finland. They should be able to reconcile in a constructive way.
