WC: Team Finland 2022 roster talk

[FiLe]

I'm disappointed. I was hoping that Jalonen would do the Norway game with 6 defenders or 11 forwards or both, but he did the not so surprising and non gambling Jalonen thing.

Well, as much as we were all speculating with the NHL jackpot, this is where the smart money still was all along. As usual, it's good to hold those horses.

 

[IceHockeyDude]

I would like to see a big guy cleaning the goal front. Hakanpää would fill that purpose well. But Heiskanen will be the obvious option for Jalonen.

 

[Mestaruus]

Well, as much as we were all speculating with the NHL jackpot, this is where the smart money still was all along. As usual, it's good to hold those horses.

This for J.Jalonen is maximum risk in his standards and not normal for Jalonen that he left the door open for 2 very good NHL players so I guess that we should be happy with that. I was hoping that he would gamble a bit more but have to happy with this.

There's a good chance to win gold again, but we will not have a material advantage against Czech, Sweden, Canada or Switzerland, but I'm not saying that those other top countries beat Finland at that either, because we got some insanely good non NHLers in this team as well.

 

[santeri]

My updated ideal lines (if Dallas drops before Florida and Carolina) now that the stamped players were announced:


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

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

Säteri
Olkinuora
Tuohimaa

 

[Mestaruus]

I would like to see a big guy cleaning the goal front. Hakanpää would fill that purpose well. But Heiskanen will be the obvious option for Jalonen.

For me always Lindell > Hakanpää. We could get both if Heiskanen wouldn't or couldn't come. I believe that Lindell & Hakanpää are a PK pair in Dallas.

 

[Lambo]

This for J.Jalonen is maximum risk in his standards and not normal for Jalonen that he left the door open for 2 very good NHL players so I guess that we should be happy with that. I was hoping that he would gamble a bit more but have to happy with this.

There's a good chance to win gold again, but we will not have a material advantage against Czech, Sweden, Canada or Switzerland, but I'm not saying that those other top countries beat Finland at that either, because we got some insanely good non NHLers in this team as well.

Then it will be very close heart attack games again. The hope would be that Barkov, Aho, Hintz, Heiskanen and co. could pull away with a difference of 3 or 4 goals. These tight things always drive me crazy.

 

[Mestaruus]

So the practice lines from yesterday will be the lines against Norway tomorrow:

Jere Innala – Sakari Manninen – Teemu Hartikainen
Harri Pesonen – Valtteri Filppula – Joel Armia
Toni Rajala – Juho Lammikko – Jere Sallinen
Saku Mäenalanen – Hannes Björninen – Marko Anttila

Mikko Lehtonen – Juuso Hietanen
Niklas Friman – Sami Vatanen
Atte Ohtamaa – Ville Pokka
Mikael Seppälä

For Latvia game, simply Innala will be the 13th forward when MiG takes his spot in the #1 line's wing and on that same PP slot of Innala as well. The good thing is that we have a 13th forward if injuries will happen during the game.

Then it will be very close heart attack games again. The hope would be that Barkov, Aho, Hintz, Heiskanen and co. could pull away with a difference of 3 or 4 goals. These tight things always drive me crazy.

Yeah so true. Btw I'd be super excited if we had 3 slots open, but we only got 2 slots.

 

[Mestaruus]

For tonight's NHL games only Haula and Puljujärvi could be eliminated. Jalonen & Lehtinen won't ask Pulju most likely, but they might ask Haula.

The bigger round would be tomorrow night though or on Saturday morning Finnish time. They could let Haula over come his disappointment for +1 day and not even contact him before they would see if Dallas would get eliminated on the next day. Then they could get Hintz instead of Haula who is better than Haula. That would be a sneaky move that I'd like to see by Lehtinen & Jalonen.

The speculation never ends .

 

[IceHockeyDude]

For me always Lindell > Hakanpää. We could get both if Heiskanen wouldn't or couldn't come. I believe that Lindell & Hakanpää are a PK pair in Dallas.

Sounds good to me.

 

[FiLe]

Now, I ain't gonna say we all wouldn't have loved to see some more of our top shelf talent, but consider...

If after the last home tournament in 2013, somebody would have told you that for their next time as hosts, Finland's going to ice a team that features 20 players who are either World Champs, Olympic Gold medalists - or both... And some people's first reaction would be disappointment - would you have believed 'em?

 

[FinPanda]

Basically 20/22 non goalies registered after Granny joins for Saturday's Latvia game. I'm disappointed. I was hoping that Jalonen would do the Norway game with 6 defenders or 11 forwards or both, but he did the not so surprising and non gambling Jalonen thing. I'm not saying that it's the wrong thing, but I was hoping to see a greater amount of exciting NHL star caliber players.

Most likely one of the slots will be used on a defender. After so many players got registered already, I hope that none from the SHL finals will be taken, but Lepistö or Tyrväinen can still be back up players if no more NHL players would come. So basically what I'm saying is that the chance for Lepistö or Tyrväinen to actually play games in the WHC tournament is close to 0, because we will get some more good NHL players eliminated from the NHL playoff round 1. At least we get something more from the NHL and I'm glad that he didn't shut the door for more NHL players after Granlund joined.

On the positive, this increases our chance to be a top-2 team in the group and avoid Switzerland and Canada in the game of death, but we got to leave one of Sweden or Czech behind. USA is not easy but I just don't believe in them in these WHC games so maybe they will be behind Finland in the group standings when all is said and done.

I'm not disappointed. The fact Jalonen still left spots for NHL'ers is unusual for Jalonen. We as fans want the stars and moon, but we got to be realistic since the tournament is starting tomorrow. The fact we are still waiting, is impressive and I"m happy with it. It definitely won't be 2 forwards since has already said he wants 8 defenceman. "If no one comes from the NHL we grt that 8th D from somewhere else" was his quote.

Heiskanen + Hintz the most likely combo imo.

 

[Mestaruus]

I'm not disappointed. The fact Jalonen still left spots for NHL'ers is unusual for Jalonen. We as fans want the stars and moon, but we got to be realistic since the tournament is starting tomorrow. The fact we are still waiting, is impressive and I"m happy with it. It definitely won't be 2 forwards since has already said he wants 8 defenceman. "If no one comes from the NHL we grt that 8th D from somewhere else" was his quote.

Heiskanen + Hintz the most likely combo imo.

As I said, there is a small chance that it would be two forwards and I'll just quote myself to make it known that we agree, because I don't want to write the same thing again .

This for J.Jalonen is maximum risk in his standards and not normal for Jalonen that he left the door open for 2 very good NHL players so I guess that we should be happy with that. I was hoping that he would gamble a bit more but have to happy with this.

There's a good chance to win gold again, but we will not have a material advantage against Czech, Sweden, Canada or Switzerland, but I'm not saying that those other top countries beat Finland at that either, because we got some insanely good non NHLers in this team as well.

So let's just say that I got mixed feelings about it. I have to be happy because it's in Jalonen's standards his maximum amount of risk, but on the other hand it's been a long time since we had a great amount of very good NHL players. I never wanted stars and moon, but one more slot would've made a difference to get me super pumped. The current situation is good and Finland will most likely have success in this tournament.

 

[FinPanda]

As I said, there is a small chance that it would be two forwards and I'll just quote myself to make it known that we agree, because I don't want to write the same thing again .



So let's just say that I got mixed feelings about it. I have to be happy because it's in Jalonen's standards his maximum amount of risk, but on the other hand it's been a long time since we had a great amount of very good NHL players. I never wanted stars and moon, but one more slot would've made a difference to get me super pumped. The current situation is good and Finland will most likely have success in this tournament.

I'd say there is 0,00001% chance its to forwards i don't see why we shouldn't have iced 12 forwards against Norwqy. There is no easy games and playing with 11 forwards would've seemed like underestimating our opponent. They can score if we give them the opportunity to do so.

But yea seems we agree with this.

 

[AKQJ]

Many teams played games with registering only some players and leaving options? I will walk dogs and edit this post to get more clear picture who are the guys planned (in Finland with teams):

GBR 22+3
KAZ 22+3
ITA 22+3
FRA 20+3 (0/Guebey/Colotti)
LAT 20+3 (0/0/Lapinskis, Veinbergs)
CZE 19+3 (0/Musil/Holik, Kodytek)
FIN 19+3 (0/+1/Granlund, Nurmi)
SVK 19+3 (0/Bucko/Kollar, Sykora)
NOR 19+3 (0/0/Martinsen, Olimb KA, +1)
CAN 19+2 (Tomkins/+1/Barzal, O'Dell)
GER 19+2 (Strahlmeier/Zimmermann/Jentzsch, Karachun)
USA 18+2 (Nedeljikovic/Jones C, Harris/Chmelevski, +1)
AUT 17+3 (0/Kirchschläger, Unterweger, Wimmer/Feldner, Schwinger)
SUI 15+3 (0/Egli, Frick, Marti/Eggenberger, Riat, Miranda, Scherewey, Thürkauf)
DEN 15+2 (Seldrup/Jensen M, Kristensen/Ågård, Asperup, Jakobsen, Poulsen, Wejse)
SWE 15+2 (Dansk/Pudas, Folin/Karlsson, Lang, Söderblom, Åman, +1)

This is with the perspective that team registers 3 goalies, 8 defencemen and 14 forwards.

 

[Mestaruus]

I'd say there is 0,00001% chance its to forwards i don't see why we shouldn't have iced 12 forwards against Norwqy. There is no easy games and playing with 11 forwards would've seemed like underestimating our opponent. They can score if we give them the opportunity to do so.

But yea seems we agree with this.

Innala will be the 13tfh forward vs Latvia. If Jalonen waited, it could've been Hintz, Haula, Aho, TT or Barkov instead of him after couple of days, but tomorrow he is registered. It would be a good trade off if Jalonen would've done some gamble that is not really a gamble. Norway won't be hard for Finland, but Latvia is the much harder opponent with a lot of experienced players and we would've had 12 forwards against Latvia when MiG would've been ready to play. Don't get fooled about some practice matches vs Norway where Jalonen did some line shuffling all the time. Today I placed 30 bets which all had Norway losing to Finland on regular time and that was when I was still hoping that we would have 11 forwards.

What I like about the fact that we have 13 forwards registered and I know that Jalonen likes it even more is that Innala can be that moving piece if one line doesn't work, Jalonen can adjust and try things inside games. Also Jalonen can react to injuries inside games better.

 

[FinPanda]

Innala will be the 13tfh forward vs Latvia. If Jalonen waited, it could've been Hintz, Haula, Aho, TT or Barkov instead of him after couple of days, but tomorrow he is registered. It would be a good trade off if Jalonen would've done some gamble that is not really a gamble. Norway won't be hard for Finland, but Latvia is the much harder opponent with a lot of experienced players and we would've had 12 forwards against Latvia when MiG would've been ready to play. Don't get fooled about some practice matches vs Norway where Jalonen did some line shuffling all the time. Today I placed 30 bets which all had Norway losing to Finland on regular time and that was when I was still hoping that we would have 11 forwards.

What I like about the fact that we have 13 forwards registered and I know that Jalonen likes it even more is that Innala can be that moving piece if one line doesn't work, Jalonen can adjust and try things inside games. Also Jalonen can react to injuries inside games better.

Also need to think when any of those NHL'ers would be even playing. I don't see an issue with how Jalonen did it even though it would be nice to see a lot of our NHL'ers. I am still grateful for the fact we are actually still waiting and the wholr team isn't locked yet.

 

[Mestaruus]

Also need to think when any of those NHL'ers would be even playing. I don't see an issue with how Jalonen did it even though it would be nice to see a lot of our NHL'ers. I am still grateful for the fact we are actually still waiting and the wholr team isn't locked yet.

Me too and I don't see an issue. We both seem to trust Jalonen. My preference was 1-2 more slots, but Jalonen's preference matters more than mine, because he is the gold finger. 1 more slot was more realistic than 2 and it wouldn't have been hard to do.

Sihvonen just wrote an article on MTV3 and he also felt like Jalonen could've saved one or more slots:

Jukka Jalosen ratkaisu yllätti Petteri Sihvosen – kahta NHL-vahvistusta odotetaan yhä vesi kielellä: "Jyrää kaiken yli"

Petteri Sihvonen on yllättynyt Jukka Jalosen ratkaisusta jättää käytännössä vain kaksi kisapassia leimaamatta ennen MM-kisojen avausottelua. Kolmas leimaamaton passi on korvamerkitty Mikael Granlundille.

www.mtvuutiset.fi

 

[mattihp]

If we get no more NHLers it will be so crucial that the second and third line can produce offensively. Rajala is amazing at looking like he will score on the national team, but pucks need to go in. Sallinen is also an offensive black hole.

 

[SantosHalper]

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

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

Säteri
Olkinuora
Tuohimaa

21/25. It's been a pleasent surprise to see this many NHL players joining in and since Jalonen is waiting for the 1st round to end, theres at least some kind of intrest. Last forward spot obviously goes to Nurmi, if nobody from the NHL join in.

Intresting to see who's the 8th defenseman, if nobody from the NHL join in. Lepistö's name has been thrown around a lot, but i just don't see it. No EHT games this year and no national team games in past 4 years, everyone else from the European leagues has played EHT games this year. It's just so critical part of the team building process for Jalonen every year, every player selected from the European leagues has played EHT games that year. Only exception's i found are Mikael Granlund in 2011, Anssi Salmela in 2012, Antti Raanta and Tuukka Mäntylä in 2013. Lepistö is not a spring chicken anymore, played a long season and recovery in that age is not fast anymore. But since Jalonen is waiting, somebody is interested in NA.

Kaski is the back up plan imo, if we don't get anyone from the NHL. Kaski was already sent home but he is similar to Jokiharju, RHD, puck moving abilities and not the most hazardous in the own end.

 

[Mestaruus]

If we get no more NHLers it will be so crucial that the second and third line can produce offensively. Rajala is amazing at looking like he will score on the national team, but pucks need to go in. Sallinen is also an offensive black hole.

I agree with both points with you about Rajala and Sallinen. It looks like we got 2x 4th lines right now or maybe Jalonen sees that Björninen's line has been doing so much offensively in the big games of these tournaments that it's actually the 3rd line and Lammikko's line is really the 4th line.

Personally I'm not a big Rajala fan either. I liked Innala more in the practice games, but Innala seems to be the one who will probably be the 13th forward when MiG joins. I liked Petrus Palmu and M.Aaltonen over Rajala as well.

To think why Jukka Jalonen likes Rajala so much. It must be the history that he's been in Jalonen's teams before but sometimes in such a role that he wouldn't play any games or that he would play just few games. Usually there's nothing impressive by Rajala, but he is a quite well rounded player. Then secondly I'd say that his point production in a good Swiss league was good this season, so that must be a factor for Jalonen and I believe that Rajala was the captain in that team, so Jalonen maybe wants that leadership Rajala brings as well. Perhaps he's a good locker room guy as well. Usually captains are. So I would kind of understand that if that's Jalonen's reasoning for it. There were many underwhelming wingers playing during the practice matches and it all can't be blamed on the line shuffling in my opinion. It was a tight competition and Rajala was the winner of the underwhelming wingers in Jalonen's mind. That's my opinion on it.

Sallinen certainly is a black hole offensively, but it seems like he is going to be on one of our PP units. For face offs and going in front of the net I hope. Sallinen has similarities to Rajala by having been even more trusted soldier of Jalonen in the past and Sallinen is a leader as well. We do have a lot of experience and leadership in this team overall. That's a very good thing.

I'm little bit scared that we will have offensively quite unproductive Armia on the PP as well. 6 goals and 8 assists in 60 games for Armia this season. The plan I guess is to pray that he has found his offensive production or that he will find it during the tournament. It's something that he didn't find during the entire NHL season, but NHL is the toughest league in the world and Montreal was a mess this season, so maybe Armia will be better now.

 

[Mestaruus]

Intresting to see who's the 8th defenseman, if nobody from the NHL join in. Lepistö's name has been thrown around a lot, but i just don't see it. No EHT games this year and no national team games in past 4 years, everyone else from the European leagues has played EHT games this year. It's just so critical part of the team building process for Jalonen every year, every player selected from the European leagues has played EHT games that year. Only exception's i found are Mikael Granlund in 2011, Anssi Salmela in 2012, Antti Raanta and Tuukka Mäntylä in 2013. Lepistö is not a spring chicken anymore, played a long season and recovery in that age is not fast anymore. But since Jalonen is waiting, somebody is interested in NA.

Kaski is the back up plan imo, if we don't get anyone from the NHL. Kaski was already sent home but he is similar to Jokiharju, RHD, puck moving abilities and not the most hazardous in the own end.

Sihvonen said few hours ago that Honka is a better fit for this team than Lepistö, because Honka shoots from the right.

According to stats Jesse Virtanen was good in the championship winning team, Färjestad. I personally prefer the size of Lepistö and his wellroundedness and experience over those other D-men. My feeling is that it's definitely not Kaski. It would indeed be one of those SHL finalists.

I got a feeling that we won't be so unlucky that one or two of Mikkola, Määttä, Lindell, Heiskanen or Hakanpää wouldn't become available.

Maybe Jalonen decides which SHL guy he gets after the Norway game. He sees a lack of something with the D-pairs during the Norway game and he makes his decision of which SHL defender he would invite based on the need of that moment, but again that guy would have to be a back up until we would see if someone from NHL would be coming.

 

[ES]

Many teams played games with registering only some players and leaving options? I will walk dogs and edit this post to get more clear picture who are the guys planned (in Finland with teams):

GBR 22+3
KAZ 22+3
ITA 22+3
FRA 20+3 (0/Guebey/Colotti)
LAT 20+3 (0/0/Lapinskis, Veinbergs)
CZE 19+3 (0/Musil/Holik, Kodytek)
FIN 19+3 (0/+1/Granlund, Nurmi)
SVK 19+3 (0/Bucko/Kollar, Sykora)
NOR 19+3 (0/0/Martinsen, Olimb KA, +1)
CAN 19+2 (Tomkins/+1/Barzal, O'Dell)
GER 19+2 (Strahlmeier/Zimmermann/Jentzsch, Karachun)
USA 18+2 (Nedeljikovic/Jones C, Harris/Chmelevski, +1)
AUT 17+3 (0/Kirchschläger, Unterweger, Wimmer/Feldner, Schwinger)
SUI 15+3 (0/Egli, Frick, Marti/Eggenberger, Riat, Miranda, Scherewey, Thürkauf)
DEN 15+2 (Seldrup/Jensen M, Kristensen/Ågård, Asperup, Jakobsen, Poulsen, Wejse)
SWE 15+2 (Dansk/Pudas, Folin/Karlsson, Lang, Söderblom, Åman, +1)

This is with the perspective that team registers 3 goalies, 8 defencemen and 14 forwards.

Bolded teams start their tournament on Friday. I expect some others to include others before the first game on Saturday.

 

[filip85]

Who is starter for you today ? I am in doubt between Fin goalie and Elvis for my fantasy team.

 

[mattihp]

I agree with both points with you about Rajala and Sallinen. It looks like we got 2x 4th lines right now or maybe Jalonen sees that Björninen's line has been doing so much offensively in the big games of these tournaments that it's actually the 3rd line and Lammikko's line is really the 4th line.

Personally I'm not a big Rajala fan either. I liked Innala more in the practice games, but Innala seems to be the one who will probably be the 13th forward when MiG joins. I liked Petrus Palmu and M.Aaltonen over Rajala as well.

To think why Jukka Jalonen likes Rajala so much. It must be the history that he's been in Jalonen's teams before but sometimes in such a role that he wouldn't play any games or that he would play just few games. Usually there's nothing impressive by Rajala, but he is a quite well rounded player. Then secondly I'd say that his point production in a good Swiss league was good this season, so that must be a factor for Jalonen and I believe that Rajala was the captain in that team, so Jalonen maybe wants that leadership Rajala brings as well. Perhaps he's a good locker room guy as well. Usually captains are. So I would kind of understand that if that's Jalonen's reasoning for it. There were many underwhelming wingers playing during the practice matches and it all can't be blamed on the line shuffling in my opinion. It was a tight competition and Rajala was the winner of the underwhelming wingers in Jalonen's mind. That's my opinion on it.

Sallinen certainly is a black hole offensively, but it seems like he is going to be on one of our PP units. For face offs and going in front of the net I hope. Sallinen has similarities to Rajala by having been even more trusted soldier of Jalonen in the past and Sallinen is a leader as well. We do have a lot of experience and leadership in this team overall. That's a very good thing.

I'm little bit scared that we will have offensively quite unproductive Armia on the PP as well. 6 goals and 8 assists in 60 games for Armia this season. The plan I guess is to pray that he has found his offensive production or that he will find it during the tournament. It's something that he didn't find during the entire NHL season, but NHL is the toughest league in the world and Montreal was a mess this season, so maybe Armia will be better now.

I really like Rajala, the way other teams mark him down because of his skillset gives lots of space to his linemates. Filppula needs an even better guy on the other wing to make use of it though. So hoping we are getting two forwards..

 

[Lartsaman]

Who is starter for you today ? I am in doubt between Fin goalie and Elvis for my fantasy team.

Jussi Olkinuora.

Line-up today:

1:
21 Jere Innala – 65 Sakari Manninen – 70 Teemu Hartikainen
4 Mikko Lehtonen – 38 Juuso Hietanen

2:
82 Harri Pesonen – 51 Valtteri Filppula (C) – 10 Joel Armia
50 Mikael Seppälä – 55 Atte Ohtamaa

3:
25 Toni Rajala – 91 Juho Lammikko – 76 Jere Sallinen
3 Niklas Friman – 42 Sami Vatanen (A)

4:
80 Saku Mäenalanen – 24 Hannes Björninen – 12 Marko Anttila (A)
2 Ville Pokka