WC: Team Finland 2022 roster talk

[SantosHalper]

Since the players looked uninterested against the Czechs, i think the final team is locked. Time to make my final prediction.

Pesonen - Manninen - Hartikainen
Aaltonen - Filppula - Armia
Sallinen - Lammikko - Rajala
Mäenalanen - Björninen - Anttila

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

Säteri
Olkinuora
Tuohimaa

Jalonen is going to leave 2 forward spots open for the NHL players, but the way those 1st round series are shaping up only player who could come is Tolvanen. He's signed, no family obligations and he played under Jalonen in KHL-Jokerit, he's familiar with the game systems and a good WHC tournament could give him a good start for the next year.

Granlund too tired, because they put him playing insane minutes compared to any other forward in his team and he has to do PP & PK, everything really.

Good point and i would add that Granlund is also a family man, 2 small kids at home. If Markus would be healthy that would have increased the chances. Haula could be the other one with Tolvanen, he's signed and he's been a having "hot streak" recently, so that would indicate that he's healthy. But like Granlund, Haula has a small kid at home.

Innala is in if one player, or no one from the NHL join the team. 2nd spot goes to Ojamäki or Nurmi, they are more suitable than Palmu or Nenonen since they can both play top-6 and bottom-6 role. Palmu is suitable only for the top-6 role and Innala is better than him and rest of the spots are filled. Nenonen is a good 4th liner but those spots are also filled. Palmu and Nenonen has a better chance to make it next year, Liiga all-stars team will return then.

Almost the same team as it was in the Olympics, even the replacements are similar players.
Pakarinen -> Armia
Komarov -> Sallinen
Nättinen -> Lammikko
Lindbohm -> Seppälä
Kemiläinen -> Jokiharju
Granlund -> Tolvanen/Innala
Ojamäki -> Innala/Ojamäki/Nurmi

 

[FinPanda]

Not too worried about us losing atm, they are just waiting for the tournament to start and avoid injuries.

 

[Mestaruus]

Since the players looked uninterested against the Czechs, i think the final team is locked. Time to make my final prediction.

Pesonen - Manninen - Hartikainen
Aaltonen - Filppula - Armia
Sallinen - Lammikko - Rajala
Mäenalanen - Björninen - Anttila

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

Säteri
Olkinuora
Tuohimaa

Jalonen is going to leave 2 forward spots open for the NHL players, but the way those 1st round series are shaping up only player who could come is Tolvanen. He's signed, no family obligations and he played under Jalonen in KHL-Jokerit, he's familiar with the game systems and a good WHC tournament could give him a good start for the next year.

Good point and i would add that Granlund is also a family man, 2 small kids at home. If Markus would be healthy that would have increased the chances. Haula could be the other one with Tolvanen, he's signed and he's been a having "hot streak" recently, so that would indicate that he's healthy. But like Granlund, Haula has a small kid at home.

Innala is in if one player, or no one from the NHL join the team. 2nd spot goes to Ojamäki or Nurmi, they are more suitable than Palmu or Nenonen since they can both play top-6 and bottom-6 role. Palmu is suitable only for top-6 is role and Innala is better than him and rest of the spots are filled. Nenonen is a good 4th liner but those spots are also filled. Palmu and Nenonen has a better chance tp make it next year, Liiga all-stars team will return then.

Almost the same team as it was in the Olympics, even the replacements are similar players.
Pakarinen -> Armia
Komarov -> Sallinen
Nättinen -> Lammikko
Lindbohm -> Seppälä
Kemiläinen -> Jokiharju
Granlund -> Tolvanen/Innala
Ojamäki -> Innala/Ojamäki/Nurmi

Not bad. This could very well happen what you wrote. My defensive pairings aren't much different and in my "no Nashville players scenario" the forward lines are very similar as well. I'm going to steal that Sallinen winger idea from you because I like it and I just swap Rajala and Innala. Otherwise we got the same forward lines.

I'd like to see these forwards playing tomorrow against Sweden and maybe these forwards could also play in the first WHC tournament game:

Pesonen-Manninen-Hartikainen
Aaltonen-Filppula-Armia
Sallinen-Lammikko-Innala
Mäenalanen-Björninen-Anttila

Below is the latest what I thought and it involves some praying that Granlund isn't half dead out of exhaustion. I think so many wingers weren't impressive enough during the practice games that I would take Tolvanen back to my considerations also.

Pesonen-Manninen-Hartikainen
Tolvanen-Mi.Granlund-Aaltonen
Armia-Filppula-Lammikko
Mäenalanen-Björninen-Anttila

Säteri and Olkinuora are like tied now but I'd say we go with Säteri because he was the Olympic gold goalie. His last game was a shutout pretty much in NHL. Olkinuora has been good on these practice games, but I'll go with Säteri.

--------------

Defenders for the tournament. I'll pull a joker card and add in Lepistö from the SHL finals, but he's the 8th defender. He's had a solid season and played some monster minutes in that OT win in SHL finals and I believe that he showed some interest about national team so I actually think that if there's no injury for Lepistö Jalonen might actually just add him to the final team.

So this is what I'm hoping for the defenders. I'm hoping that we start the tournament with 7 defenders. Lepistö will probably start as an unregistered 8th defender who doesn't play until we know more about Määttä, Heiskanen, Lindell and Hakanpää, but because I think that Jalonen might end up running 8 defenders right away, because it's his style, then it could be something like this:

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

 

[Mestaruus]

Not too worried about us losing atm, they are just waiting for the tournament to start and avoid injuries.

Yeah they probably are avoiding injuries but I must agree with Tommi Niemelä that this tournament will have better players than the Olympics and Finland needs to react to that = keeping the door open for longer than Jalonen usually does in case some of these guys would fall off later from the first round. There might be some pairs ready and available. They wouldn't need much practice:

TT+Aho as a pair. Carolina leads by just 2-1 and Boston won a game at home. Boston has another home game coming. If we could get these insane players just for couple games it would make a difference.

Lindell+Hakanpää. I think that they are a PK pair. Of course an injured and motivated Heiskanen would get a priority over them though. Not to forget Hintz as a possible bonus .

If Barkov arrives late to to the tournament after a game 7, there's still time to get him to play a game or two before the WHC playoffs.

If St. Louis goes out 4-1, would you guys take Mikkola? Minnesota just beat them easily and is leading the series 2-1. St. Louis defender Torey Krug got injured at minute 3, which was probably the final nail to the coffin for this series. I won't dream about contractless Husso though who would be our #1 goalie but I think that in his case he needs to just wait for his next NHL contract.

Edmonton 2 wins vs Los Angeles 1 win. Määttä is in a very similar situation as Mikkola. This series will probably end up at 4-1 in Edmonton's favor based on a 2-8 away win for Edmonton in their last meeting.

 

[FinPanda]

I"d take Määttä for sure but maybe not Mikkola.

 

[Mestaruus]

Florida Panthers and Washington Capitals are playing now live (day game in NA) and after about 2 periods Washington is leading by 3-1 and this is only their first home game, but let's see. Florida made so many comebacks at the end of the regular season. Capitals is showing again that Florida Panthers got their hands full. So if Capitals win both of their home games, then it would be 3-1 and how exciting would that be for team Finland. Even if Barkov would reject we would still get Lundell possibly and I'd take Lindbohm maybe. Jalonen can easily run 6-7 defenders before Lindbohm arrives.

 

[illone84]

Not bad. This could very well happen what you wrote. My defensive pairings aren't much different and in my "no Nashville players scenario" the forward lines are very similar as well. I'm going to steal that Sallinen winger idea from you because I like it and I just swap Rajala and Innala. Otherwise we got the same forward lines.

I'd like to see these forwards playing tomorrow against Sweden and maybe these forwards could also play in the first WHC tournament game:

Pesonen-Manninen-Hartikainen
Aaltonen-Filppula-Armia
Sallinen-Lammikko-Innala
Mäenalanen-Björninen-Anttila

Below is the latest what I thought and it involves some praying that Granlund isn't half dead out of exhaustion. I think so many wingers weren't impressive enough during the practice games that I would take Tolvanen back to my considerations also.

Pesonen-Manninen-Hartikainen
Tolvanen-Mi.Granlund-Aaltonen
Armia-Filppula-Lammikko
Mäenalanen-Björninen-Anttila

Säteri and Olkinuora are like tied now but I'd say we go with Säteri because he was the Olympic gold goalie. His last game was a shutout pretty much in NHL. Olkinuora has been good on these practice games, but I'll go with Säteri.

--------------

Defenders for the tournament. I'll pull a joker card and add in Lepistö from the SHL finals, but he's the 8th defender. He's had a solid season and played some monster minutes in that OT win in SHL finals and I believe that he showed some interest about national team so I actually think that if there's no injury for Lepistö Jalonen might actually just add him to the final team.

So this is what I'm hoping for the defenders. I'm hoping that we start the tournament with 7 defenders. Lepistö will probably start as an unregistered 8th defender who doesn't play until we know more about Määttä, Heiskanen, Lindell and Hakanpää, but because I think that Jalonen might end up running 8 defenders right away, because it's his style, then it could be something like this:

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

What do you think the chances are that Jalonen/Lehtinen invite Tolvanen to join the team in the case that Nashville drops out of the first round?

 

[Mestaruus]

What do you think the chances are that Jalonen/Lehtinen invite Tolvanen to join the team in the case that Nashville drops out of the first round?

That's a good question. If it will indeed be 4-0 for Colorado, I think that they might invite him. If he doesn't use any of those "bonus slots" I call them, which we want to save for some of the better NHL players, then Tolvanen would be an upgrade for the team, because I see him better than Innala, Rajala and Palmu for example.

These "bonus slots" I'm talking about means this. 22 non goalies can be registered for the tournament for the entire duration of the tournament. For example 12 forwards + 8 defenders + 2 unused slots = 22. So those 2 unused slots are what I call "bonus slots".

If Tolvanen can arrive to the tournament rather fast and if he could possibly make it to the first game against Norway or to the second game against Latvia, then in that case Jalonen could include him into that 12 registered forwards group and save a "bonus slot", but if Tolvanen couldn't arrive that fast, in my opinion Tolvanen is not worthy of a "bonus slot" and I'm hoping that Jalonen & Lehtinen would think so as well, because I don't want our team to be that big of an underdog against all of the other top teams because of player material disadvantage.

People always say that Finland can do just fine and repeat the 2019 miracle any day. People have to rememer that it does require luck and it did in 2019. We were just inches away of being eliminated by Sweden in 2019. If that had happened, Finland would've gone out at the QF stage already.

Sihvonen just wrote on MTV3 how Czech is now playing "meidän peli" thanks to K.Jalonen and Sihvonen thinks it's pretty scary. K.Jalonen said that Czech has got green light from many of the Czech players in the 1st round of playoffs and they will definitely wait for them. Switzerland and Sweden would beat Finland in player material as well. It's probably the same with Canada. I'm not too worried about USA though.

So I'd personally like it very much if Jalonen would leave as many of these 22 slots unregistered. That would maximize the star power potential in our team. At the same time that would hurt our team chemistry, because the players would get less practice time together, but I would be willing to do that. Jalonen might be tempted to try something like that, but I wouldn't bet my money for it.

If I have to guess. Jalonen will run this for the first game(s) 12+7=19 players registered. That's quite risk free. Then there would be 3 slots saved for some better players than Tolvanen.

I'd say that he should consider 11+6=17 if some good players would need just one or two more days to arrive. That could mean only having to skip a Norway game or NOR+LAT games. I think that it's quite unrealistic that Jalonen & Lehtinen would go to this extreme lengths. I just don't think running 11+6 would make us lose against Norway or Latvia. I never underestimate these teams and I remember that especially Latvia has caused Finland trouble in the past, but Finland would beat them even out manned this time.

In the end though I completely trust on Jalonen & his process. My preference is just to make it a bit more exciting than dull 1-0 wins. This time it might be a 1-0 loss in a WHC playoff game, because the margins are small. Some real star level players would electrify the Finnish crowd differently. Can you imagine Barkov or Hintz at Tampere? I'd love to see some gambling with these player slots so we could see see a greater amount of the best Finnish players in our WHC team.

 

[FinPanda]

Lets hope for Barkov. Game 5 is day or two before Norway game.

 

[Elias40]

That's a good question. If it will indeed be 4-0 for Colorado, I think that they might invite him. If he doesn't use any of those "bonus slots" I call them, which we want to save for some of the better NHL players, then Tolvanen would be an upgrade for the team, because I see him better than Innala, Rajala and Palmu for example.

These "bonus slots" I'm talking about means this. 22 non goalies can be registered for the tournament for the entire duration of the tournament. For example 12 forwards + 8 defenders + 2 unused slots = 22. So those 2 unused slots are what I call "bonus slots".

If Tolvanen can arrive to the tournament rather fast and if he could possibly make it to the first game against Norway or to the second game against Latvia, then in that case Jalonen could include him into that 12 registered forwards group and save a "bonus slot", but if Tolvanen couldn't arrive that fast, in my opinion Tolvanen is not worthy of a "bonus slot" and I'm hoping that Jalonen & Lehtinen would think so as well, because I don't want our team to be that big of an underdog against all of the other top teams because of player material disadvantage.

People always say that Finland can do just fine and repeat the 2019 miracle any day. People have to rememer that it does require luck and it did in 2019. We were just inches away of being eliminated by Sweden in 2019. If that had happened, Finland would've gone out at the QF stage already.

Sihvonen just wrote on MTV3 how Czech is now playing "meidän peli" thanks to K.Jalonen and Sihvonen thinks it's pretty scary. K.Jalonen said that Czech has got green light from many of the Czech players in the 1st round of playoffs and they will definitely wait for them. Switzerland and Sweden would beat Finland in player material as well. It's probably the same with Canada. I'm not too worried about USA though.

So I'd personally like it very much if Jalonen would leave as many of these 22 slots unregistered. That would maximize the star power potential in our team. At the same time that would hurt our team chemistry, because the players would get less practice time together, but I would be willing to do that. Jalonen might be tempted to try something like that, but I wouldn't bet my money for it.

If I have to guess. Jalonen will run this for the first game(s) 12+7=19 players registered. That's quite risk free. Then there would be 3 slots saved for some better players than Tolvanen.

I'd say that he should consider 11+6=17 if some good players would need just one or two more days to arrive. That could mean only having to skip a Norway game or NOR+LAT games. I think that it's quite unrealistic that Jalonen & Lehtinen would go to this extreme lengths. I just don't think running 11+6 would make us lose against Norway or Latvia. I never underestimate these teams and I remember that especially Latvia has caused Finland trouble in the past, but Finland would beat them even out manned this time.

In the end though I completely trust on Jalonen & his process. My preference is just to make it a bit more exciting than dull 1-0 wins. This time it might be a 1-0 loss in a WHC playoff game, because the margins are small. Some real star level players would electrify the Finnish crowd differently. Can you imagine Barkov or Hintz at Tampere? I'd love to see some gambling with these player slots so we could see see a greater amount of the best Finnish players in our WHC team.

I would not call the Czech team scary. Finally, they manage to play a full sixty-minute tactical battle until the very end. This is not a habit for them, they do not have this mentality in them, when they do not move away from the tactical plan and do not start improvising. So far, they have managed to carry out Jalonen's tactical plan, but on the first or second failure, it will be amazing to see if they return to what worked for them or start playing something else, breaking down Jalonen's plan.

Jukka Jalonen has been patiently building his system for years, having to find players and assign them the right roles. It is simply a process, something new for the Czechs and we do not know and they want to show up under a new coach. So yes, they look good so far but the tournament is a tournament. They have to win three matches for the medal, if you look at their players and what ever won with NT, only two players from the team that won their last senior medal - Krejčí and Krejčík. The Czechs still had a bronze medal from the championship in 2011 and there was only Červenka. So now we have the year 2022 and only three players from the Czech team have any medals and experience with how to win something with NT. And they can't even help by winning medals in the youth, their last medal in the youth is from 2014 at U18. There are six players in the current team from this tournament, Pastrnak, Vladař and Vaněček are also in the NHL.

This thing will also be a challenge for Jalonen, if he can really win a medal for the Czechs after ten years. Finnish Jalonen has experienced players who know what it's like to win a tournament or a medal. But what is important for the Czechs now is the atmosphere around the team. They are now absolutely fine, they have the game and good results and they trust each other. They haven't lost much yet and I'm wondering if Kari Jalonen will be the first coach to end the ten-year shame.

 

[Lepardi]

In the end though I completely trust on Jalonen & his process. My preference is just to make it a bit more exciting than dull 1-0 wins. This time it might be a 1-0 loss in a WHC playoff game, because the margins are small. Some real star level players would electrify the Finnish crowd differently. Can you imagine Barkov or Hintz at Tampere? I'd love to see some gambling with these player slots so we could see see a greater amount of the best Finnish players in our WHC team.

You pretty much summed up my feelings about potential NHL additions with this post. I've got tickets for the quarter-finals and I would love to see some world class players at the Nokia Arena. I've already seen enough of Marko Anttila there in April and it wasn't a pretty sight. He was so goddamn terrible throughout the playoffs that playing someone like Miro Nalli instead of Mörkö wouldn't have been wrong.

 

[JabbaJabba]

I"d take Määttä for sure but maybe not Mikkola.

Why? Mikkola is probably the better player?

 

[FinPanda]

Why? Mikkola is probably the better player?

Määttä has proven to be very solid on the national team and been a big part of Kings defence. Mikkola has barely kept his spot on his team and not as much national team experience.

 

[FiLe]

Perhaps somewhat unfortunately, the various playoff series are going more or less as I expected. NSH is on the verge of getting swept, but CGY-DAL won't be over in five - or if so, it won't be in the Flames' favor. Only FLA's stumbling has been somewhat unexpected.

Here's hoping the Preds won't manage to delay the inevitable. Would be more than happy to have both MiG and Tolvanen, and perhaps still have room for one or two more.

One thought I had over my morning coffee regarding Florida: if Sasha ends up becoming available, it would also be nice for him to have some worthy linemates who are at least close to his level. If he'd end up centering, say, Pesonen and Innala, it would be like installing a Ferrari engine in a Skoda chassis. As reliable a car as Skoda is, it would still feel like... you know.

 

[Kibe]

Looks like Nashville is our best bet to get anyone. Some people have suggested that Tolvanen is not a guy you bring straight to the tournament, i think those people are out to lunch. He's clearly an upgrade over Innala/Rajala/Palmu. I would like to see MiG take his brothers place on that 1st line, Pesonen was a nice fit there but again, i doubt anyone would argue against MiG being a clear upgrade here. I think Pesonen would fit nicely with Lammikko and Armia too. Here's what i'm hoping the lines will look like:

Granlund - Manninen - Hartikainen
Aaltonen - Filppula - Tolvanen
Pesonen - Lammikko - Armia
Mäenalanen - Björninen - Anttila
Sallinen

 

[Mestaruus]

I would not call the Czech team scary. Finally, they manage to play a full sixty-minute tactical battle until the very end. This is not a habit for them, they do not have this mentality in them, when they do not move away from the tactical plan and do not start improvising. So far, they have managed to carry out Jalonen's tactical plan, but on the first or second failure, it will be amazing to see if they return to what worked for them or start playing something else, breaking down Jalonen's plan.

Jukka Jalonen has been patiently building his system for years, having to find players and assign them the right roles. It is simply a process, something new for the Czechs and we do not know and they want to show up under a new coach. So yes, they look good so far but the tournament is a tournament. They have to win three matches for the medal, if you look at their players and what ever won with NT, only two players from the team that won their last senior medal - Krejčí and Krejčík. The Czechs still had a bronze medal from the championship in 2011 and there was only Červenka. So now we have the year 2022 and only three players from the Czech team have any medals and experience with how to win something with NT. And they can't even help by winning medals in the youth, their last medal in the youth is from 2014 at U18. There are six players in the current team from this tournament, Pastrnak, Vladař and Vaněček are also in the NHL.

This thing will also be a challenge for Jalonen, if he can really win a medal for the Czechs after ten years. Finnish Jalonen has experienced players who know what it's like to win a tournament or a medal. But what is important for the Czechs now is the atmosphere around the team. They are now absolutely fine, they have the game and good results and they trust each other. They haven't lost much yet and I'm wondering if Kari Jalonen will be the first coach to end the ten-year shame.

I think that the perfect poison to beat J.Jalonen & Finland is K.Jalonen. They are not related but they both are damn good head coaches. When Czech might have a player material advantage compared to Finland it is quite scary to face them. Maybe Czech is the gold favorite even over Finland, remembering that Finland doesn't usually have a succesful tournament at home in WHC (the curse!).

Yeah they kind of talked about that very same thing in the studio during the intermission (or was it MTV3 ice hockey writer Sihvonen) of FIN-CZE game about what happens when Czech team will face adversity. Will they keep trusting on this "meidän peli"/Finnish style of hockey and so on. For Finnish players that same thing is not a question because it's kind of programmed into Finnish players via junior teams already.

 

[Mestaruus]

You pretty much summed up my feelings about potential NHL additions with this post. I've got tickets for the quarter-finals and I would love to see some world class players at the Nokia Arena. I've already seen enough of Marko Anttila there in April and it wasn't a pretty sight. He was so goddamn terrible throughout the playoffs that playing someone like Miro Nalli instead of Mörkö wouldn't have been wrong.

Absolutely but Mörkö is an exception among everyone in my opinion. No matter how bad he looked in Liiga and he didn't show anything special in these practice game either in my opinion, but I'd make an exception on him only, not with any other player, because he has proved so many times that he steps to the occasion in the important games in these international tournaments. So for me kicking out Mörkö is a question only if he doesn't succeed in this tournament. He has some kind of streak on and I wouldn't stop that. It should be up to him and not for Jalonen.

 

[Mestaruus]

Perhaps somewhat unfortunately, the various playoff series are going more or less as I expected. NSH is on the verge of getting swept, but CGY-DAL won't be over in five - or if so, it won't be in the Flames' favor. Only FLA's stumbling has been somewhat unexpected.

Here's hoping the Preds won't manage to delay the inevitable. Would be more than happy to have both MiG and Tolvanen, and perhaps still have room for one or two more.

One thought I had over my morning coffee regarding Florida: if Sasha ends up becoming available, it would also be nice for him to have some worthy linemates who are at least close to his level. If he'd end up centering, say, Pesonen and Innala, it would be like installing a Ferrari engine in a Skoda chassis. As reliable a car as Skoda is, it would still feel like... you know.

Yeah very much so.

Dallas winning last night simply sucks for our WHC team, but Florida Panthers is giving us some hope. Washington is getting another game at home. It could be 3-1 situation in Washington's favor when they will return playing to Florida.

Let's hope that Granlund still has enough energy to play for Finland in the WHC. Tolvanen is not as important but if these Nashville players can arrive to the tournament quickly and Tolvanen would be a part of the first 12 forwards registered in the tournament, I'd welcome him with open arms, because then he would be an upgrade. Consuming a slot on Tolvanen that could be used for a superstar level player would be a big mistake, because he isn't THAT much better than Innala for example.

x-Barkov-Lundell line could be sweet for the WHC. They don't play as line mates in Florida, but I'd still stick them together. So they wouldn't interfere too much with the chemistry of other lines.

Btw Carolina at Boston game 4 is starting really early today and YLE TV2 channel is showing it! It comes about right after the SWE-FIN EHT game, so that's interesting regarding Haula and I've still not given up hope on TT & Aho. If you can get TT+Aho or Barkov and there are slots left, I personally wouldn't care how many games there would be left, as long as they can arrive before the first playoff game, but Jalonen & Lehtinen might think differently.

 

[Mestaruus]

The lines against Sweden:

29 Harri Säteri

1:
80 Saku Mäenalanen – 24 Hannes Björninen – 52 Petrus Palmu
55 Atte Ohtamaa (A) – 2 Ville Pokka

2:
82 Harri Pesonen – 65 Sakari Manninen (A) – 70 Teemu Hartikainen
4 Mikko Lehtonen – 38 Juuso Hietanen

3:
21 Jere Innala – 51 Valtteri Filppula (C) – 40 Joel Armia
50 Mikael Seppälä – 10 Henri Jokiharju

4:
25 Toni Rajala – 91 Juho Lammikko – 61 Markus Nurmi
3 Niklas Friman – 7 Oliwer Kaski

Pesonen-Manninen-Hartikainen seems to be locked, but next game will show if it stays that way.

Innala-Filppula-Armia sounds like a good and balanced line. Interesting.

Anttila is just skipping a game because he has already played 2 games, but it seems like they still aren't sure about Palmu. They are giving Palmu one more chance because he was good in the last game. Nurmi is getting his 3rd EHT game this week, only because he just joined the team this week. I think his chance to join the WHC team is really small.

Locked pairs from the Olympics remain locked. It would be shocking if they aren't pairs in the first WHC game against Norway:

Ohtamaa-Pokka
Lehtonen-Hietanen

 

[Kibe]

Yeah very much so.

Dallas winning last night simply sucks for our WHC team, but Florida Panthers is giving us some hope. Washington is getting another game at home. It could be 3-1 situation in Washington's favor when they will return playing to Florida.

Let's hope that Granlund still has enough energy to play for Finland in the WHC. Tolvanen is not as important but if these Nashville players can arrive to the tournament quickly and Tolvanen would be a part of the first 12 forwards registered in the tournament, I'd welcome him with open arms, because then he would be an upgrade. Consuming a slot on Tolvanen that could be used for a superstar level player would be a big mistake, because he isn't THAT much better than Innala for example.

x-Barkov-Lundell line could be sweet for the WHC. They don't play as line mates in Florida, but I'd still stick them together. So they wouldn't interfere too much with the chemistry of other lines.

Btw Carolina at Boston game 4 is starting really early today and YLE TV2 channel is showing it! It comes about right after the SWE-FIN EHT game, so that's interesting regarding Haula and I've still not given up hope on TT & Aho. If you can get TT+Aho or Barkov and there are slots left, I personally wouldn't care how many games there would be left, as long as they can arrive before the first playoff game, but Jalonen & Lehtinen might think differently.

Tolvanen is much better than a guy like Innala. If Tolvanen played in Liiga this year he would have been a dominant offensive force.

 

[Mestaruus]

Tolvanen is much better than a guy like Innala. If Tolvanen played in Liiga this year he would have been a dominant offensive force.

The question about Tolvanen is more complicated than that.

Tolvanen is better than Innala. If he arrives to the tournament early, so he's part of the first 12 registered forwards, then Innala has to go eat pop corn (if Innala is his place holder or #12 in forward hierarchy). That part is very clear.

Next we know that Tolvanen is much much worse than Barkov, TT, Aho, Haula, Hintz, Lundell to mention a few. We don't want to use one of our valuable slots that could be used for Barkov on Tolvanen. That's all what I'm saying here.

Finnish time very early Tuesday morning we will finally know if Colorado 4-0'd Nashville. Friday is the first game against Norway, Saturday is Latvia, then break day and USA. Either Tolvanen joins for one of the first games or we run 11 forwards for 1-2 games, but I'm not sure would Jalonen run anything else than 12 forwards, so that would mean 1 potential better player lost.

 

[Kibe]

The question about Tolvanen is more complicated than that.

Tolvanen is better than Innala. If he arrives to the tournament early, so he's part of the first 12 registered forwards, then Innala has to go eat pop corn. That part is very clear.

Next we know that Tolvanen is much much worse than Barkov, TT, Aho, Haula, Hintz, Lundell to mention a few. We don't want to use one of our valuable slots that could be used for Barkov on Tolvanen. That's all what I'm saying here.

Finnish time very early Tuesday morning we will finally know if Colorado 4-0'd Nashville. Friday is the first game against Norway, Saturday is Latvia, then break day and USA. Either Tolvanen joins for one of the first games or we run 11 forwards for 1-2 games, but I'm not sure would Jalonen run anything else than 12 forwards.

That i agree with. However those series could easily go to game 6-7, Nashville on the other hand looks done.

Also regarding that first line, maybe Pesonen will lock his spot there with another strong game today, and they won't want to mess with that chemistry. I just think If we get Granlund he should play 1st line minutes. Well maybe something like this would work for more balanced top6:

Granlund - Filppula - Tolvanen
Pesonen - Manninen - Hartikainen
Or
Aaltonen - Granlund - Tolvanen
Or
Tolvanen - Granlund - Armia (my least favorite)

 

[Mestaruus]

That i agree with. However those series could easily go to game 6-7, Nashville on the other hand looks done.

Also regarding that first line, maybe Pesonen will lock his spot there with another strong game today, and they won't want to mess with that chemistry. I just think If we get Granlund he should play 1st line minutes. Well maybe something like this would work for more balanced top6:

Granlund - Filppula - Tolvanen
Pesonen - Manninen - Hartikainen
Or
Aaltonen - Granlund - Tolvanen
Or
Tolvanen - Granlund - Armia (my least favorite)

If the series go 6-7 games. Each 1 more game playued per series means 1 game more skipped in the WHC. I did the calculations and we could have Barkov from game 7 play 1-3 games before the WHC playoffs. The interesting part is Jalonen's style of locking the team early. I got a feeling he's willing to do it differently now and wait players for longer. I hope so, but in the end I trust Jalonen.

It was hard to find the 3rd link for Manninen+Hartikainen. They tried so many players there and Pesonen seems like the best piece there so I hope that he has a good game today and that this line continues that in the WHC tournament.

Granlund being on the first line or second line. Does it matter really? Namely Granny would be in the second line but we know that really Granlund's line is the 1st line or just that we got two 1st lines. They both are in top-6, it's all that matters. Granlund could be fantastic with Manninen & Hartikainen though.

Yeah there are multiple options for Granlund. Weren't Armia and Granny linemates in junior teams, back in the days when Armia was more of a pure goal scorer type of a player?

This guy again... You just go to every teams thread to say this same stuff. You do realise nobody said anything about Russia in this thread? This is a thread for team Finland, so please show yourself out.

It's a freshly created account. He made it under 2 weeks ago. He has only 37 posts. It is what it is . There's a report button for it, because what he said doesn't have much to do with Finland.

 

[Kibe]

If the series go 6-7 games. Each 1 more game playued per series means 1 game more skipped in the WHC. I did the calculations and we could have Barkov from game 7 play 1-3 games before the WHC playoffs. The interesting part is Jalonen's style of locking the team early. I got a feeling he's willing to do it differently now and wait players for longer. I hope so, but in the end I trust Jalonen.

It was hard to find the 3rd link for Manninen+Hartikainen. They tried so many players there and Pesonen seems like the best piece there so I hope that he has a good game today and that this line continues that in the WHC tournament.

Granlund being on the first line or second line. Does it matter really? Namely Granny would be in the second line but we know that really Granlund's line is the 1st line or just that we got two 1st lines. They both are in top-6, it's all that matters. Granlund could be fantastic with Manninen & Hartikainen though.

Yeah there are multiple options for Granlund. Weren't Armia and Granny linemates in junior teams, back in the days when Armia was more of a pure goal scorer type of a player?



It's a freshly created account. He made it under 2 weeks ago. He has only 37 posts. It is what it is . There's a report button for it, because what he said doesn't have much to do with Finland.

That was my thinking about Jalonen locking the team early. But if a guy like Barkov would be willing to join i guess anyone would wait for him. Iirc it was Markus who was Armia's linemate in those junior tournaments.

And yes, a report was made.

 

[Mestaruus]

And yes, a report was made.

His post suddenly disappeared .