Day three of the World Junior Hockey Championship kicked off with a Thursday morning game between Finland and Denmark.
I’ll start off by telling you that the score of 4-1 in this game doesn’t do the Finnish performance justice. After a sloppy first 90 seconds from Finland, they dominated the game in every aspect. If it weren’t for Danish goaltender Kasper Krog making an incredible 58 saves, there could have easily been ten goals on the board for Finland.
On a personal note, I was excited to get my first look since the preseason at the Canucks 2016 fifth-overall pick, Olli Julolevi and he didn’t disappoint. Let’s take a closer look.
At the 2:48 mark, Finland opened up the scoring with a quick wrister from Boston Bruins first-round pick Joona Koppanen. The assists went to the Dallas Stars first-round pick Miro Heiskanen, and Calgary Flames first-rounder Jusso Valimaki. These two make up one of the more dynamic offensive pairings in the tournament and it showed today. They were all over the offensive zone as you can see by the chart below, they are heavily leaned on to create offence for the Finland squad.
About four minutes after the opening goal, the Finn’s made it 2-0 when Oilers property Aapeli Rasanen put home a rebound off a ricochet from one of the many Eeli Tolvanen one-timers. Tolvanen was last years 30th overall pick by the Nashville Predators, and he’s been on an interesting journey since last October. He started out the season ranked incredibly high on most scouts draft boards but steadily dropped month after month. It’s possible the steady drop lit a spark under him as he’s now tearing up the KHL with 17 goals in 39 games, which isn’t easy to do as an 18-year-old.
The knock on Tolvanen is that he can disappear for large portions of the game and seem disinterested. That being said, there are times when he decides to flip the switch and can take over the game with his offensive ability. We saw the good version of Tolvanen today and an average one versus Canada. I’m interested to see how his play progresses as the tournament ramps up. We’ll keep a close eye on him.
The Dane’s scored an early goal to make it 2-1 at the 1:29 mark of the second period. A nice release from St. Louis Blues prospect Krag Christensen which completely fooled the Finnish netminder. Despite making it a one goal game, I’m not sure anyone had the feeling Denmark was mounting a comeback. At this point, the Dane’s were being badly outshot and the result of the game was never in doubt.
The score stayed 2-1 until the 15:38 mark of period two when Finland continued to get offence from the mobile blueline. Valimaki hammered home an impressive one-timer. That Flames blueline is already stacked to the max and it just gets scary good! Sorry Canucks fans, but it’s true.
Just over two minutes later, another goal from the Finnish blueline. This time it was the Blackhawks first rounder Henri Jokiharju who pinched in deep and capitalized on a rebound.
The third was scoreless as team Finland continued to pepper poor Krog with another 62 shots on goal! This game was a rout as Finland out shot Denmark 62-7, YIKES!
That being said, if you’re here, you’re likely a Canucks fan and all you want to hear about is Olli Juolevi, so lets take a closer look at how he performed today.
Juolevi played exactly as advertised today. Nothing flashy but he contributed in all three zones with an overall steady performance. That being said, there were still some blips along the way which are noteworthy considering the quality of competition. They were minor and are few and far between but still noticeable. He was beat wide with speed a little too easily for my liking and he’s still in the habit of passing the puck backwards against the grain in hopes his partner can bail him out of tough situations. At this level, I’d like to see a more assertive effort to make the play himself as passing backwards usually ends up getting your team into even more trouble. Nothing to be too worried about, just a couple things to watch for when viewing the future Canuck.

Notes

  • Aleksi Heponiemi (A favourite of J.D. Burke) had a quiet game with rare glimpses of his offensive potential. He had his moments, but he definitely left me wanting more from the 2017, second rounder of the Florida Panthers.
  • Carolina Hurricanes property Janne Kuokkanen had an incredible game. He was all over the offensive zone finishing with 14 (7+7) 5v5 primary shot contributions and 9 shots on goal overall.  
  • Juolevi is currently paired with Henri Jokiharju who in my opinion is the perfect type to compliment Juloevi’s skill-set. He’s right handed, can fly, and incredible in transition. I’m pointing this out because at the moment, I’m not sure the Canucks have a player like this in the organization. The closest thing may be Derrick Pouliot but I’m not fan of pairing two lefties. Anyways, the Canucks have plenty of time to think about as Juolevi will be brewing for a little while yet. Just something to think about.