Finland is a serious contender in Olympics next year

[Rabid Ranger]

I agree that Finland is a serious contender and shouldn't slept on. The sum are greater than the individual parts of which there is several good pieces.

 

[ddlennon]

Roster if I did it assuming no massive overperformers popup next season

Kakko - Barkov - Rantanen
Teräväinen - Aho - Puljujärvi
Laine - Hintz - Armia
Granlund - Lundell - Donskoi
Haula

Heiskanen - Ristolainen
Lindell - Välimäki
Nutivaara - Vatanen
Määttä - Hakanpää

Rask
Saros

RD Depth is just sad need a lot of youngsters to take big steps next season to have a chance for medal

 

[mattihp]

If I was the GM of team Finland

Kapanen - Hintz- Rantanen
Heiskanen - Jokiharju

Granlund - Barkov - Donskoi
Lindell - Ristolainen

Teräväinen - Aho -Laine
Nutivaara - Hakanpää

Haula - Lundell - Armia
Lehtonen - Kaski

Kakko, Kotkaniemi, Puljujärvi, Määttä and Välimäki are the extras.

My reasoning is that first 3 lines are all fairly balanced with clear strengths. First line is fast and dangerous and they played together for Jalonen as a line in 2016 when they won WJC gold, so previous chemistry is already established. 2nd line has great possession players, 3rd line has the Teräväinen - Aho pairing that will be also the main PK duo with Lindell and Ristolainen. 4th Line has Haula and Armia that will be 2nd PK duo with Heiskanen and Hakanpää. Barkov and Granlund can play PK also if need be. First PP will be Granlund, Hintz, Rantanen, Laine, Heiskanen. 2nd PP Teräväinen, Aho, Barkov, Lindell, Ristolainen.

Defensive depth is pretty bad and clearly the weakest of any top country, and the team needs to lean heavily on the top4. Luckily Heiskanen, Lindell and Ristolainen have been top25 in ice time for the last 3 years, so they can eat minutes.

I think special teams will be extra important and Finland has great special teams players. Aho, Teräväinen and Armia are all top 15 players in the NHL in SHP/60 for the past 3 years with Aho and Teräväinen being both top 5. Lindell is the SHTOI king in the entire NHL. PP should be dangerous as well with Rantanen, Barkov and Laine all being top 20 in PPGs for the last 3 years and Hintz was actually 3rd in PPP/60 in the entire NHL this season and 1st in primary PPP/60.

Rask and Saros are self-explanatory and Lankinen has proved that he can handle the pressure of a championship game.

Hakanpää is making a good NHL career now, but I don't think he can fit all too well in Jukka's game plan. Kaski won't be there, probably not Ristolainen either. Määttä and Pokka will be there, maybe Välimäki too. Riikola? Dark horse!

 

[canswetoxic]

ITT: Too many people are equating “serious contender” with “automatic gold medal champion”

Best post ever. Marry me.

 

[Ippenator]

Hakanpää is making a good NHL career now, but I don't think he can fit all too well in Jukka's game plan. Kaski won't be there, probably not Ristolainen either. Määttä and Pokka will be there, maybe Välimäki too. Riikola? Dark horse!

Pokka?!?! What the hell? The worst defenceman by a mile for team Finland at the WHC tournament at the moment. Hakanpää is an enormously better player than Pokka is.

 

[mattihp]

Pokka?!?! What the hell? The worst defenceman by a mile for team Finland at the WHC tournament at the moment. Hakanpää is an enormously better player that Pokka is.

Pokka is clearly a favourite of Jalonen. He might be a mood regulator like Juha Lind was for Aravirta's teams. Hakanpää is clearly one of Finland's top-six defenseman and has qualities most teams need.

If Pokka makes the team based on his play he wouldn't be on these squad now considering his play in 2019.

 

[Mountlaine]

I've heard good things about Niko Mikkola. If he keeps progressing he might be better than Määttä, Lehtonen and Välimäki.

 

[mattihp]

I've heard good things about Niko Mikkola. If he keeps progressing he might be better than Määttä, Lehtonen and Välimäki.

I hope Lehtonen will be there, but somehow I feel he will be in a bad situation career wise.

 

[Ippenator]

Pokka is clearly a favourite of Jalonen. He might be a mood regulator like Juha Lind was for Aravirta's teams.

True that he is a favorite for Jalonen at the WHC-tournament level, but his weaknesses with bad skating and slow and too often bad decision making will still keep him out of the best against best tournament even how much he is Jalonen’s favorite in WHC-tournaments.

 

[mattihp]

True that he is a favorite for Jalonen at the WHC tournament level, but his weaknesses with bad skating and slow and too often bad decision making will still keep him out of the best against best tournament even how much he is Jalonen’s favorite in WHC-tournaments.

I hope so, but I always hoped Juha would be left out too..

 

[RorschachWJK]

Better than 2002.

That image conjures a whole new level to the expression
'facepalm'.

 

[mattihp]

That image conjures a whole new level to the expression
'facepalm'.

My brother had the video of that goal on his computer startup

 

[ORRFForever]

I agree that Finland is a serious contender and shouldn't slept on. The sum are greater than the individual parts of which there is several good pieces.

Finnish fans can correct me if I am wrong but I don't think the Finns play a "system" like the Swedes do - or like the Swedes use to. Makes me wonder how the Finns gel so well.

 

[ORRFForever]

Better than 2002.

I was at work and couldn't watch that game. I got a call and someone (my dad?) who told me the Swedes had lost on a fluke goal. I went around and told my co-workers. No one could believe it. Everyone was happy, though.

 

[mattihp]

Finnish fans can correct me if I am wrong but I don't think the Finns play a "system" like the Swedes do - or like the Swedes use to. Makes me wonder how the Finns gel better than many countries.

Finland play a system, it is recognizable by watching one period of play. The team gels well because each player is picked with a role in mind and the rosters are finalized early so that the players who end up on the roster get more time together.

 

[paragon]

Hakanpää is making a good NHL career now, but I don't think he can fit all too well in Jukka's game plan. Kaski won't be there, probably not Ristolainen either. Määttä and Pokka will be there, maybe Välimäki too. Riikola? Dark horse!

I guess it depends on how much Jalonen puts on NHL pedigree and size. While I'm not all-in on size Hakanpää and Kaski would make our defense bigger. And personally I feel that if Hakanpää is good enough to play on Carolina's PK, he should be good enough to play PK for team Finland. I have also personally always been down on Ristolainen, but realistically there aren't a lot of PK options, especially when I cut mr. Glass (Vatanen) from the team. Beggars can't be choosers.

I think it's fair to assume Kaski won't be there and even if he was he could be behind Määttä in depth chart. I just personally also put some weight on the offensive upside of defensemen and Kaski has a lot more offensive upside than our other fringe defensemen. He was good enough to win the KHL championship with Avangard this season and that counts for something in my book as well.

I don't think defensemen outside of top 6 really matter that much anyway as they shouldn't see much ice time anyway. Heinola and Välimäki have the most to prove next year and they could both position themselves in my top 8.

 

[NyQuil]

I was at work and couldn't watch that game. I got a call and someone (my dad?) told me the Swedes had lost on a fluke goal. I went around and told my co-workers. No one could believe it. Everyone was happy, though.

I saw the end of the game including this goal. I couldn’t believe it. I thought it would be the end of Tommy Salo and it sort of was.

It was quite a shock as the Swedes had played well up to that point.

A CAN-SWE semifinal would have been interesting.

 

[mattihp]

I guess it depends on how much Jalonen puts on NHL pedigree and size. While I'm not all-in on size Hakanpää and Kaski would make our defense bigger. And personally I feel that if Hakanpää is good enough to play on Carolina's PK, he should be good enough to play PK for team Finland. I have also personally always been down on Ristolainen, but realistically there aren't a lot of PK options, especially when I cut mr. Glass (Vatanen) from the team. Beggars can't be choosers.

I think it's fair to assume Kaski won't be there and even if he was he could be behind Määttä in depth chart. I just personally also put some weight on the offensive upside of defensemen and Kaski has a lot more offensive upside than our other fringe defensemen. He was good enough to win the KHL championship with Avangard this season and that counts for something in my book as well.

I don't think defensemen outside of top 6 really matter that much anyway as they shouldn't see much ice time anyway. Heinola and Välimäki have the most to prove next year and they could both position themselves
in my top 8.

If Ristolainen wants to be there, he should. He probably doesn't though. Heinola is also a good dark horse candidate, especially if one of the offensive options is outm

 

[ORRFForever]

I saw the end of the game including this goal. I couldn’t believe it. I thought it would be the end of Tommy Salo and it sort of was.

It was quite a shock as the Swedes had played well up to that point.

A CAN-SWE semifinal would have been interesting.

I was also working during the Canada-Belarus game so I found an excuse to leave my office and work somewhere where I could get the radio signal. The game kept fading in and out but it was irrelevant after the first(?) period.

I can't believe that was 20 years ago.

 

[THE JAM]

My brother had the video of that goal on his computer startup

This is what Hockey Gods said about it:

Finland was actually the best icehockey team TORINO 2006

 

[ORRFForever]

A CAN-SWE semifinal would have been interesting.

Scary, too, considering how badly they beat us in the opening game.

 

[JabbaJabba]

Hakanpää is making a good NHL career now, but I don't think he can fit all too well in Jukka's game plan. Kaski won't be there, probably not Ristolainen either. Määttä and Pokka will be there, maybe Välimäki too. Riikola? Dark horse!

Dude, Hakanpää was just fine two years ago playing Jukka's system. And Ristolainen will be there.

 

[Elias40]

[QUOTE = "ORRFForever, příspěvek: 178536953, člen: 309287"] Byl jsem v práci a nemohl jsem tu hru sledovat. Zavolal jsem a někdo (můj otec?), Který mi řekl, že Švédové prohráli na náhodném gólu. Šel jsem kolem a řekl jsem to svým spolupracovníkům. Nikdo tomu nemohl uvěřit. Všichni však byli šťastní. [/ QUOTE]

Because you were afraid of Sweden?

 

[GrandmaSlices51631]

Lol this is such an arrogant take. Everyone knows Canada is the favorite in this tournament. Take a breath. Games aren’t played on paper.

sounds like you took this personal. I’m American and rooting for Team USA anyway. Best of luck to the Finns

 

[FiLe]

First line is fast and dangerous and they played together for Jalonen as a line in 2016 when they won WJC gold, so previous chemistry is already established.

Just playing in the same team does not established chemistry make. Because while they did begin the 2016 WJC together - they in fact failed to establish much chemistry; Jalonen eventually broke the line up midway through the group stage and replaced Kapanen with Antti Kalapudas. Kapanen ended up on a line with Julius Nättinen and Aleksi Saarela, the latter of whom was on the ice with him during the famous golden goal.

Of course, that was five years ago, and these players have matured, developed - and even been somewhat forced to reinvent themselves. So I'm not saying that what didn't work back then wouldn't work today. But regardless, their experiences from 2016 is not an argument for it - but rather against.

3rd line has the Teräväinen - Aho pairing that will be also the main PK duo with Lindell and Ristolainen.

Teräväinen and Aho should obviously stay together, but I recommend you take another look at which kind of player usually complements this dynamic duo. It's a space-making power forward - regularly Svechnikov, sometimes Niederreiter in Carolina, and the last time they played for the NT in 2018, V-M Savinainen played that dirty worker's role. However, Laine is not that kind of player. Of that player type, the best we have - perhaps the very best in the entire world - is Rantanen. Another option would be this fellow who's presently doing that same kind of work alongside a certain Connor McDavid. A fellow who also happens to have a fair bit of previous history with Aho.

Laine is, of course, not a line driver and needs a good set-up man to get the most out of him. Aho would certainly suit that role perfectly - but luckily he isn't our only option. Utilizing existing chemistries is important in a short tournament with next to none preparation time, but Aho isn't the only one who has good experiences with Laine. Laine has, in fact, even more familiarity with Barkov. They're BFFs, they regularly train together in Tampere in summers, and they also played together to a great effect in the 2016 men's worlds.

Taking all this into account, the smart guess is that Laine-Barkov and Teräväinen-Aho are the two key duos to build our top two lines around. Rantanen looks like the obvious choice to complement one of these lines. I'd place him in Sasha's line, and let Pulju handle the same role for his old familiar Aho.

Of course, if one wants to see Rantanen as more than just a complementary player, then one option could be to spread the wealth and use Rantanen-Hintz as a third duo to build one more elite scoring line. It's not like we don't have enough quality wingers to complement our top-9: Granlund, Donskoi, Kapanen, Kakko and Tolvanen are all good candidates.