Montreal Canadiens: Positivity from Jesperi Kotkaniemi despite tough loss

It was another day of Montreal Canadiens future hockey as Jesperi Kotkaniemi was back at it playing for Team Finland at the under-20 competition.

Coming off a blowout victory on Monday, Montreal Canadiens first-round pick Jesperi Kotkaniemi was on the ice again for Finland. He was amongst the standouts in the previous game despite walking away with a single assist. Kotkaniemi’s hockey IQ and willingness to create plays that led to offensive zone pressure via scoring chances that had him as a focal point in the game.

The 18-year-old remained on the top line next to Linus Nyman and Kaapo Kakku and had a new addition to his jersey in the form of an ‘A.’ However, as the game progressed, he saw time with Aleksi Klemetti and Aarne Talvitie.

Kotkaniemi picked up his performance from where it left off last game. He worked hard along the boards to distribute the puck, and the first instance of this led to a shot on goal as he bumped it up to his point man.

Another thing that stood out was a little more of a chip on his shoulder early on. The Czech Republic was the more aggressive team last game, and although Kotkaniemi got his hit in, he was mostly on the receiving end of them but, was bumping opposing players a little bit in the first, especially in the first period.

A clear highlight from the first came from a neutral zone turnover nearly 13 mins in. Kotkaniemi stole the puck and headed back into the offensive zone drawing three Czech players with him as well. With all the attention on him, Kotkaniemi sent a backhand pass to a streaking in Klemetti who bumped it across to Talvitie.

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Things started to turn south for Finland as they didn’t appear to have the same fire they had in the previous game. At the same time, although Kotkaniemi was still making plays, the Czechs were on him a lot quicker than before. They would leave little space for him and have a physical presence as quickly as possible when he had the puck.

There was a mistake from the young centre in the second period on the power play. Kotkaniemi turned the puck over leading to a breakaway chance against, but luckily with some help from defenceman Oskari Laaksonen, he was stopped.

Kotkaniemi saw approximately 13:30 of ice time going 68% in the faceoff draw (13 wins and 6 losses), with 2 shots on goal. Both came on the power play where the first started in his own zone as he skated to the other end of the ice firing it from the right side. The second was a slap shot from the right circle but was turned aside by the Czech goaltender.

Something reassuring was that although the game was already lost (5-0 at that point), Kotkaniemi continued to play and push. He had a decent hit in the neutral zone and also a nice give-and-go play with Nyman.

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It’ll be a game Finland may not want to remember based on the score, but similar to Monday’s match, there were some of positives from Kotkaniemi to take away from it.