WC: Team Finland 2022 roster talk

[Mestaruus]

Out of curiosity, why do you see the need to single out Aaltonen with an initial? Are there other Aaltonens in the team, or possibly joining? I'm pretty sure JMA is done, at least.

I'm doing it with Pesonen as well although the other very known Pesonen quit some years ago already. I guess it's some kind of pre-emptive defensive measure in case someone would like to troll with that.

Well the case Ruotsalainen is a matter of personal preference I guess. He just seems like same level as the guys I mentioned and I'm still wondering how does he actually make it when he gets to play only 3 EHT games (he probably plays 2 of those games), while those other guys I mentioned could play well, but they might not play well. Chances are high though that few of the guys I listed will make a good case for themselves and then Ruotsalainen being on the camp feels a bit pointless. He would make a good back up guy though and could be a selection that way. Going straight into the top-12 however sounds hard to do.

 

[Mestaruus]

Lines for the first Norway game:

Maalilla:
45 Jussi Olkinuora

Varalla:
35 Frans Tuohimaa

1:
52 Petrus Palmu – 65 Sakari Manninen – 70 Teemu Hartikainen
81 Kalle Maalahti – 7 Oliwer Kaski

2:
25 Toni Rajala – 51 Valtteri Filppula (C) – 15 Miro Aaltonen (A)
3 Niklas Friman – 42 Sami Vatanen (A)

3:
80 Saku Mäenalanen – 24 Hannes Björninen – 20 Niko Ojamäki
55 Atte Ohtamaa – 38 Juuso Hietanen

4:
21 Jere Innala – 76 Jere Sallinen – 23 Markus Nenonen
18 Vili Saarijärvi – 2 Ville Pokka

13. hyökkääjä:
22 Ville Petman

Looks like MaG is still gone. It's nice to see Filppula playing. Interesting line that second line. I'm glad to see Ojamäki and M.Aaltonen separated, because we need info of both of them individually despite of their history as teammates.

 

[MBrodeur]

Unfortunately I feel like there's going to be very few NHLers once again. Most of the availible ones arent significantly better than players who made the Olympic squad.

At best we'll get maybe one NHL line.

 

[JJTT]

This team looks bad

 

[Mestaruus]

Unfortunately I feel like there's going to be very few NHLers once again. Most of the availible ones arent significantly better than players who made the Olympic squad.

At best we'll get maybe one NHL line.

Don't say that yet. Dallas lost last night and Vegas won. Dallas and Vegas will also play vs each other once. Most likely one gets a wild card spot and one doesn't. Dallas has lost more games lately than Vegas.

 

[Mestaruus]

What a game by Innala. Rajala looked good also. Ojamäki scored a goal but that was a bit lucky one and I don't think he will be selected at all. Overall Ojamäki just doesn't impress in any way. Pesonen is an interesting one and I'm guessing that he will play tomorrow, because he didn't play today. Petrus Palmu just loses to Innala and Rajala so I don't know how he could be selected at this point.

At this point I'd go with this, but we'll have some more players joining the camp and many practice games left so we'll see:

MaG-Manninen-Hartikainen
Rajala-Filppula-M.Aaltonen
Armia-Sallinen-Innala
Mäenalanen-Björninen-Anttila

 

[FinPanda]

I'm hoping we get one of the big names after the first round of playoffs in the NHL.

 

[JabbaJabba]

This team looks bad

I don't know how you can think this. The team already looks better than what the final team in most years has been. And it is not even ready yet.

 

[illone84]

Dallas is looking bad. At this point I think Vegas makes it and Dallas is out of the playoffs. 4 games left, let's see what happens.

 

[Mestaruus]

Dallas is looking bad. At this point I think Vegas makes it and Dallas is out of the playoffs. 4 games left, let's see what happens.

There is one problem though. I think that Dallas still has the upper hand in this, even if Vegas would beat Dallas. Dallas has easier schedule for their remaining 3 games compared to Vegas (Vegas vs Dallas match excluded). Dallas also has 4 home games left and Vegas has only 1 home game left.

They both have played 78 games now. Dallas leads by 2 points. When they have played vs each other, each has 3 games to go. Vegas pretty much has to beat Dallas and it would be good if Vegas would do that on regular time, so 0 points for Dallas.

Let's imagine that Vegas beats Dallas on regular time. So being tied in points then. Those teams have these games remaining:

Seattle at Dallas
Arizona at Dallas
Anaheim at Dallas

Seattle is on a 3 game winning streak, so they could be a decent opponent for Dallas. Arizona is last in the entire NHL in points and they have 8-9 losses in their last 10 games. That should be very easy points for Dallas, especially when Dallas plays at home. Anaheim is in the middle of the league in points and their last 10 games record is similar to that, around as many wins as losses. Played at Dallas, I'd favor Dallas.

San Jose at Vegas
Vegas at Chicago
Vegas at St. Louis

San Jose is same level team as Anaheim. Chicago is pretty bad. Even if Vegas wins against both of them and Vegas would win against Dallas too, St. Louis has 9 or 10 wins in their last 10 games. St. Louis' home game. So Vegas basically has 2 playoff matches here and Dallas has some more match balls in tennis terms.

That's much easier schedule for Dallas. If they end up tied, then the amount of regular time wins is the first tie breaking rule. If Vegas takes full points from Dallas and keeps Dallas at 0 points gained, then they would be tied in the amount of regular time wins. Next rule is who has more OT wins. Shootout wins are excluded so if other team has more shootout wins, then the team with more shootout wins loses in the tie break procedure. I have no idea who is leading in that category or if they are tied again. It could go down to which team took more points in any Vegas vs Dallas matches this season.

I give something like 25%-33% chance for Vegas to go to playoffs and 66%-75% for Dallas. Anything can happen though so it's interesting.

 

[illone84]

There is one problem though. I think that Dallas still has the upper hand in this, even if Vegas would beat Dallas. Dallas has easier schedule for their remaining 3 games compared to Vegas (Vegas vs Dallas match excluded). Dallas also has 4 home games left and Vegas has only 1 home game left.

They both have played 78 games now. Dallas leads by 2 points. When they have played vs each other, each has 3 games to go. Vegas pretty much has to beat Dallas and it would be good if Vegas would do that on regular time, so 0 points for Dallas.

Let's imagine that Vegas beats Dallas on regular time. So being tied in points then. Those teams have these games remaining:

Seattle at Dallas
Arizona at Dallas
Anaheim at Dallas

Seattle is on a 3 game winning streak, so they could be a decent opponent for Dallas. Arizona is last in the entire NHL in points and they have 8-9 losses in their last 10 games. That should be very easy points for Dallas, especially when Dallas plays at home. Anaheim is in the middle of the league in points and their last 10 games record is similar to that, around as many wins as losses. Played at Dallas, I'd favor Dallas.

San Jose at Vegas
Vegas at Chicago
Vegas at St. Louis

San Jose is same level team as Anaheim. Chicago is pretty bad. Even if Vegas wins against both of them and Vegas would win against Dallas too, St. Louis has 9 or 10 wins in their last 10 games. St. Louis' home game. So Vegas basically has 2 playoff matches here and Dallas has some more match balls in tennis terms.

That's much easier schedule for Dallas. If they end up tied, then the amount of regular time wins is the first tie breaking rule. If Vegas takes full points from Dallas and keeps Dallas at 0 points gained, then they would be tied in the amount of regular time wins. Next rule is who has more OT wins. Shootout wins are excluded so if other team has more shootout wins, then the team with more shootout wins loses in the tie break procedure. I have no idea who is leading in that category or if they are tied again. It could go down to which team took more points in any Vegas vs Dallas matches this season.

I give something like 25%-33% chance for Vegas to go to playoffs and 66%-75% for Dallas. Anything can happen though so it's interesting.

Definitely Dallas still has the upper-hand. Wishful thinking I guess that Dallas doesn't make the playoffs, but hard to not look at it with my blue and white glasses at this point. Maybe Dallas loses a few more in a row. Hope dies last! haha

 

[JabbaJabba]

I wouldn't predict a long playoff run anyway for Dallas. They are a one line team and they will either play against Colorado or Calgary. Yes, Dallas beat Colorado two years ago in the playoffs but they were very injured and Seguin wasn't worthless back then. I don't expect Dallas to make it out of the first round so even if they make it, the Finns should be available very soon.

 

[JJTT]

I don't know how you can think this. The team already looks better than what the final team in most years has been. And it is not even ready yet.

It was 2-1 for Norway then, much better 3rd period

 

[Mestaruus]

I wouldn't predict a long playoff run anyway for Dallas. They are a one line team and they will either play against Colorado or Calgary. Yes, Dallas beat Colorado two years ago in the playoffs but they were very injured and Seguin wasn't worthless back then. I don't expect Dallas to make it out of the first round so even if they make it, the Finns should be available very soon.

Yeah but it's much more beneficial getting some star caliber players before the playoffs, because we won't have enough slots open to get all of the available players after 1st round. As File here has stated few times, there would be only few slots (2-4 or what ever) available max that could join after the playoffs.

So I think that it could look something like this:

Scenario #1 - Dallas out before the playoffs:
-Finland gets many Dallas players + 2-3 more players after the playoff round 1. This could be Dallas players + Barkov+Lundell / Aho+TT / Rantanen+Määttä / Saros+Mi.Granlund.
-Dallas has 5 Finns but let's not be over optimistic that all of them would come or that none of them wouldn't have a small injury, thus some of them wouldn't be joining. So let's say that we get 3 players from Dallas. Let's also say that Jalonen won't wait for long and he leaves only 2 slots open for first round playoff round exit players. So let's say Aho+TT will join.
=5 good NHL players total added to the team (it could be even more than that, it's a pessimistic guess). Combined with our Olympic core, this team would look really good.

Scenario #2 - Dallas out after the first playoff round:
-Finland gets to use those 2-3 slots on Dallas players or getting a mix of Dallas players combined with players from other teams or not get any Dallas players at all.
=2-3 good NHL players total added to the team. The team would look quite good but not as good as in scenario #1.

Point being, it's a big difference in the quality & the amount of good NHL players we would get if Dallas went out before the playoffs.

 

[Mestaruus]

Lines for Norway game #2:

Maalilla:
35 Frans Tuohimaa

Varalla:
30 Niclas Westerholm

1:
21 Jere Innala – 65 Sakari Manninen – 70 Teemu Hartikainen (A)
81 Kalle Maalahti – 7 Oliwer Kaski

2:
25 Toni Rajala – 51 Valtteri Filppula (C) – 15 Miro Aaltonen
3 Niklas Friman – 42 Sami Vatanen (A)

3:
82 Harri Pesonen – 76 Jere Sallinen – 37 Eemil Erholtz
55 Atte Ohtamaa – 18 Vili Saarijärvi

4:
80 Saku Mäenalanen – 22 Ville Petman – 39 Valtteri Ojantakanen
41 Arttu Pelli – 2 Ville Pokka

Innala in that first line should be interesting. I wonder how Björninen is doing with that puck on face thing and with those mysterious health problems of MaG. Could it be covid?

 

[mattihp]

Erholtz, Pelli, Ojantakanen and Petman (worst superhero name) surely have no chance to make the team.

 

[Mestaruus]

Erholtz, Pelli, Ojantakanen and Petman (worst superhero name) surely have no chance to make the team.

I agree on that and I don't know what to make out of that Norway game 2. Maybe Pesonen improved his stocks a little bit. Need Björninen back and some new faces for EHT Czech tournament. Hoping to see Mörkö after he gets that silly Liiga bronze game done which was delayed.

 

[FiLe]

-Finland gets many Dallas players + 2-3 more players after the playoff round 1. This could be Dallas players + Barkov+Lundell / Aho+TT / Rantanen+Määttä / Saros+Mi.Granlund.

One thing worth pointing out is that the roster limit is 22+3 - meaning 22 skaters and 3 slots dedicated for goalies, which can't be used on skaters. And the 2-4 estimate I've given has been about skaters. So, as long as Jalonen doesn't register all three goalies at the start of the tournament, he could add Saros no matter how many skaters he decides to dress.

It'll be interesting to see if the presently sidelined players (MaG, Nättinen) will be back for the next EHT leg. But the real interesting one will be the last leg remaining - because that roster ought to feature most if not all the overseas additions.

 

[Mestaruus]

One thing worth pointing out is that the roster limit is 22+3 - meaning 22 skaters and 3 slots dedicated for goalies, which can't be used on skaters. And the 2-4 estimate I've given has been about skaters. So, as long as Jalonen doesn't register all three goalies at the start of the tournament, he could add Saros no matter how many skaters he decides to dress.

It'll be interesting to see if the presently sidelined players (MaG, Nättinen) will be back for the next EHT leg. But the real interesting one will be the last leg remaining - because that roster ought to feature most if not all the overseas additions.

Where has Nättinen been indeed. I have forgotten about him completely. Also no word of Komarov and M.Lehtonen, obviously Lehtonen being the bigger need. True that EHT Sweden will be interesting.

Seattle at Dallas tonight will be an interesting one. Hopefully Seattle upsets them to make things more exciting. I wouldn't bet for Seattle's win though, because Seattle played last night and Dallas didn't and Dallas has a home game against them next.

 

[Lartsaman]

Lehtonen and Anttila joins the camp. Komarov injured.

 

[FiLe]

So, here are the players who now look more than likely to feature in the final team, at least without a great influx of NHL additions:

Olkinuora
Tuohimaa

Friman
Hietanen
Lehtonen
Ohtamaa
Pokka
Vatanen
+Jokiharju

Aaltonen
Anttila
(Björninen)
Filppula
Hartikainen
Manninen
Mäenalanen
Pesonen
+Armia

Those two goalies ought to make it. The third spot should stay open as long as there's a chance we get a goalie from overseas (Saros or Säteri).

Defense looks pretty good. We have seven names already who are proven performers for this level. Hoping for an NHLer for the last open spot - and theoretically we could get as many as three or even four. (Heiskanen, Lindell, Hakanpää, Ristolainen.) Getting that many could cause some serious heartaches for Jalonen, though, because he'd have to start cutting familiars.

A plenty of spots still open in the forward department. Again, fingers crossed that as many as possible will be filled with a name from overseas, but if not... I guess Innala and Ojamäki are the closest to make it out of the current group. Also wondering if there are any names left in Europe who might join, like from the Liiga finals. Levtchi comes to mind.

 

[SantosHalper]

I would say that the defense is almost locked, almost the same what was in the Olympics. I think it's safe to assume that Jokiharju is on board, so he takes the spot from Kemiläinen and the potential NHL d-man is in Lindbohm's spot. Jalonen said he would leave couple spots open for the NHL players, how unorthodox . Now, what the "couple" means is, at most 2 forwards and 1 defenseman or at least 1 forward and 1 defenseman. Most likely the latter one. But if all the NA d-men decline, Jalonen picks from Europe.

X - Jokiharju
Lehtonen - Hietanen
Friman - Vatanen
Ohtamaa - Pokka

North American X = Ristolainen, Heiskanen, Lindell, Hakanpää
European X = Sund, M Seppälä, Kivistö, Vittasmäki

Anttila was selected to camp but no Parikka or P Seppälä, bit weird both them had a great season. Only d-men from Liiga who could make it are M Seppälä or Vittasmäki. Sund was part of the 2021 WHC squad and Kivistö was part of the taxi squad in the Olympics. Kaski haven't been very good and there's plenty of PMDs so Kemiläinen & Saarijärvi probably wont make it either. And rest of the NA d-men are fringe players more and less, i don't even see Jalonen selecting them to the camp.

 

[Mestaruus]

Those two goalies ought to make it. The third spot should stay open as long as there's a chance we get a goalie from overseas (Saros or Säteri).

Maybe Raanta too.

Aaltonen
Anttila
(Björninen)
Filppula
Hartikainen
Manninen
Mäenalanen
Pesonen
+Armia

Innala > Pesonen for me at this point. Rajala VS Pesonen is maybe a tie.

I'm not a fan of Ojamäki at all at this point. I don't think that he deserves even a back up spot. Hopefully Ruotsalainen or Maccelli come to knock him down in hierarchy. The guy just can't do what he does with his club with national team. He is the opposite of Mörkö with that. Ojamäki is the reigning KHL goal scoring king who was probably fed with assists all season to be that king by Miro Aaltonen. He will still get some chances in the EHT tournaments so we'll see.

Also wondering if there are any names left in Europe who might join, like from the Liiga finals. Levtchi comes to mind.

Pärssinen and/or his line mates come to mind. No clue about defenders, but I'll say that Saarijärvi who is already at the camp might have some kind of chance.

 

[Mestaruus]

Jalonen said he would leave couple spots open for the NHL players, how unorthodox . Now, what the "couple" means is, at most 2 forwards and 1 defenseman or at least 1 forward and 1 defenseman. Most likely the latter one. But if all the NA d-men decline, Jalonen picks from Europe.

I got a feeling that there will be a legit shot to get Aho+TT. It would be a big mistake not to keep 2 forward slots open and see how Carolina's series will go, while at the same time keeping an eye on Barkov, Rantanen, Hintz and others, but getting such star duo from the NHL who played all season together would be great. They would need very little warm up because they know each other so well.

This is a good internet page. I think it updates. Currently it's looking like it's Carolina vs Boston. Haula has been good as well at the end of the season and he would make the team better even with little warm up. Ismo Lehkonen thinks that Boston would take that series.

2021-2022 Current NHL Playoff Matchups, Pairings - National Hockey League - ESPN

If the NHL season ended today, who would face off in the playoffs? Check out ESPN.com's Current NHL Playoff Matchups and find out now!

www.espn.com

 

[SantosHalper]

I got a feeling that there will be a legit shot to get Aho+TT. It would be a big mistake not to keep 2 forward slots open and see how Carolina's series will go, while at the same time keeping an eye on Barkov, Rantanen, Hintz and others, but getting such star duo from the NHL who played all season together would be great. They would need very little warm up because they know each other so well.

This is a good internet page. I think it updates. Currently it's looking like it's Carolina vs Boston. Haula has been good as well at the end of the season and he would make the team better even with little warm up. Ismo Lehkonen thinks that Boston would take that series.

2021-2022 Current NHL Playoff Matchups, Pairings - National Hockey League - ESPN

If the NHL season ended today, who would face off in the playoffs? Check out ESPN.com's Current NHL Playoff Matchups and find out now!

www.espn.com

I don't see Carolina losing in the 1st round, but it's smells like a full seven games series. Do the losing team's players have any energy, after long and disappointing series? I would say no, Florida and Colorado both of them are going to the 2nd round. Only help might come from Dallas, but im not very surpise to hear if they say "it's been a tough season mentally and physically, and i can't give 100% performance on ice so i must decline and start preparing for the next season".

My feeling is that Armia, Jokiharju and possibly Ruotsalainen and Säteri are the only players from NA.