The World Juniors Coaches Q&A Series: Team Finland's Antti Pennanen
E
EP Rinkside
Summary: This is a summary of an article originally published by EP Rinkside. Read the full original article here →
The 2021 IIHF World Junior Championship is just around the corner, and I had the opportunity to chat with Antti Pennanen, head coach of Team Finland about this year’s squad. What follows is an exclusive question and answer session with Pennanen, as we continue a series of Q&A articles with some of the coaches participating in the World Junior Hockey Championships later this month in Edmonton.
So this has been a very new situation for all of us, and we couldn’t play international level games at all, but I am happy that our players have been playing in their home teams all season and I am glad that we had those camps because, for me, this is the first year with these players, so it has been very important that I have had a chance to spend time with them and get to know them. Overall this has been a very new situation and not ideal, but I think that we handled that as well as we could.
For that reason, I am very eager to see how we play as a team in the exhibition games.
AP: We believe in the team game, for sure, and our plan is that we are going to play typical Finnish hockey -- good teamwork and effort -- and we are going to bring some individual skills also.
He is very humble and he wants to win and can compete so he is one of the biggest leaders in our team - and our captain - and he is ready for that.
Of course, we have a dream to win that trophy again, and we know that we have a good team and we can do it if everything goes right.
So this has been a very new situation for all of us, and we couldn’t play international level games at all, but I am happy that our players have been playing in their home teams all season and I am glad that we had those camps because, for me, this is the first year with these players, so it has been very important that I have had a chance to spend time with them and get to know them. Overall this has been a very new situation and not ideal, but I think that we handled that as well as we could.
For that reason, I am very eager to see how we play as a team in the exhibition games.
AP: We believe in the team game, for sure, and our plan is that we are going to play typical Finnish hockey -- good teamwork and effort -- and we are going to bring some individual skills also.
He is very humble and he wants to win and can compete so he is one of the biggest leaders in our team - and our captain - and he is ready for that.
Of course, we have a dream to win that trophy again, and we know that we have a good team and we can do it if everything goes right.