ALANEN: Reviewing Team Finland’s World Juniors Performance With Film and Data

When I introduced our readers to Finland’s roster ahead of the World Junior Hockey Championship, I declared the team slightly weaker than those of years’ past. With the benefit of hindsight, even that seems to have been optimistic. Finland placed fourth, losing to Sweden in the Bronze Medal Game, but even that result doesn’t tell the whole story.

Finland only won three of their seven games and only one of the four they played against top hockey powers like Sweden, Canada, and the United States. They even dropped a game versus Switzerland in the group stage.

To the young Finns credit, they played easily their best game of the tournament against the USA in the quarterfinals, and as we all know, a win or a loss in the quarterfinals can make or break a tournament.

Even so, I would contest that