The Young Lions suffered a bitter defeat in the World Cup semi-final against the USA. The USA went into the match as overwhelming favorites, but Finland’s place in the final would not have been a mistake either.
Finland’s World Cup tournament with all its twists and turns is a reminder that the basic elements of a winning hockey team have not changed at all.
The reminder is important, because the Finnish way of playing, which enables success, is currently being fought against by, for example, Tappara, who have clearly collected the most points per match in the League so far.
Examples like Tappara can be tempting, but at least In the ice hockey association, care should be taken that the Finnish national teams play the Finnish flag. Finding a winning identity is not a given, and if one is found, it should be cherished.
What are those winning things?
Iltalehti’s expert, champion coach Pekka Virta said during the first group of the youth World Cup tournament, when things went wrong, when Finland played well and why.
In the Canada match that opened the tournament, it was immediately apparent that the opponent could be shaken if Finland chose to stay on the puck instead of going headlong into attacking when the entire field is not ready for it.
– In the beginning, it was clear that Finland had an effort to seize the puck quickly and go with a deliberate rhythm. The rhythm, however, completely disappeared during the game, when they made mistakes and started to get nervous, Pekka Virta summed up.
The embarrassing loss to Germany was the final proof that even if Finland has better players, the structure of the game must be in order.
– The game had been played for 15 minutes when we got inside with a united five and the first long attack came, Virta illustrated.
As if by pressing a switch, Finland’s game changed to the Latvia match and the opening set of the Sweden game. Finland dominated with the Finnish playbook, made a mockery of the opponents.
– Tight five-man play, defending together, quickly taking possession of the puck and putting pressure on it with five players, Virta listed the principles of Finland’s game after the Latvia game.
Suddenly, Finland’s attacking game and players also looked better. The disaster was canceled and Finland became a gold medal candidate.
In November, in connection with the Karelian tournament, I was at a seminar for hockey journalists listening to the Powerpoint presentation of Antti Pennanen, the future head coach of the adult Leijoni, about his coaching philosophy.
Pennanen, who explained his thoughts with respectable openness, said that he once had a thick playbook. The most followed coach in Finland next autumn, however, made a video compilation of soccer player Lionel Messi’s amazing missteps on YouTube.
In the video, Messi at his best feathered several opponents at once. Pennanen’s point was that Messi’s deviations happen so quickly on the field that the best soccer player in the world plays with instincts in those moments. No one is capable of such performances by planning what they will do in advance.
Antti Pennanen is the next head coach of the big Lions. Vesa Pöppönen / AOP
According to my interpretation, Pennanen thinks carefully about which emphasis on tactics and emotion he can use to get the best out of the players. The idea is good. Of course, Pennans must be given a fair chance at the helm of the Lions, but it is worrying if the playbook is something embarrassing from the past for the future head coach of the Lions.
Pekka Virta has not referred to Pennase, but I can’t help but add the expert’s comments in this connection.
– I would also translate this so that, for one reason or another, the discussion of playbooks is a negative thing for many. In Finland, many people have got the image that it means trampling or something like hockey, Pekka Virta summed up after the Latvia game.
– The way of playing has received such an echo that it would shackle an individual’s chance to succeed better.
The opposite of the Finnish winning tradition is represented by the club managers and owners, who have probably watched YouTube compilations themselves and demand from their team an entertaining, colorful, creative or whatever game at any cost. The central office of this group is currently located in Jyväskylä.
Good players are of course the basis of everything, but success in the national team and eventually also in the finals of the club teams is almost never dependent on who misleads two players and then scores a goal.
Or at least the Lions’ three previous World Cup golds (2011, 2019, 2022), the only Olympic gold, Tappara’s triple last season (SM league regular season win, SM gold, CHL win), the three previous SM league champions (Tappara, Tappara , Lukko) and the Vegas Golden Knights’ Stanley Cup (2023) can be seen to represent the values with which the Young Lions have also experienced their best moments in this season’s World Cup.
Ice hockey does not currently have a reputation as a particularly smart sport in Finland. However, the Finnish way of playing, which produces success, is the smartest that the sport has ever produced. Its basic principles can be followed in many different ways and it gives players security and ultimately also the opportunity to shine.
This tradition can be considered to have started at the beginning of the 2000s in Hämeenlinna, when Jukka Jalonen was the head coach of HPK. Jalonen and HPK celebrated the small club’s first SM gold in the spring of 2006 after the bronze medals in 2002, 2003 and 2005.
– This was not the best HPK in terms of skills, but the best in will, chairman Harri Lintumäki said on the ice at the championship party.
Yes, a tight team on the ice and in the locker room. Does it sound familiar?