Lauri Hannelius competed in his third WFC with Team Canada. Lauri played a key role on defense, helping the team win bronze, netting 7 goals and three assists. Now that he has had a chance to rest, he shares some thoughts on the Championship.
Aside from winning the bronze, coming oh so close to making it into the gold medal match, how did it go? How was the team?
After losing the semifinal to the coming champion Slovakia everybody was feeling quite empty. Our goal was to play in the final and win the tournament, but we ended up third which is also good result thinking about it afterwards. Team Canada was better than ever and we had three good lines who could all score goals. I was very satisfied of the newcomers in Team Canada. New players from Quebec contributed a lot to the team playing together as a line and were dangerous whenever they stepped on the field. Also the new Canadians from Europe found their place right away on the team and gave hard times to the opponents. Both new goalies were surprisingly good and we could have put either one in net. Also the players who were already with Team Canada in 2004 and 2006 were very important to the team and like I said I was very satisfied to the team this year. Too bad we didn’t get the chance to taste the gold together.
We were happy to see that on the scoresheet and live video you had a strong tournament. Were you happy with your performance?
I was quite happy with my own performance; both defensively and offensively. Our line played well, especially on power play. We easily had the best power play in the tournament.
I imagine Team Canada improved in many ways. To prepare for 2010, what is Team Canada missing? What is our new weakness?
The team improved a lot from the last WFC, especially offensively. We played the round robin with three clear wins with a goal difference 33-5. That shows the offensive power and also good defense but still I would say that defense might be the weakness if I have to find something. In the first three games the opponents weren’t really dangerous and it was maybe too easy round robin. Then in the semifinal we met the strong Slovakia which was a totally different quality opponent. Maybe we weren’t quite ready for them defensively and I’m not talking about only defenders but the hole defensive play with all five players. So maybe that is something that we have to improve.
How was the quality of play at the WFC?
The quality of play in the WFC C-division was divided pretty much in three groups. At the top were Slovakia, Canada and Spain which could all do well in the B-division as well. Then came Australia, France and Serbia, who had no chance against the top teams. And then on the bottom there was Liechtenstein, Korea and Georgia who are more or less beginners. The top three teams showed some good floorball and the IFF officials were impressed also of their game. I’m sure that when the WFC system will change to 2010 championship, these teams will be much higher in the rankings than
they are now.
-Lauri-
