Olympics: Finland post 4 Nations Tournament 2025 Roster Talk

[Jyri]

Now that games are played, lets discuss about what worked, and where are major improvements needed.

Lines:
1. Barkov did his job, Rants never stepped up to full potential. Lehkonen/Kakko nothing flashy maybe Kakko was more impressive

2. Aho, Hinz nothing seemed to go their way. Granlund has great energy.

3. Luostarinen Lundell Laine. Managed to play ok.

4. Kakko Haula Armia. Did their job not allowin goals.


Pennanen should have made adjustments to lines to find chemistry. Why seperate Aho and Teravainen? Hinz and Rants never played together...

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[Faterson]

What about the defence and goaltending? Not even worth an analysis?

 

[Noldo]

The defense was pleasant surprise although it is easier to surpass expectations when the expectations are low. I had not realized that Mikkola is playing at that level. Mikkola, Lindell and Määttä are good basis for steady defense. Heiskanen will improve play with puck tremendously, but drop off from him to Jokiharju will unfortunately remain quite massive.

Didn’t really see much chemistry between Barkov and Rantanen. Hopefully Moose and Aho gel together in Carolina. Would help Carolina, Rantanen and Finland.

 

[violaswallet]

The defense was pleasant surprise although it is easier to surpass expectations when the expectations are low. I had not realized that Mikkola is playing at that level. Mikkola, Lindell and Määttä are good basis for steady defense. Heiskanen will improve play with puck tremendously, but drop off from him to Jokiharju will unfortunately remain quite massive.

Didn’t really see much chemistry between Barkov and Rantanen. Hopefully Moose and Aho gel together in Carolina. Would help Carolina, Rantanen and Finland.

Agree on Barkov and Rantanen. Florida board felt that Reinhart would have score 1-2 goals against Canada with the chances.

I felt like Luostarinen-Lundell were good together, but Laine wasn't the right line mate. I wanted them to try Aho or Rantanen there actually...

 

[Marioesque]

Agree on Barkov and Rantanen. Florida board felt that Reinhart would have score 1-2 goals against Canada with the chances.

I felt like Luostarinen-Lundell were good together, but Laine wasn't the right line mate. I wanted them to try Aho or Rantanen there actually...

I would have wanted to see Laine with Barkov at some point because Rantanen wasn't really working well there. Teravainen-Aho-Rantanen would have made sense from familiarity point of view. Aho was lost in this tournament.

 

[elmaco]

What about the defence and goaltending? Not even worth an analysis?

Maatta looked like he was back in PIT, rocking. Rest were pretty forgettable, at least good energy on some of the AHL guys. Saros was garbage in game 1 but almost helped a comeback in game 3, Lankinen was good in game 2 but sucked ass in game 3.

 

[hypereconomist]

Matinpalo looked pretty good for a late bloomer with 22 NHL games under his belt. However, Valimaki should have been subbed in for one of Vaakanainen or Matinpalo for the Canada game.

 

[Uncle Scrooge]

Im optimistic about the defense being able to maximize it's potential. It's never going to be as good as the other top nations, but with the right minute distribution and roles, I feel like it can compete.

Heiskanen playing 25 minutes is going to help in every aspect, especially the transition game. Him with Lindell, Mikkola and Maatta is a competitive top 4 (I'll just leave Risto as a wild card). And I thought the NHL 3rd pairing guys looked decent enough to not make me feel like it's a disaster to have them see ice.

There were also some signs with the PP and extra attacker that once the forwards get more time together and more games in a more traditional tournament setting, that we can be a very dangerous special teams team. We're probably going to completely destroy some of the weaker teams in that tournament scoring a shit ton of goals with the man advantage. Especially if they figure out the Laine shot.

Biggest thing for me is, lines need some work. I don't think anything really worked in a way that made me say "this is it". Barkov-Rantanen were OK in the offensive zone (only produced 1 goal), but once the game started to flow end to end more, the lack of footspeed was a bit of an issue for me. They basically had to start the shift in the o-zone to get stuff going.

Hintz-Aho never did anything. I guess the Lundell-Luostarinen-Laine line was pretty good relative to the level of those guys.

But yeah I think we have to mix our top guys with Aho and Hintz to get the best balance of speed and skill. If Rants stays in Carolina, he's probably going to be paired with Aho once it's time for the Olympics, which would maybe leave Hintz with Barkov? I don't hate it.

I think the win over Sweden was huge for the group. World Cup was a disaster and that was the last time any of these guys played in a best on best tournament. And with this group never really been together in the past, just getting a character win is a morale boost. Even though they lost clean to the Americans, I think that win is going to leave a positive mindset for the guys.

 

[karhukissa]

Think about Sochi, Vancouver or Torino. We had worse rosters, but yet we played much better. Brutal fact is that Pennanen did terrible job. Absolutely terrible.

Is it coincidence that Hintz, arguably a top center in the NHL, did a rookie mistake which lead to first Canada goal? They had some absolutely weird fixation to just get the puck out of the zone as soon as possible. Under Jalonen they weren't in a hurry, they aimed to control the puck.

I would fire him on the spot. Or then Westerlund or Jalonen should have a meeting with him and ask why didn't you coach your team at all? "Let the boys play", even USA had a clear structure.

 

[Sanf]

Think about Sochi, Vancouver or Torino. We had worse rosters, but yet we played much better. Brutal fact is that Pennanen did terrible job. Absolutely terrible.

Is it coincidence that Hintz, arguably a top center in the NHL, did a rookie mistake which lead to first Canada goal? They had some absolutely weird fixation to just get the puck out of the zone as soon as possible. Under Jalonen they weren't in a hurry, they aimed to control the puck.

I would fire him on the spot. Or then Westerlund or Jalonen should have a meeting with him and ask why didn't you coach your team at all? "Let the boys play", even USA had a clear structure.

Quite harsh. That was the first tournament for Pennanen. I wasn´t fan of his line selections and preparing to the games was partly odd. But it was an odd tournament.

And Torino. Yes our offense has on paper better players now. On D I would have taken the original top 4 of Torino (Timonen, Salo, Lydman, Numminen) over what we have in this tournament. Goaltenders... I don´t see really a difference between Lankinen and Niittymäki and Saros is having offseason.

Vancouver... well I don´t really remember Finland playing all that well. Quarter finals against Czechia was good and battle win against Slovakia in bronze game. Outside of that there were some really bad games...Confusions with the "playbook"... Selänne whining during tournament... Jokinen and Selänne retiring from NT after the tournament. And Jalonen was known as EHT-Jukka.

Sochi was a masterpiece from Westerlund, but he was veteran coach already then. Had coached Selänne 25 years before in U20 WHC..