PUSHING FOR A STRONG FINNISH

On Jan. 5, 2016, a then-17-year-old Juuso Valimaki, eight-and-a-half hours away by jet from the action, from where he so desperately wanted to be, couldn't pry his gaze from the TV.
As the world junior gold medal tussle wore on, played out, unable to influence the outcome, he caught himself riding a carousel of emotions.
Anxiety. Pride. Exhilaration.
And, as he was only able to admit to himself later on, a slight, piercing stab of envy.

"Obviously, I'd be lying to say I wasn't a little disappointed that I hadn't made the team,'' acknowledges the Flames' blue-chip defence prospect coming on two years later. "I'd been at the camp that summer and was one of the last guys they let go.
"I mean, to win a tournament like that, in your home country … those opportunities come along once-in-a-lifetime, if you're lucky.
"So of course you're watching the celebrations and thinking 'What if?' just a bit, wishing you were a part of it.
"That's what you imagine, growing up. Being part of something like that.
"But seeing all the fans reacting to Finland winning the gold medal at home was amazing, anyway. Great for the whole country.
"A really, really big kick for junior hockey back home."
That kick he mentioned, Finland's home-ice 4-3 world junior championship compelling title triumph over Team Russia at Helsinki's Hartwell Arena went, in only 12 months time, to a hard, swift kick in the …
With Valimaki a year older, having graduated from spectator to protagonist in the interim, the Finns struggled out of the gate at the Toronto-Montreal co-hosted 2017 WJC event, finishing a dispiriting 1-3 and shunted to the relegation side, a dubious first for a defending champion. The failure cost coach Jukka Rautakorpi his job, before the tournament had even ended.
The four-time world champs only remained in the top flight by beating Latvia in a best-of-three series, in two straight games.

Beginning Tuesday in Buffalo, they are out to make amends.
"Playing here in North America again, there'll be a lot of fans, great atmosphere, media attention,'' says Valimaki, limited to 19 starts for the Western Hockey League's Tri-City Americans by a lower-body injury.
"We have a lot to prove.
"All the guys who were there last year haven't forgotten. We got taught a lesson. It wasn't fun. We don't want to dwell on what happened but it's important we learn from what happened."
Valimaki's influence will be substantial in Buffalo. At the World Junior Summer Showcase event in Plymouth, Mich., Finnish head coach Jussi Ahokas announced that his star defenceman - selected 16th overall by the Flames this past summer - would assume the captaincy.
Before last year's world juniors, he'd captained his country, under Ahokas's tutelage, to an under-18 gold medal in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
"Being captain,'' says Valimaki. "is really cool. I've always wanted to be a leader, on and off the ice. Back home growing up I always played with and against older guys, so I'd watch them, see how they did things every day.
"It's important for every player to be a leader in their own way but to wear that letter, that C, it's special, for sure."

And another opportunity to represent the Suomi.
"It's always a big responsibility. An honour. You hear it all the time, but it's just … different from anything else. Any other game.
"I can't even explain why or how. It just is.
"You're not being counted on by a team or a city, which is great, too. But this is an entire country. You feel you can't let them down."
This time 'round, the Finns finds themselves slotted into Group A alongside a pair of titans, and last year's finalists - the Americans and Canadians. They open up with a test of their mettle on Boxing Day at the KeyBank Center, versus Canada.
The road to redemption will not be easily travelled.
"The biggest thing for us,'' stresses Valimaki, "is to start on time. By that I mean the tournament goes by so fast you can't afford to start slow.
"We have a good team. I know that. You can visualize winning it in your mind beforehand. I like visualizing games before we play them. This, before the tournament, is basically the same thing.
"Just because things didn't go our way last year doesn't mean they can't this year. We all remember what happened two years ago.
"We can compete for the title. We believe that.
"That's why we play."