Your currently best national team?

[Lepardi]

Is it better to have 2 mediocre teams aka B-teams than an A-team and a C-team? Do Sweden get extra points for having a better B-team than Finland?

Those B team players might come in real handy when you're missing your four best centers, as was the case for Finland in Sochi 2014.

 

[Dooble08]

I see we are continuing the theme of Claude Giroux being a snub for Canada here.

 

[JabbaJabba]

Laine - Barkov - Rantanen
Teräväinen - Aho - Donskoi
Armia - Hintz - Haula ( fast as lightning line )
Kapanen - Koivu - Kakko

xtras: Filppula, Lehkonen, Kotkaniemi

Lindell - Heiskanen
Ristolainen - Vatanen
Jokiharju - Nutivaara
Heinola

xtras: Niku, Määttä

Rask
Rinne
Koskinen

We are good to go head to head against any team.

Did you forget Granlund?

 

[SoundAndFury]

Did you forget Granlund?

The guy picked Jokiharju and Heinola over Maata so it wouldn't surprise me greatly if he simply snubbed him.

 

[Snowsii]

Laine - Barkov - Rantanen
Teräväinen - Aho - Donskoi
Armia - Hintz - Haula ( fast as lightning line )
Kapanen - Koivu - Kakko

xtras: Filppula, Lehkonen, Kotkaniemi

Lindell - Heiskanen
Ristolainen - Vatanen
Jokiharju - Nutivaara
Heinola

xtras: Niku, Määttä

Rask
Rinne
Koskinen

We are good to go head to head against any team.

Fourth line is terrible.. You expect Koivu to do all defending for Kakko and Kapanen? Replace either of them with Granlund

 

[theslatcher]

And while we are at it I challenge Russia (yes, you) and Finland to come up with a second team to beat Team Sweden 2 below: (first team accounted for)

First team:
Gabriel Landeskog – Nicklas Bäckström – William Nylander...Filip Forsberg – Elias Pettersson – Viktor Arvidsson...Rickard Rakell – Mika Zibanejad – Jakob Silfverberg...Marcus Johansson – Mikael Backlund – Elias Lindholm... ... Victor Hedman – Erik Karlsson...Hampus Lindholm – John Klingberg...Oliver Ekman Larsson – Anton Strålman... ...Henrik Lundqvist/Robin Lehner

Team Sweden B
Oskar Lindblom – William Karlsson – Gustav Nyquist
Andreas Johnson – Alexander Wennberg – Patric Hörnqvist
Adrian Kempe – Carl Söderberg – Jesper Fast
Andre Burakovsky – Oskar Sundqvist – Alexander Steen

Rasmus Dahlin – Adam Larsson
Alexander Edler – Jonas Brodin
Mattias Ekholm – Erik Gustafsson

Jacob Markström
Anders Nilsson

A lot of wrong with this. Karlsson, & Ekholm on Team B, Lundqvist, & Strålman on Team A, and no Klefbom being the biggest offenders.

 

[Czechboy]

A lot of wrong with this. Karlsson, & Ekholm on Team B, Lundqvist, & Strålman on Team A, and no Klefbom being the biggest offenders.

If you guys can't fit Klef into your Top 12 for D... can the Czechs have him? He'd be first pair for us! Sadly, there are probably a few other Swedish D that could help us that didn't make these Top 12 lists.lol

 

[theslatcher]

If you guys can't fit Klef into your Top 12 for D... can the Czechs have him? He'd be first pair for us! Sadly, there are probably a few other Swedish D that could help us that didn't make these Top 12 lists.lol

Klef's either on the A team, or the top pairing on the B team, with Klingberg taking the other spot. Strålman, Pettersson, Andersson, Gunnarsson, Hjalmarsson, & Nemeth doesn't fit in the Top 12 though so you could loan one of those!

 

[loudis]

There really should be a real best-on-best national tournament every 2 years, Winter Olympics and The World Cup, which both should be held somewhere between december and february.

These line combinations may seem weird due to handedness, but is built around The information i've gathered from HFBoards about their positions in their current teams, in 2019.

Team Finland

Laine - Barkov - Rantanen
Kapanen - Aho - Teräväinen
Donskoi - Hintz - Granlund
Lehkonen - Koivu - Armia
-
Haula-Filppula-Kakko-Kotkaniemi


Heiskanen-Ristolainen
Lindell-Jokiharju
Määttä-Vatanen
Nutivaara
-
Riikola, Heinola, Niku

Rask
Rinne
Koskinen
Raanta


Finally Finland has a legit roster all around.

 

[ViD]

My take on team Russia

Gusev - Shipachyov - Kucherov
Panarin - Malkin - Svechnikov
Ovechkin - Kuznetsov - Tarasenko
Mikheyev - Telegin - Kaprizov

HM: Grigorenko, Radulov, Dadonov

Provorov - Zaitsev
Orlov - Gavrikov
Sergachev - Zadorov

HM: Voynov, Kulikov

Bobrovsky
Vasilevsky

HM: Shestyorkin, Varlamov, Khudobin, Samsonov, Georgiev

 

[kabidjan18]

My take on team Russia

Gusev - Shipachyov - Kucherov
Panarin - Malkin - Svechnikov
Ovechkin - Kuznetsov - Tarasenko
Mikheyev - Telegin - Kaprizov

HM: Grigorenko, Radulov, Dadonov

Provorov - Zaitsev
Orlov - Gavrikov
Sergachev - Zadorov

HM: Voynov, Kulikov

Bobrovsky
Vasilevsky

HM: Shestyorkin, Varlamov, Khudobin, Samsonov, Georgiev

Gusev first line...

I know the rationale is always WC performance but that's such a skewed metric. He's in the NHL now playing a more significant sample size of games and the data doesn't support such a conclusion.

 

[ViD]

Gusev first line...

I know the rationale is always WC performance but that's such a skewed metric. He's in the NHL now playing a more significant sample size of games and the data doesn't support such a conclusion.

I wouldn’t call it the first line per se. The first three lines could be equally dangerous offensively.

As for Gusev, he’s had great chemistry with those two guys and it’d be weird to separate them. His play in atrocious NJD team doesn’t really concern me as I know he will perform with the skilled partners that play his style of hockey

 

[MaxV]

My take on team Russia

Gusev - Shipachyov - Kucherov
Panarin - Malkin - Svechnikov
Ovechkin - Kuznetsov - Tarasenko
Mikheyev - Telegin - Kaprizov

HM: Grigorenko, Radulov, Dadonov

Provorov - Zaitsev
Orlov - Gavrikov
Sergachev - Zadorov

HM: Voynov, Kulikov

Bobrovsky
Vasilevsky

HM: Shestyorkin, Varlamov, Khudobin, Samsonov, Georgiev

If Telegin makes the team, it won't be as a Center. Barbashev, Prokhorkin or even Andronov would be better choices for #4 C.

Nichushkin's recent play could get him consideration. He plays a similar, "bull in a china shop" style of Telegin.