Olympics: Team Finland 2022

[Conspiracy Theorist]

Looks a bit similar to 2019 team with more experience.

 

[Mestaruus]

Not sure if they said anything about the captains. I'm guessing that they will announce it once they know the covid-19 survivors closer to the tournament, but I'll guess that:

Mörkö Anttila - Captain.
-only thing jeopardizing that is if Jalonen isn't planning to put him into the active line up of top-12 forwards.

I'll say that Filppula is a lock for one of the assistant captain spots.

The second assistant captain will be one of these 3:
Komarov
Ohtamaa
Vatanen - Least likely.

 

[Exarz]

Friman was cut last WC, has he gotten better?

He has certainly improved, plus that he’s a good multi-tool player as can play both D and winger

 

[David OSullivan]

Yeah

Looks like a lot of world champions and NHL vets to me.

Yeah but is it experienced enough?

Lepisto, saiveninen, philstrom all left out. Few too many under 30 for my liking

Kidding aside, this is a good team. I would have liked a younger scorer as an extra but lots of players can move up or down. They will be a tough team to play against. Good chance here but it will be tough. First time is always the hardest but jalonen lives for this type of challenge.

 

[SantosHalper]

Granlund - Manninen - Hartikainen
Pesonen - Aaltonen - Ojamäki
Rajala - Filppula(A) - Pakarinen
Komarov - Björninen - Anttila(C)
Innala, Savinainen

Lehtonen - Kaski
Lindbohm - Vatanen(A)
Ohtamaa - Hietanen
Koivisto - Pokka

Olkinuora
Säteri
Tuohimaa

21 out of 25, or it should be 20 out of 25 because my original prediction had Vehviläinen as a 3rd goalie. But the russians told us who the goalies are going to be, before i wrote my prediction.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Friman in and Kaski out is the only surprise. It was most likely Kemiläinen over Kaski and Friman over Sund/Koivisto. I like our team, pretty much all of our best players in Europe are on board.

Granlund - Manninen - Hartikainen
Pesonen - Aaltonen - Ojamäki
Rajala - Filppula - Pakarinen
Komarov - Björninen - Anttila
Kemppainen, Mäenalanen

Lehtonen - Pokka
Lindbohm - Vatanen
Ohtamaa - Kemiläinen
Friman - Hietanen

PP1
Hartikainen
Granlund Filppula Manninen
Vatanen

PP2
Pesonen
Ojamäki Aaltonen
Kemiläinen Lehtonen

Rajala and Hietanen as back ups, if powerplay units are having a weak game.

 

[Lambo]

Official roster:

Goalies
Jussi Olkinuora, Metallurg Magnitogorsk
Harri Säteri, Sibir Novosibirsk
Frans Tuohimaa, Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk

Defensemen
Niklas Friman, Jokerit
Juuso Hietanen, HC Ambri-Biotta
Valtteri Kemiläinen, Vityaz Podolsk
Mikko Lehtonen, SKA St. Petersburg
Petteri Lindbohm, Jokerit
Atte Ohtamaa, Kärpät
Ville Pokka, Avangard Omsk
Sami Vatanen, HC Geneve-Servette

Forwards
Miro Aaltonen, Vityaz Podolsk
Marko Anttila, Jokerit
Hannes Björninen, Jokerit
Valtteri Filppula, HC Geneve-Servette
Markus Granlund, Salavat Yulaev Ufa
Teemu Hartikainen, Salavat Yulaev Ufa
Joonas Kemppainen, SKA St. Petersburg
Leo Komarov, SKA St. Petersburg
Sakari Manninen, Salavat Yulaev Ufa
Saku Mäenalanen, Kärpät
Niko Ojamäki, Vityaz Podolsk
Iiro Pakarinen, Jokerit
Harri Pesonen, SCL Tigers
Toni Rajala, EHC Biel-Bienne

Strong, Hardcore, extreme! Beside Russia, a Gold contender.

 

[Marioesque]

Strong, Hardcore, extreme! Beside Russia, a Gold contender.

I always favor Finns over Russians because of tactical advantage. Seems to work well even as a betting strategy because Russia gets really highly rated, they look great on paper.

 

[johnsic]

I think it is wrong that Kaski, Sund, Lehtera, Ruohomaa and Pulkkinen are out. Those guys should be in the team. I think Finland will win OC though. Anttila will score alot in the semifinals and finals and he will be the first captain to win both WC and OC gold.

 

[ES]

Youngest player on the roster is 26-year-old Hannes Björninen.

 

[Sanf]

Friman is the only big surprise. Tuohimaa slightly (well I know it was spoiled) because he wasn´t in the EHT earlier this season. But not that big surprise overall. It´s not a surpirse, but personally I would have left Anttila out of team even if it sounds sacrilegious.

Very nice team. It´s been while when we last time had this much experience in the team. It depends how Jalonen sees Anttilas role, but I guess now the captaincy in my mind would be C Anttila, A Komarov, A Ohtamaa.

 

[Snaibberi]

I was sad and angry that NHL decided not to let players go.... But it has to be said that Finland has better changes to win without them

Strong team and now or never that first olympic gold

 

[karhukissa]

I think it is wrong that Kaski, Sund, Lehtera, Ruohomaa and Pulkkinen are out. Those guys should be in the team. I think Finland will win OC though. Anttila will score alot in the semifinals and finals and he will be the first captain to win both WC and OC gold.

Lehterä isn't good enough for top-6 and Filppula is way better 2 way center and obvious choice to this team. This team is full of role players and guys Jalonen trusts.

Pulkkinen is a good PP guy but not familiar enough to Jalonen and too one dimensional for his style of hockey i'd assume. That style which has bring us gold so many times, that's why he always goes for players he know can play his hockey.

Kaski would've been on this team most probably, if Vatanen was still in the NHL.

 

[SantosHalper]

I think it is wrong that Kaski, Sund, Lehtera, Ruohomaa and Pulkkinen are out. Those guys should be in the team.

I think it came down to Kemiläinen or Kaski and Friman or Sund, i guess Jalonen though Kemiläinen was better than Kaski in Channel one cup. Friman over Sund was a surpise, but Jokerit fans has told that Friman has been their best defensive d-man this year. Lindbohm plays for Jokerit too and Lindbohm is one of our best defensive d-men in Europe. It's a quite convincing statement, usually Jalonen selects players whom had played EHT games during the season. Friman was selected to play in Channel one cup but was forced to sit that one out, COVID reason's if i remember correctly. Friman must be having a better season in his club team than Sund, and who knows Sund might have minor injuries.

Kemppainen was selected over Ruohomaa, i though Jalonen would go with Ruohomaa. Ruohomaa played in Riga and he has played more NT games in recent years than Kemppainen, but Kemppainen has more experience. Clearly Jalonen wanted a experienced group and Kemppainen is also stronger defensively, which is the trait that Jalonen values most.

Pulkkinen doesn't suit at all in "our game"-plan, he's not all-around player like everybody else. Ojamäki is similar threat for PP units but more suitable in overall and Pulkkinen haven't played in NT games in two years, he wasn't very imprresive back then either. Lehterä haven't really played in NT after his drug related indictment, 1 EHT tournament two years ago, 0+0, 4pim, -2. I think that's it for him.

 

[iginlafan77]

As a Jokerit fan, I'm surprised to see Friman. Honestly I think Leskinen is a better Dman. Only real reason I can see is that Friman could be a winger in a pinch, but he really hasn't done that often the past couple years.

 

[FiLe]

Kemppainen was selected over Ruohomaa, i though Jalonen would go with Ruohomaa. Ruohomaa played in Riga and he has played more NT games in recent years than Kemppainen, but Kemppainen has more experience. Clearly Jalonen wanted a experienced group and Kemppainen is also stronger defensively, which is the trait that Jalonen values most.

Ruohomaa has more recent NT experience, but he has done virtually nothing to earn any kind of preferred status. Not that he has been a liability either, but I honestly wouldn't say that around 15 games of relative invisibility from the last year or so are more impressive than Kemppainen's three games of relative invisibility from the Channel One Cup (which still potted him 0+2). Especially since there's been a time when Kemppainen was genuinely good in a major tournament environment, even if that was before Jalonen's second coming.

 

[Puck Dogg]

Komarov I hope plays larger role than 4th liner. What I've seen in SKA's games he is in very good form.

 

[teravaineSAROS]

Komarov I hope plays larger role than 4th liner. What I've seen in SKA's games he is in very good form.

I'm pretty sure that line would play more than your average 4th line. Atleast I hope so because that line will be very annoying to play against.

 

[Czechboy]

I feel like Finns and Russia have best chance at gold. Now that I've seen Finn roster I think the same thing.lol Looks quality in every position and the best coach in tourney.

 

[Sanf]

Ruohomaa has more recent NT experience, but he has done virtually nothing to earn any kind of preferred status. Not that he has been a liability either, but I honestly wouldn't say that around 15 games of relative invisibility from the last year or so are more impressive than Kemppainen's three games of relative invisibility from the Channel One Cup (which still potted him 0+2). Especially since there's been a time when Kemppainen was genuinely good in a major tournament environment, even if that was before Jalonen's second coming.

I think Kemppainen provides more than Ruohomaa. You know what you get from him.

It will be interesting to see how these three players that were in Marjamäki´s team, but not in Jalonens do in the tournament. Hartikainen, Aaltonen and Kemppainen are all key players. Those three plus the four "rookies" are only players that have never medaled in Finnish NT (adults). Aaltonen was fairly disapointing last time he was in the big tournament. Granted that was some years ago and it was Marjamäki team.

 

[mattihp]

I did not expect to see Juuso Hietanen there. Interesting to see Komarov back.

Defense looks weak, don't we have a couple of guys better than these?

Lehtonen and Vatanen will log lots and lots of minutes.

Forwards look pretty much like I expected.

 

[mattihp]

2nd/3rd line will be Manninen - Granlund - Hartikainen? All three can take draws. Pretty annoying line to play against.

Mäenalanen - Björninen - Anttila for the fourth line?

 

[FiLe]

Defense looks weak, don't we have a couple of guys better than these?

Lehtonen and Vatanen will log lots and lots of minutes.

The only unexpected pick in that defense is Friman, but even he is nothing overly shocking, at least if you've caught a Jokerit game or two this season. The surprise is more due to him not being a Jalonen familiar, and we all know Jalonen likes his familiars.

There was group of about 10 players most figured the defense would be picked out of, and 7 out of that 10 made it. Somebody might question if Kaski should be in over Hietanen or Kemiläinen, and Sund or Koivisto over Friman, but they would all be lateral moves - not upgrades.

Jalonen doesn't pick players he doesn't trust, and he'll run a full four-pair rotation. The TOI between these d-men won't be exactly even, of course, but even the designated heavy hitters won't clock much more than 20 minutes per game.

2nd/3rd line will be Manninen - Granlund - Hartikainen? All three can take draws. Pretty annoying line to play against.

More like the first line, if you ask me. The other scoring unit will be built around the Vityaz duo of Aaltonen-Ojamäki.

 

[mattihp]

The only unexpected pick in that defense is Friman, but even he is nothing overly shocking, at least if you've caught a Jokerit game or two this season. The surprise is more due to him not being a Jalonen familiar, and we all know Jalonen likes his familiars.

There was group of about 10 players most figured the defense would be picked out of, and 7 out of that 10 made it. Somebody might question if Kaski should be in over Hietanen or Kemiläinen, and Sund or Koivisto over Friman, but they would all be lateral moves - not upgrades.

Jalonen doesn't pick players he doesn't trust, and he'll run a full four-pair rotation. The TOI between these d-men won't be exactly even, of course, but even the designated heavy hitters won't clock much more than 20 minutes per game.

More like the first line, if you ask me. The other scoring unit will be built around the Vityaz duo of Aaltonen-Ojamäki.

So...

Manninen - Granlund - Hartikainen
Pesonen/Rajala (the cog that fits best) Aaltonen - Ojamäki
Komarov - Filppula - Pakarinen
Mäenalanen - Björninen - Mörkö

Doesn't sound too bad actually. There is some creativity there, lots of hard work and a fair bit of skill too!

Aaltonen - Filppula - Ojamäki would be interesting too.

 

[SoundAndFury]

Kaski is a bit surprising since he was on those successful Jalonen teams before but his downsides are obvious and I guess Vatanen moving to Europe removes any needs to have a PP specialist of some sort.

 

[FiLe]

Manninen - Granlund - Hartikainen
Pesonen/Rajala (the cog that fits best) Aaltonen - Ojamäki
Komarov - Filppula - Pakarinen
Mäenalanen - Björninen - Mörkö

Something like this. Manninen is the (nominal) center in the Ufa line, though. And it could be that we have both Pesonen and Rajala as the middle-six LWs (no guesses which way), with Komarov in his natural 4th line position and Mäenalanen the odd man out.