Finnish Olympic Men's Hockey Team

With the Olympics quickly approaching, many hockey fans are lamenting the fact that NHL players will not be making the trip to Beijing to compete. However, that won’t stop us from speculating about what teams might have looked like, and who could have come out on top. With that in mind, let’s take a look at a potential version of the Finnish team.

The Roster

Analysis

I was honestly expecting this team to be better than it turned out to be. Obviously they have some incredible players (Barkov, Rantanen, Heiskanen) but the team as a whole lacks depth. Up front, I’ve shuffled the lines a bit, dropping Aho to the second line with his Carolina teammate Teravainen to hopefully provide some secondary scoring. After that, Laine is the biggest name in the bottom six. Laine is someone who has the chance to catch a heater in a short tournament like this, but he could also be completely useless. The fourth line is mainly a checking line; I included Armia despite his lack of scoring because he can be useful in trying to shut down opposing teams’ best players.

On the back end, the top three defenders (Heiskanen, Ristolainen, Lindell) would have had to play monster minutes to compensate for the mediocrity of the bottom three. Heiskanen is an elite player in today’s NHL despite only being 22 years old. Lindell’s stats are down this year but he’s an underrated offensive defensemen; of course he’s also used to playing behind Heiskanen because they both play for Dallas. The bottom pair of Mikkola and Hakanpaa wouldn’t be confused with Fox and Makar in terms of their talent levels, but they’re absolutely massive (Mikkola at 6’4’’, Hakanpaa at 6’7’’), and they add an element of toughness that wouldn’t exist on a lot of Olympic rosters.

Despite the long and successful career of Tuuka Rask, the goaltending responsibilities of this team would rest squarely on the shoulders of Juuse Saros. After studying for years under Finnish great Pekka Rinne in Nashville, Saros has emerged as a bona fide number one goaltending option in the NHL, currently sitting top-10 in the league in save percentage and GAA and second in wins. For Finland to compete with the best teams in this tournament, Saros would really have to show up, but I wouldn’t put it past him.

Overall, this is a team that would be on the fringe of making the semifinals depending on what matchup they got in the quarters. They have some very good players and could have great goaltending, but they have some exploitable weaknesses at the bottom of their lineup, and for that reason I do not think they would have earned a medal.

*Sources: QuantHockey, NHL.com