Olympics: Team Finland 2022

[Sanf]

Ristolainen's situation is not clear to me. I understood he wasn't on the 44- player list from which the Olympic team will be selected from. Lehtinen said that why he wasn't invited to meeting at the end of July was due his reluctance to represent Finland in the Worlds.

Many NHL players decline the offer to play in the Worlds and to be honest it shouldn't be much of a big deal. I'm aware that the Worlds are a thing for casual Finnish fans but it shouldn't affect who gets selected to play in best-on-best tournament.

There was summer get together with the Finnish NHL players who were seen as candidates for the olympic tournament. It wasn´t anything official or preliminary list. I think teams sent long list of players around 50 names at mid October. That would probably be partly due to doping tests? Jalonen and Ristolainen has been in contact after that and scheduled some kind of meeting. So Ristolainen is in the long list of players from which the players are selected.

Things were handled bit childishly, but I hope they settle that on their meeting.

But if that long list is something where you absolutely HAVE to choose the players that would probably rule out already someone like Lassi Thomson because he most likely wasn´t on that list. And to point out definitely not suggesting that Thomson should be selected. Just wondering if that is possible even in theory.

 

[karhukissa]

Ristolainen's situation is not clear to me. I understood he wasn't on the 44- player list from which the Olympic team will be selected from. Lehtinen said that why he wasn't invited to meeting at the end of July was due his reluctance to represent Finland in the Worlds.

Many NHL players decline the offer to play in the Worlds and to be honest it shouldn't be much of a big deal. I'm aware that the Worlds are a thing for casual Finnish fans but it shouldn't affect who gets selected to play in best-on-best tournament.

It was just an unofficial meeting with the NHL players where he wasn't invited. Obviously team will be selected pretty much 99% from that group that was present on that meeting, but they also said that it doesn't mean that Ristolainen doesn't have a chance to play in the Olympics.

As far as i understood, biggest issue was that they haven't been able to even reach Ristolainen when they tried to contact him regarding Worlds. They've tried to call him but he didn't answer, so this time they thought that let's not even bother.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

I swear to god. This site on mobile can be killer. Wrote my longest response on goalies and it crashed.

Started writing a shortened version and it crashed.

I'm not going to go in any more detail.

Koskinen gives up soft goals regularly and this is not a good trait for close playoff games.

Korpisalo- doesn't like being backup. Could be devisive in dressing room but may have different attitude on national team.

Lankinen. My choice and possibly Jalonens too. Has favour of coach and goals against are on Chicago terrible defense. He will still get games despite being backup and Chicago defense improving under coach change. I think his own personal numbers will improve with the defence as he is playing solid.

Saros and Rask are a tier above all these choices. We already down Rask. As long as we have Saros starter is very clear and we ré all happy. One game will not harm anything. If Saros gets injured, then my choice is Lankinen.

What about Raanta? Career .919 SV%.

 

[Sanf]

What about Raanta? Career .919 SV%.

I would prefer healthy Raanta over Koskinen and Korpisalo.

The long list actually makes goalie situation somewhat more interesting. Some cuts have been already made. So if/when the list had 5 names you can with certainty say that Saros and Lankinen would have been there. Have they named Rask? That would leave two places open. The list was sent in the very first days of NHL season. So what they had is that Korpisalo and Koskinen came from rough season. Raanta can´t stay healty. Kähkönen showed good form last season. Husso isn´t in there (and shouldn´t). Doubt that they would have listed Olkinuora.

 

[FiLe]

Doubt that they would have listed Olkinuora.

The so-called "long list" had more than a hundred names. Because the NHL can still withdraw from the games until January 10th, the list has players both from the NHL and Europe. Olkinuora is absolutely on that list, as he'd be our starter in the case the NHL withdraws. And of course, the list is not in any manner split into NHLers and Euro players, so nothing would prevent them from picking Olkinuora even if (and hopefully when) the NHLers are available.

There seems to be a bit of confusion going on with all of these lists. The coffee klatch featured 44 names, but the selections are by no means limited to those 44. Lehtinen also said on the start of the season that they have a list of about 50 names they're looking to pick the team from. This list is also by no means limiting the selection of players outside of it, if they play well enough. The only official list as of right now is that 100+ strong list compiled for anti-doping purposes.

 

[Sanf]

The so-called "long list" had more than a hundred names. Because the NHL can still withdraw from the games until January 10th, the list has players both from the NHL and Europe. Olkinuora is absolutely on that list, as he'd be our starter in the case the NHL withdraws. And of course, the list is not in any manner split into NHLers and Euro players, so nothing would prevent them from picking Olkinuora even if (and hopefully when) the NHLers are available.

There seems to be a bit of confusion going on with all of these lists. The coffee klatch featured 44 names, but the selections are by no means limited to those 44. Lehtinen also said on the start of the season that they have a list of about 50 names they're looking to pick the team from. This list is also by no means limiting the selection of players outside of it, if they play well enough. The only official list as of right now is that 100+ strong list compiled for anti-doping purposes.

I have thought that list is 55 names long. 50 skaters and 5 goalies. And I do believe it is rule by IOC and yes for anti-doping purposes. But it can be different due to Corona and NHLers not being guaranteed in the tournament. Atleast North-American sources talks about that 55 name list. Could Lehtinen mean that their own personal original list had over 100 names?

Report: Fleury, Price among goalies included on long list for Team Canada
For men's hockey, National Olympic Committees typically are only allowed to submit a long list of 55 players to their initial roster — 50 skaters and five goalies. Canada, though, was given an exemption for Price, who voluntarily entered the NHL's player assistance program earlier this month.

edit. Oh probably two different lists. That can be confusing...

 

[FiLe]

I have thought that list is 55 names long. 50 skaters and 5 goalies. And I do believe it is rule by IOC and yes for anti-doping purposes. But it can be different due to Corona and NHLers not being guaranteed in the tournament. Atleast North-American sources talks about that 55 name list. Could Lehtinen mean that their own personal original list had over 100 names?

The story I linked to says pretty clearly that the WADA list is 100+ strong.

 

[Sanf]

The story I linked to says pretty clearly that the WADA list is 100+ strong.

Yep it does. I tend to prefer NA sources on these kind of things, but he seem to have been in talks with Lehtinen and Noronen. NHL.com and TSN talks only about 55 player list.

 

[FiLe]

Yep it does. I tend to prefer NA sources on these kind of things, but he seem to have been in talks with Lehtinen and Noronen. NHL.com and TSN talks only about 55 player list.

I honestly have no idea where this 50+5 limitation is coming from; never heard of it before. Perhaps it's some Canadian thing, their own internal rules? Because it feels asininely limiting from the perspective of those teams that have traditionally picked players from Europe too. Furthermore, the coffee klatch featured eight goalies (Husso, Korpisalo, Koskinen, Kähkönen, Lankinen, Raanta, Rask and Saros), and it appears similarly asinine to invite so many and then having to cut three before the season's even properly underway.

 

[Sanf]

I honestly have no idea where this 50+5 limitation is coming from; never heard of it before. Perhaps it's some Canadian thing, their own internal rules? Because it feels asininely limiting from the perspective of those teams that have traditionally picked players from Europe too. Furthermore, the coffee klatch featured eight goalies (Husso, Korpisalo, Koskinen, Kähkönen, Lankinen, Raanta, Rask and Saros), and it appears similarly asinine to invite so many and then having to cut three before the season's even properly underway.

It is hard to say who demands that list. I admit this seems slightly confusing. l The Athletich mentions that it would be 55 NHL players list. Which obviously would affect mostly Canada USA and partly Sweden. Goaltending situation of Finland would be still affected...

LeBrun: Carey Price makes Canada's Olympic long list, but will he be ready to play in Beijing?
(behing paywall)

So yes, 55 players is a long list, but immediately it forces both those countries, but especially Team Canada, into early and important decisions after complying with last Friday’s Oct. 15 long list deadline.

If someone gets hot or has a breakthrough year, but wasn’t on the long list, it’s too late to add him.

Now to be clear, as per strict rules from the NHL and NHL Players’ Association, none of the countries’ long lists were made public. But after some sleuthing this past week, as reported on TSN’s Insider Trading Thursday, I managed to confirm the goalies on Team Canada’s long list for the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing.

 

[Sanf]

Would be interesting to know who are the guys behind Team Canadas and USAs backup plan list. They don´t have the old olympic hockey programs anymore.

 

[Lambo]

Ristolainen's situation is not clear to me. I understood he wasn't on the 44- player list from which the Olympic team will be selected from. Lehtinen said that why he wasn't invited to meeting at the end of July was due his reluctance to represent Finland in the Worlds.

Many NHL players decline the offer to play in the Worlds and to be honest it shouldn't be much of a big deal. I'm aware that the Worlds are a thing for casual Finnish fans but it shouldn't affect who gets selected to play in best-on-best tournament.

But with him it is quite noticeable. Unlike everyone else, he has never played a World Cup. And that although he has never reached the play-offs with the Sabres. He doesn't seem to care much about the Leijonat jersey.

 

[Eye of Ra]

Teuvo Teräväinen - Aleksander Barkov - Mikko Rantanen
Patrik Laine - Sebastian Aho - Jesse Puljujärvi
Mikael Granlund - Roope Hintz - Kaapo Kakko
Kasperi Kapanen - Anton Lundell - Joonas Donskoi

I would go with this right now if everyone is healthy.

Eetu Luostarinen btw have 6 goals in 15 NHL games. Could be a guy who forces his way into the roster.

 

[Nate070]

Teuvo Teräväinen - Aleksander Barkov - Mikko Rantanen
Patrik Laine - Sebastian Aho - Jesse Puljujärvi
Mikael Granlund - Roope Hintz - Kaapo Kakko
Kasperi Kapanen - Anton Lundell - Joonas Donskoi

I would go with this right now if everyone is healthy.

Eetu Luostarinen btw have 6 goals in 15 NHL games. Could be a guy who forces his way into the roster.

I think it´s as good guess as anyones. I kinda like the choise of the players but not sure where exactly they will end up. Well done sir!

 

[Czechboy]

Teuvo Teräväinen - Aleksander Barkov - Mikko Rantanen
Patrik Laine - Sebastian Aho - Jesse Puljujärvi
Mikael Granlund - Roope Hintz - Kaapo Kakko
Kasperi Kapanen - Anton Lundell - Joonas Donskoi

I would go with this right now if everyone is healthy.

Eetu Luostarinen btw have 6 goals in 15 NHL games. Could be a guy who forces his way into the roster.

The Finn forward group is going to be awesome. I really can't wait to see them play. Hope JP makes it.

 

[IceHockeyDude]

Regarding the defense, right now if I was Jalonen i'd go with:

Heiskanen-Lindell
Jokiharju-Välimäki
Määttä-Hakanpää

That's the core. Ristolainen will have his chance at the spring's WC and we already have a hard hitter in Hakanpää.

 

[BusQuets]

Regarding the defense, right now if I was Jalonen i'd go with:

Heiskanen-Lindell
Jokiharju-Välimäki
Määttä-Hakanpää

That's the core. Ristolainen will have his chance at the spring's WC and we already have a hard hitter in Hakanpää.

1st and 3rd pairings are good but damn will that 2nd pairing have big problems against cycle play. Really needs Ristolainen there.

 

[IceHockeyDude]

1st and 3rd pairings are good but damn will that 2nd pairing have big problems against cycle play. Really needs Ristolainen there.

I'm afraid one Ristolainen wouldn't make much difference to a one way or another. He could be the first call-up if injuries.

 

[BusQuets]

I'm afraid one Ristolainen wouldn't make much difference to a one way or another. He could be the first call-up if injuries.

There's a reason why Risto plays 20 minutes a night for the 9th season in a row and Valimaki can barely play in NHL right now. The difference is massive. You just have to take the guy who plays all game against the guys who will be in the olympics too.

 

[Mestaruus]

Regarding the defense, right now if I was Jalonen i'd go with:

Heiskanen-Lindell
Jokiharju-Välimäki
Määttä-Hakanpää

That's the core. Ristolainen will have his chance at the spring's WC and we already have a hard hitter in Hakanpää.

That would be funny and probably the right thing to do but I am 99% sure that Ristolainen will be in that team and playing games. Imagine if that home WHC would be in Turku and Jalonen wouldn't invite him for The Olympics. I wonder if Ristolainen would come to his home city of Turku that he seems to love so much in that case. It would be much easier for him to say "no" to Tampere.

He makes the Olympic team better and I'm not going to say that he is a locker room poison because he isn't but it would be kind of weird having him in a locker room with other players, while he doesn't share with them the great honor and value of representing Finland when healthy and out of playoffs. Not after his U20 heroics anyways.

Nobody else has so bad record of declining WHC invites as him and not even close. Sure the guy claims he is out of batteries every time after a long season and with very high TOI and it's hard for him emotionally when he had been one of Buffalo's top guys for so long and Buffalo's seasons always ended quite bad and left a bitter taste in his mouth. That is understandable. He is only a human and not a machine. What is weird though is the fact that he didn't come a single time for a WHC, despite of his personal disappointments. On the other hand we were probably lucky that we didn't get unmotivated Ristolainen for many of those tournaments, because Finland has had pretty good success in those tournaments without him.

He only wants to play best on best tournaments. Let's just say that it doesn't fit Finnish ice hockey culture that well what he is doing. The fear is that if Jalonen and the future coaches of Finland just keep taking him for the best on best tournaments, what kind of message does that send for our other future star players? A message that you can skip tournaments that are important for the Finnish fans without consequences. So I wouldn't mind if they make an example of him and not invite him at all. Anyways this post got longer than it was supposed to lol.

 

[Pataatti]

Lassi Thomson might actually be a dark horse for team Finland. I'm not saying he is in the team yet but there is still few months to play before olympics and his entry into the league has been surprisingly good. If he can keep this up and even improve he might sneak in.
Or is there somekind of problem with the preliminary lists regarding his olympics?

 

[IceHockeyDude]

Lassi Thomson might actually be a dark horse for team Finland. I'm not saying he is in the team yet but there is still few months to play before olympics and his entry into the league has been surprisingly good. If he can keep this up and even improve he might sneak in.
Or is there somekind of problem with the preliminary lists regarding his olympics?

More and more dmen are popping up in their NHL-rosters this season. Thompson, Salo and Mikkola as the recent ones.

 

[hyd3nSeek]

I might be in the minority but personally I'd choose something else over Ristolainen and Kapanen in the roster. .
While Kapanen brings speed and some offense I'd personally choose Armia/Lehkonen over him who bring better PK/forecheck skill to the 4th line (All of the 3 are a bit inconsistent with scoring production). That's probably my personal preference but knowing the history of the Team Finland's it might not be out of the question that atleast 4th line is more checking/defensive minded. For example Komarov-Lehterä-Pihlström was the 4th line in Sochi in playoff rounds. Anyway forward situation is pretty good if there's even a possibility that guy like Kapanen is not in the final roster.

Ristolainen to me is a headscrather. How well does he fit in the Finland's system and what his role exactly would be? In the nightmare scenario in my head I see him making bonehead decisions in d-zone making him out of position. I picture Finnish defensive formation should be expexted to be pretty tight in the d-zone. From what I've seen from him he has had the tendency to overplay/over commit in some situations which to me doesn't work at all on national team (I'm not sure if can describe it right). He has the physical tools but is that enough.
There's been some signs of hope from Philly fans lately after some fans already titled him the worst D in their history in beginning of the season. I seriously don't know what kind of player Finns could get from him. He sure isn't the top pair defensman we hoped he'd become by now.

 

[FiLe]

My previous projection (that can be found in the OP) was made before the season began. Now, it's about a month and a half 'til the selections are made, so I think it's time I update it...

Juuse Saros
Mikko Koskinen
Kevin Lankinen

The goalie situation is not ideal. But all you absolutely need is just one good one, and Saros is the one. Rask returning in time might upend this trio. Or perhaps either Elvis Merzlinkins or Jordan Binnington getting injured.

Miro Heiskanen - Rasmus Ristolainen
Esa Lindell - Henri Jokiharju
Olli Määttä - Sami Vatanen
Juuso Välimäki - Jani Hakanpää

Eight d-men are going to get selected, and Jere Lehtinen said recently that eight d-men will likely dress for all the games, which means a four-pair rotation.

Right now, I view seven of these eight either locks or highly likely (Vatanen, if you ask me, took a pretty big step towards this squad in the Karjala Cup) with Väliharju Välimäki's spot being the only questionable one. If Sutter keeps sitting him and someone else starts getting steady minutes, his position is definitely in jeopardy. I might even have included Lehtonen over him, but he's presently injured and there is no good estimate given of his return, except that it's going to take weeks.

Patrik Laine - Aleksander Barkov - Mikko Rantanen
Teuvo Teräväinen - Sebastian Aho - Jesse Puljujärvi
Mikael Granlund - Roope Hintz - Kaapo Kakko
Kasperi Kapanen - Anton Lundell - Joel Armia
+Eetu Luostarinen, Joonas Donskoi

That top-nine is just... wicked. I'm really happy Kakko has started showing signs of waking up, as I've always viewed him as the ideal player to complete the first three lines. While Kakko's main value is measured in points, I in fact liked his 200ft game even when he was struggling.

And even the fourth line is far from your typical grinder unit. We can safely say now that Lundell's performance is more than just an early streak. Sure, he might still hit a bump, but by now that looks not so likely to happen. Luostarinen is another new name here. I was pretty bullish on him during last season already, and now I think he's more or less emerged as the ideal extra center.

 

[IceHockeyDude]

That top 9 is looking to be above Russia's and Sweden's if Kakko and Pulju keep producing being only behind Canada and Russia. We'll see, it's still early.