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Finland Roster

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While I might have gone with Jussi Jokinen, I have no real problem with Hentunen either. He was good in world cup, and his role is more of a spark plug than a goal scorer or anything. I would have seen the 3rd line role a bit different, but Hentunen can be easily justified though. And dont forget his chemistry with N.Kapanen. Very good defensive line with some offence too. Very fast line.
 
I looked at it and thought a bit..

Our B Team/ Taxi team.. ?

Forward corps quite young, ouch.

J Jokinen- V Filppula - T Pärssinen
T Kallio - J Immonen - T Salmelainen
V Nieminen - J Viuhkola - J Voutilainen
J Rita - R Hahl - N Hagman
K Sahlstedt or J Lind


Defence is bad, mostly hurt by the injury to Karalahti. Can we select Boumedienne or whats the story with him these days?
Six or seven SM-Liiga golds, who has a better resume than Ilkka Mikkola? Lumme I disqualify on account of his previous brainfarts for Finland.

Nummelin - Niinimaa
Kukkonen - A Vallin (c)
AJ Niemi - I Mikkola
S Lepistö


Goaltending is better than we've had in Olympics before.. so there's somehting to look forward to.

Niittymäki
Toivonen
Markkanen


It's not that bad all things considering..
 
Tuggy said:
Why was Toivonen not taken over Lehtonen.
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Because healthy Lehtonen is better than Toivonen, and if Lehtonen wont get healthy and get some games before the olympics, they can replace him with Niittymäki or Toivonen. I'd say Niittymäki though.

Lehtonen also has more international experience, and everyone knows his upside, which is higher than Kipper's.
 
psycho_dad said:
Because healthy Lehtonen is better than Toivonen, and if Lehtonen wont get healthy and get some games before the olympics, they can replace him with Niittymäki or Toivonen. I'd say Niittymäki though.

Lehtonen also has more international experience, and everyone knows his upside, which is higher than Kipper's.
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That makes sense, I just have a hard time believing that Lehtonen will be healthy but like you said he can be replaced if nessecary. Oh and Toivonen > Niittymäki ;) but that's a whole other discussion.
 
blacklabel said:
Disagree. Jokinen should be on the team.
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I think too that J.Jokinen should be there. But not over Hentunen.
Maybe over A.Miettinen or A. Laaksonen.
But, if T. Ruutu can´t play then J.Jokinen will likely be in team.
 
blacklabel said:
No, I'm not joking. Niinimaa is clearly the most underrated finnish defenceman among finnish posters. I'm sick and tired all this Niinimaa-bashin here at HF and arguing that Berg is better than Niinimaa is just laughable.
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I agree that Niinimaa has been just brutal in int. competition. I have a problem with Berg being there, because he also has a tendency to make huge blunders in big games. I would have liked to see Karalahti on the team, but unfortunately he broke his ankle last week and is out for 2,5 months. A-J Niemi could have been a better choice than Berg maybe.. After these three who else is there? Petteri Nummelin would be purely a PP-guy, and when you only have 7 d's you can't afford to select a guy who's such a big defensive liability. Guys like Pettinen, Saravo, Söderholm, Lepistö etc. are all clearly a notch below the guys selected.

As for the forwards I would have replaced Peltonen with Jussi Jokinen and Jukka Hentunen with Ville Nieminen. Peltonen is the type of player who does well in the World Championships but is more or less useless against the very best competition in the world. J. Jokinen has proved this fall that he is able to produce against the best competition in the world in the NHL, something Peltonen failed to do. Nemo on the other hand would have brought a strong psysical precense to the team.
 
Ville Nieminen has never really excelled in the national team, so I'm fine with him not making the roster. And I'm glad they picked Antti Laaksonen, who's never failed to impress me when playing for team Finland. I can also live with Hentunen on the team and I guess J.Jokinen's absence can also be justified from a certain point of view. Even Aki Berg has had his good moments, and usually in the Olympics.

But ignoring Niittymäki's current form and past accomplishments/experience was just DUMB. Lehtonen I can defnitely understand because of his upside, but not Norrena. I know the backup ain't exactly the most critical role in a team, but why pick an average talent (relatively speaking) when better are available? It's not like Niittymäki doesn't have any experience or hasn't proven he can handle the pressure.

Here's hoping Kipper stays healthy.
 
Latkamaila said:
I think too that J.Jokinen should be there. But not over Hentunen.
Maybe over A.Miettinen or A. Laaksonen.
But, if T. Ruutu can´t play then J.Jokinen will likely be in team.
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No way he should be there over Miettinen. And yeah if Ruutu can't play, Jokinen will likely make the team.
 
TK79 said:
Peltonen is the type of player who does well in the World Championships but is more or less useless against the very best competition in the world.
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I disagree. Peltonen has always done very well in the super tournaments...he was good in Nagano (scored in the bronze game as well, might have been game winning goal, as usual) and was part of the best finnish line in World cup. It is a mystery to myself too, how he can play so well against the best but still he never really made it in the NHL.
 
Sampe said:
But ignoring Niittymäki's current form and past accomplishments/experience was just DUMB. Lehtonen I can defnitely understand because of his upside, but not Norrena. I know the backup ain't exactly the most critical role in a team, but why pick an average talent (relatively speaking) when better are available? It's not like Niittymäki doesn't have any experience or hasn't proven he can handle the pressure.
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There is a simple reason. Norrena is miles better than that overrated crap Niittymäki.
 
TK79 said:
I agree that Niinimaa has been just brutal in int. competition...
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I didn't say Niinimaa has been brutal in int. games. :dunno:

I admit that he hasn't been very good either, but not as bad as some of the posters here at HF have been saying.
 
Lindros_for_rizzle_ said:
There is a simple reason. Norrena is miles better than that overrated crap Niittymäki.
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:biglaugh:


Advice for you.



Start watching games.
 
Sampe said:
Ville Nieminen has never really excelled in the national team, so I'm fine with him not making the roster.
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Nieminen has all whopping 6 games (0+1, +2, 2 PIM) in big tournaments (World Cup, Olympics and World Championships) no wonder he never made impact on you. I'd think he oughta get a chance to prove himself in that level too, specially if players like Hentunen makes it in the team.
 
Taze said:
Nieminen has all whopping 6 games (0+1, +2, 2 PIM) in big tournaments (World Cup, Olympics and World Championships) no wonder he never made impact on you. I'd think he oughta get a chance to prove himself in that level too, specially if players like Hentunen makes it in the team.
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I'm not saying I wouldn't have picked him, just that his absence doesn't really bother me. I WOULD have preferred him over Jarkko Ruutu, but that might be just 'cause I hate the kind of hockey Ruutu represents. At least Nieminen has a pair of hands.

Hentunen probably wouldn't have made my team, either, but these players are more or less apples and oranges for me. One Jukka Hentunen will neither help nor destroy our chances much. And besides, he was pretty good in the World Cup IIRC.
 
blacklabel said:
I'm not sure, but I think the "taxi" squad will be announced later.
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Niittymaki is reportedly going to be on the taxi squad.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15798201&BRD=1675&PAG=461&dept_id=18170&rfi=6

In other Olmpic news, a source close to the situation told the Daily Times that Flyers goalie Antero Niittymaki was not going to be named to the 23-man Finnish roster when its team is announced later today.
Niittymaki wouldn’t comment until the roster is announced, but the source said Niittymaki received a call from the Finnish contingent Wednesday and was told he didn’t make the roster, but would be placed on the three-man reserve list, meaning if one of the three goalies gets hurt or can’t play, then Niittymaki would be called up, so to speak.
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That's even more assanine! What are the chances that anyone even gets to their 4th goaltender? These aren't the worlds.
 
blacklabel said:
Flyers fans, who have actually seen him play, would probably disagree with you.
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...and have any of them seen Norrena? Doubt it.

I'm shocked Norrena's on the team, but seriously, he plays for Finland in a lot of tourneys, doesn't he? Might as well take someone who knows the big ice. I get the impression that a lot of Finns dump on him because he plays in Sweden, but you all might want to check out his stats sometime. If he was a little more reasonable with his contract demands, he WOULD be an NHL goalie.
 
Sotnos said:
...and have any of them seen Norrena? Doubt it.

I'm shocked Norrena's on the team, but seriously, he plays for Finland in a lot of tourneys, doesn't he? Might as well take someone who knows the big ice. I get the impression that a lot of Finns dump on him because he plays in Sweden, but you all might want to check out his stats sometime. If he was a little more reasonable with his contract demands, he WOULD be an NHL goalie.
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Any goalie who plays in Finland knows the big ice being that they don't see NHL ice until they come over
 
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