Finnish Wing

Lehtonen is waaaayy better than Toskala. Don't even compare those two. Lehtonen is injury prone but still one of the most underrated goalies in the league.

People really thinking Babs and Kenny looking to replace Leino just because they scratched him. : D

Kari Lehtonen would be awesome. Would love to see what he could do when playing for a team that can really win the cup.

I totally disagree. There are tons of examples against that. Finnish goalies Pekka Rinne and Niklas Backstrom haven't always "got it". Backstrom took a step from being one of the best goalies in the Finnish league to being one of the best goalies in the NHL when he was no kid anymore. Who knows if something snaps in Howard's head and he suddenly becomes a good NHL goalie. Small things in your head are big things on the ice.

I though those contract were only about young drafted players coming to NHL. I didn't know there was some kinda limit of maximum salary (except the ~11M or something) in Leino's case. If Leino's salary is really "only" 800k because of some rule in NHL then I take back my words.

You're just trolling right? Or maybe you're just stupid. It all comes down to coaching. Many of you stare at the stats too much. For example the coaching USA has in that tournament is nowhere near Finland's coaching. Finland's game will be a lightyear ahead of USA even though the players are not as good. "Iffy goal tending"? Backs has been the best goaltender in the whole NHL since he game here if you look at the stats. You can argue as much as you like but the fact is that the only two countries challenging for the top goaltending country are Finland and Canada. Not to mention that international games are always different than NHL games. Remember who was the MVP in Torino 06? Antero Niittymaki - has never been a starter in the NHL. Finland wasn't even in the top 4 in Torino if you look material of players. Still dominated the whole tournament. And I mean dominated. Still, a loss to Swedes in the finals though. Also, I think that talent available is pretty good considering there are about five million people in Finland. So basically if you know something about hockey you know how big part of it is coaching and the style of playing. You just wait and see.

Those first two lines would play equal amount of time. The point is that Mikko knows Antti and Tuomo and Saku knows Teemu and Olli. All the same which is the 1st line on the paper.

Maybe it's not Leino's fault. He gets the 800k and plays like that. Maybe Holland and Babs should organize this better team so there weren't question marks like that. I never said I expect him to score 30+. This is a salary cap world and everyone should notice that before bashing anyone. Maybe your team isn't organized well if you've got 1,5M guy centering the fourth line while 800k guy should be a top six player.

You still didn't understand the point. He gets under 800k. People doesn't seem to get it. Bertuzzi gets 2x Leino's salary. If you think it's because I'm Finnish you're just wrong. I've watched him play since 2002. As long as his salary is what it is, I suggest that you stop bashing him.

Leino gets 800k. Zetterberg gets 6M.

It's not what you've done. It's what you do.

I just fear that Leino isn't a kinda player who plays better with that kinda coaching. He hasn't been that good (not the only one in the team), but that decision may just make things worse. Unless, he's changed (from the years in Finland) and gets a boost from that, which I really hope.

Filppula-Helm-Williams Holmström-Datsyuk-Abdelkader Franzen-Zetterberg-May Leino-Draper-Bertuzzi Newbury Ericsson-Stuart Lidstrom-Lebda Kronwall-Rafalski Kindl Osgood Larsson

Starting these kinda threads is like throwing meat to a hungry jakeryan.

Yup. Hawks signed Hossa only to get - the main prize - Kopecky.

Raimo Helminen

So by playing bad you get more ice time?

There ain't a mask big enough for that.

Yeah and that's because the coaching has been world-class here in recent years. Raimo Summanen, Erkka Westerlund and now Jukka Jalonen. All top coaches in the world. Doug Shedden coached one year, but he should never have been chosen for the job. All he could do was yell at the players. Jukka Jalonen's game style and tactics are a lightyear ahead of Ron Wilson's (also many other coaches in the NHL). Babcock, Gustaffson, Bykov and Jalonen are the top coaches in those Olympics (and in the world at the time too). I believe those four teams will be the top4 (in no specific order). Czech and Slovakia are also in the tournament with only decent coaching. I would say that there is a lot of question marks over those two teams. If nothing unusual happens both of them will be outside of the top4.

Weak on the skates? He's improved a lot in speed from the last year. I think he's just as fast as many other guys in this team. His style just isn't all about speed like Helm's. But when Leino skates in the neutral zone, you can see that he's a lot faster now. That "hands made of cement" argument is just straight up ridiculous. Had one bad game where he didn't score on a scoring chance and in the shootout and now his hands are made of cement? Gimme a break. This guy has top5 hands in the team. Didn't know 186 cm (6 feet 1 inch) was small these days. Soft? Maybe he doesn't give many big hits but he loves to take hits. Leino has said many times before that taking hits just boosts up his play. He has also crashed the net at times, scored a goal that way earlier and made a good play in the Flip's goal too. But overall, his game isn't even about crashing the net or hitting everything that moves. If backchecking counts as checking you can't say that Leino "has yet to finish a check". You can clearly see that he has improved tremendously in his backchecking too. LEINO BACKCHECKING? Oh, yes. So before you make that kinda arguments - actually looked more like bad sarcasm - watch the games and get the facts. kthxbai

LOL exactly.

Still don't understand why most people think Kipper SUCKS. The guy played +75 game seasons. God, give him some rest. You'll see this season (if he plays normal amount of games) that he'll rise back to the top again. One of the most funniest comments was someone saying that he doesn't even deserve to be a starter. I mean LOL?

Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Holmstrom Leino-Filppula-Williams Bertuzzi-Helm-Cleary May-Draper-Maltby Eaves

Are we judging by playing skills too or fighting skills only?

Osgood is steal, no doubt about that. But is goalie the right position to bargain in? Single most important position in the team (after coach).