| 15 February 2010
Finland is considered one of the top seven nations in hockey but have only one one gold in international play, the 1995 World Championship. They are currently ranked fourth in the world but will they be able to place higher at the Olympics? They will have to compete hard with the powerhouse teams from Canada, USA and Russia for the honor of a medal.
Finland's national team is the Leijonat, or the Lions for us English speaking folks. They will need to play like lions. They need to have the strength, heart and ferociousness of a lion to battle it out for a medal.
Finland need to use this as their game face...
Finland has 18 NHL players on their roster. All three goalies are outstanding NHL players. Niklas Backstron, Miikka Kiprusoff and Antero Nittymaki, who was named MVP of the 2006 Olympics, all offer outstanding backstop abilities. Five of the seven dmen also play in the NHL, with Kimmo Timonen wearing the A, should offer a strong defensive core and solid leadership. Ten NHL forwards round out the team with Saku Koivu and Teemu Selanne wearing the C and A respectively.
The rest of the NHL players include:
Defense:
Sami Lepisto
Toni Lydman
Joni Pitkanen
Sami Salo
Forwards:
Valtteri Filppula
Olli Jokinen
Mikko Koivu
Jere Lehtinen
Antti Miettinen
Jarkko Ruutu
Tuomo Ruutu
That is a lot of talent. Hopefully head coach Jukka Jalonen can make these Lions serious contenders who bring home the gold for their country.
Keep reading after the jump for some history and facts about Finland's national hockey team
-Won 1995 gold medal in world championship against Sweden. Ironically, Finland's coach was Swede Curt Lindstrom.-In 1995 they had "Tupu, Hupu and Lupu", Finnish for Huey, Dewey and Louie. Saku Koivu was Huey/Tupu, Ville Peltonen was Dewey/Hupu and Jere Lehtinen was Louie/Lupu.
- Teemu Selanne was named the best forward of the 2006 Olympics.
-Finland has retired Jari Kurri's #17 jersey. It currently hangs in Hartwall Areena in Helsinki. He is also the current GM of Finland's national team.
-Their first international game was 1/29/28. They lost to Sweden 8-1.
-Biggest win was against Norway, 20-1, on 3/12/47.
-Biggest loss was to Canada on 3/3/58, 24-0.
-They have made 14 Olympic Appearances. The first was in 1952. They have won two silvers ('88 and '06) and two bronze ('94 and '98)
Jenna Volden covers the Phoenix Coyotes at Hipchecks in addition to her work on Bloguin's Olympic Hockey Blog.
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