Would also be interesting to see an NHL Finns team. Strictly because Norrena would be the goalie, I'd go with the SEL team. But does anyone else see the SM-Liiga team beating either of the other two?
How many of these players will have the opportunity to play for Team Finland in the Olympics?
S.Kapanen, Hentunen, Pihlström, Hahl, Lehtonen, N.Kapanen, Peltonen, Pesonen, Komarov, Kukkonen, Väänänen i think they have chance if they do well in their own leagues to make it for Vancouver. I know there might be couple questionmarks in my list but i really do think they might have chances if they play very well.
Your three teams got me curious as I know that some of the Finnish players had played in Switzerland through the years - was surprised to find only ten of them at this time. Forwards Tommi Santala, Niki Siren, and Tony Salmelainen, defensemen Petteri Nummelin and Kari Haakana, and goalies Ari Sulander and Jussi Markkanen are in the A league with three other forwards in the B league - Pasi Tuominen, Patrik Westerback and Antti Ruotsalainen.
Where would these players fit among the hierarchy of Finnish players and has the number of Finns in Switzerland increased or decreased in recent years? Why is that?
Last edited by Tony Piscotta: 09-25-2009 at 03:37 PM.
Seems a bit thin on D but goaltending would seem superior to all others. Hard to see so many of the forwards mentioned above fitting into Team Finland if all of the guys here accept the invitation to play for the national team.
No particular order
Selanne-S. Koivu - O. Jokinen
Hagman - Lehtinen - J. Jokinen
A. Miettinen - M. Koivu - V. Filppula
S. Bergenheim - T. Ruutu - L. Korpikoski
Remaining F's - Ville Leino, Ilkka Pikkarainen, Oskar Osala, Mika Pyorala, Petteri Nokelainen, Jarkko Ruutu
D
Lydman-Timonen
Salo - Pitkanen
Koistinen-Lepisto
Salmela
G
Kiprusoff, Backstrom, Lehtonen
Others available - Tuukka Rask, Pekka Rinne, Antero Niittymaki, Vesa Toskala
Please feel free to move guys either in or out of this team as you see fit. I imagine the goalies will cause the most debate on here.
KHL team might win. SM-liiga team comes second and SEL team comes third. Sel team has good defence but i stille trust Sm-liiga team. Of course coach is one very important choice. That might chance the situation.
Systemfel you seem to have great knowledge about finnish players. Many of them have played in sweden at some point of their career which makes it easier, but still impressive.
1. KHL
2. SEL
3. FEL
KHL is bit ahed of SEL and FEL. I think SEL comes second, but Pärssinen needs to be healty.
Personally I would make some chances to FEL team. 1st line players are locks, but at least Antti Laaksonen, Jori Lehterä, Antti Erkinjuntti and Juha-Matti Aaltonen would battle for 2nd and 3rd line jobs.
Systemfel you seem to have great knowledge about finnish players. Many of them have played in sweden at some point of their career which makes it easier, but still impressive.
Well he got half of the "SML Finns" right in that line-up...
I would say that the KHL team would win, while SEL and FEL teams would battle it out for the second spot.
I might change some players in the line-up though. Anttila really isn't that good yet, and there are better powerforwards in the league, such as Jussi Pesonen or Arttu Luttinen. Also Jani Rita is not as good a player than three years ago, so i would change him to Haataja, the best goal scorer from last season still playing in the league.
Söderholm has not been as great in this season as expected, so there would be better choices instead, such as Tomi Pettinen. With these changes I'd say the FEL team would win by a small margin.
Well he got half of the "SML Finns" right in that line-up...
I agree.
Jori Lehterä has been a lot better in SM-liiga this season than any of those centers you have for the Finnish team. Marko Anttila is literally a huge bust and Jani Rita is a bit smaller bust.
EDIT: My team (based on this season performances this far)
Kapanen - Sahlstedt - Kiiskinen
Kivenmäki - Lehterä - Kuusela
Pesonen - Pirnes - Luttinen (would be Pesonen - Viuhkola - Haataja if not injuries)
