Finnish WJC standouts Laine, Puljujarvi call out Canadian juniors

Patrik Laine and Jesse Puljujarvi have looked confident on the ice at the World Junior Championship.

It appears as though they believe that confidence should spread to their teammates.

The Finnish forwards, who are two of the top three scorers in the tournament heading into the final day of preliminary-round action, expressed a willingness to matchup against Canada in the quarter-final.

Laine was particularly outspoken to reporter Sami Hoffren about Canada’s inconsistent play through the first three games, surely hoping the Finns could beat the Czech Republic and earn a date against the defending champs.

While Canada won just one of its first three games in regulation and needed a shootout to beat Switzerland, Laine and Puljujarvi have been tremendous for the host Finns (2-1).

Puljujarvi, Laine and linemate Sebastian Aho are one, two and three in tourney scoring.

What makes the feat particularly impressive for Puljujarvi and Laine is that both projected top-five 2016 NHL draft picks are just 17.

Puljujarvi has three goals and 10 points – ranking him second for most points by a 17-year-old Finnish player in a single tournament. Juha Jyrkkio had 11 in 1977.

Puljujarvi is one point ahead of Sidney Crosby, tied with Mario Lemieux and one behind Connor McDavid on the all-time scoring list for players of that age. And he hasn’t even played half a tournament’s worth of games.

Laine isn’t far behind on the list either. He’s tied for fourth for most points by a 17-year-old Finnish player with current NHLers Aleksander Barkov and Mikael Granlund.

A few more excellent games and Puljujarvi and Laine could pass the likes of Eric Lindros (17 points) and Jaromir Jagr (18 points) at the top of the list.

No wonder they’re confident.

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