Finland faced off against the Czech Republic in their final tune-up game before the IIHF World Championships later this month and, despite pulling out the win in a shootout, it looks like they’ve got some serious work to do if they hope to compete for gold. If the above clip is any indication, their biggest hurdle might be bench doors and walls.
Some more details from Puck Daddy‘s Harrison Mooney:
It starts with a mixup between Teravainen, who’s trying to hop the boards at the door, and Huhtala, who’s trying to be a good teammate and open it for him. The effect is like having a chair pulled out from under you. Teravainen spills into the open door.
As this is happening, Komarov arrives to get off the ice and, in trying to step over Teravainen, inadvertently steps on his skate and falls over him. As he’s doing so, he gets tangled up with Huhtala, who’s trying to avoid the spill and get over the boards safely. He does not.
Definitely not the sort of thing you want your coaching staff to see you mixed up in when you’re a 19-year-old trying to make the national team, and unfortunately for Teravainen, he is, and he didn’t. The winger was one of the team’s final cuts. You wonder if things would have been different if he looked slightly more capable of executing a simple line change.
Fortunately for the Finns, they’ve got until Saturday to work on those pesky line changes before the games actually count. It certainly looks like they’ve got plenty to improve, that’s for sure.
