Ilari Savonen
Leijon has such a good team in the spring World Hockey Championships that it is not worth talking about anything other than the championship, writes Iltalehti journalist Ilari Savonen.
On Sunday, Leijonat crushed Sweden in their World Cup general. Among others, Patrik Puistola (pictured second from the right) was on display. EPA / AOP
The World Cup group of the Finnish men’s national ice hockey team, or the Lions, was published on Sunday. It was already clear in advance that Finland would go to the tournament in Switzerland with a well-known group.
The chain of dominoes began to grow stronger when Aleksander Barkov announced that he wants to play hockey this spring. After that, it was easy for every Finnish hockey player to say yes, as long as there was no major injury.
Anton Lundell left, Olli Määttä left, Teuvo Teräväinen, Urho Vaakanainen, Nikolas Matinpalo, Justus Annunen, Joonas Korpisalo and Henri Jokiharju came to the same decision.
In addition to everything, the top Finnish players playing in Europe also went to the tournament.
With that, it’s time to stop the useless day-to-day chatter. Finland must win the World Cup gold.
For a long time, the Lions have not had such a high-quality group at the spring World Championships. The last time almost similar quality was seen in the spring of 2023, when Mikko Rantanen shone as the Lions’ number one star.
Then the problem was that Rantas could not be played in the right way or next to the right players.
Now the same problem does not exist, because the Finnish team is built above all around high-quality centers.
The Lions have such a good situation that Anton Lundell can be considered the second center and Sakari Mann can be used as a winger.
That if anyone is a luxury, at least if compared to what has been seen in recent years.
The Lions also have very good character players. The team has exceptionally tough role models like Barkov and Määttä. In addition to that, there are cheerful brothers in the line-up that lighten the mood. Jesse Puljujärvi only needs to show his tongue and everyone will have fun.
The Lions also have plenty of players who have not yet won the bigger national team tournaments. There is plenty of hunger.
The Lions have enough special situation skills and the team has several competitive goalkeepers who are able to challenge each other.
For the lions, the biggest calming factor comes from the Olympic tournament in February, from which they brought home a bronze. In that case, it was a won medal, especially when you take into account the kind of mess the team’s head coach Antti Pennanen got into and ended up in during the tournament.
There were huge doubts about Pennane during the Olympics. The NHL 4 Nations tournament played last year did not go as hoped, and Finland did not succeed in the World Cup tournament of the same spring either.
On top of everything, rumors began to spread about Leijon, according to which one or some players had proposed a solution in which the NHL head coach would have been included in the coaching of the Lions’ Olympic team.
The bronze taken from Milan significantly eased the pressure on Pennase, especially since the tournament as a whole went quite well.
However, it must be remembered that the Lions meant to beat Canada’s star team in the semi-final match.
Now the chances of the Finnish team are lost, because its top opponents have weakened from before.
Canada gets a pretty decent World Cup group, but it’s not an insurmountably tough opponent either. The USA is clearly weaker than it was in last spring’s WC tournament (won). Switzerland, the USA’s then final opponent, has been in the middle of an uproar with the firing of head coach Patrick Fischer.
Sweden has a rather modest group. The Czech Republic is weaker because David Pastrnak is unlikely to join Switzerland.
And… that’s it.
The Lions have all the conditions to win the world championship and it must also be demanded.
There’s no need to downplay it. Now the group named for the feet can win.
And it must be won.
Anything other than the championship is a disappointment.
