Blades of Steel
9 Team Full Keeper - Pts Only (G,A,W,SO)
Crosby, Wheeler, Bergeron, Forsberg, Connor, Kopitar, E.Lindholm, Pastrnak, DeBrincat, Fiala
Jones, Klingberg, Hamilton, Theodore, Letang
Saros, Shesterkin
Garland, Vrana, Bjorkstrand, Verhaege, Backstrom, Karlsson, Perunovich, Spurgeon, Pulock, Hellebuyck
Aho is under contract with Karpat through next year on eliteprospects.com but if I were the Canes, I'd make an offer to get him across the pond. He's not a big guy, but he plays a very cerebral game and a great ability to find the quiet ice. I think he's playing better in the Liiga playoffs than we saw in the WJC, and wearing the golden helmet for months. Tappara today was going after him physically and he fought through it, but some more physical maturity would be helpful. As others have said he's very young.
I didn't get to see much of Aho this tournament. He never got any points but did he look good out there?
Team Finland scored 1 goal. The whole team looked bad. Like most of the stars on the team, he faded to the back and guys like Komarov and Donskoi name were being called more by the announcers.
When Laine and Barkov do nothing, I won’t be knocking any of the other players. I think the coaching staff takes this flop of a tournament, the players just never looked comfortable out there.
12 Team, H2H, Keep 6 (in Bold)
G, A, Pts, PPP, FW, SOG, Hits, Blocks
W, Saves, S%, GAA, Game Started
2C, 2LW, 2RW, 4D, 1Util, 2G, 5BN, 2IR, 1IR+, 1NA
C: Horvat, Trocheck
LW: J. Robertson, Byfield (C), Guenther
RW: Pavelski (C), Giroux (C), Svechnikov (LW)
D: Fox, Makar, Bouchard, Morrissey, Gudas
Util: Meier (LW, RW)
G: Oettinger, Georgiev, Samsonov, Woll
Aho actually looked better than Laine while playing 5-on-5. Laine is a great weapon on the PP but couldn't really handle the competition at ES.
I don't think Aho looked out of place both offensively and defensively but of course it wasn't a great success when they couldn't score.
I think it was a reality check for Laine... I just hope the hype around him dies down a little now as some GMs have already over paid if they are hoping for the break out next season
Experience is the teacher of all things.