Hungary will be in the full swing of the world championships when they take on Finland who last year in the Czech Republic finished a disappointing sixth place after coming in second place in 2014.
Finland is always a nation that is in the run for a medal at the world championships with a roster that is built on NHL players that plays with European finesse and the ruggedness of the U.S. or Canada. The roster has a combination of veterans such as Mikko Koivu as well as young stars such as Mikael Granlund and Patrik Laine. Finland is going through a youth movement as they will be building in young players into the national team. This would probably be the best time to do this a number of players sitting out because they do not want to have a short summer with the World Cup being played right before the season starts.
Icehockey.hu had the opportunity to talk to Finland general manager Jere Lehtinen in the weeks heading up to the world championships where he talked about what changes are going through in Finland and what we can expect of them during the world championships.
Icehockey.hu: What is the goal of the Finnish national team at this year’s world championships?
Jere Lehtinen: As a team we don’t think that way, we only have one goal in mind and that is to win the gold medal just like at every tournament that we go to.
When putting the roster together for the world championships what were you looking at to be the strength of the team?
In the last couple of years when we had success we had actually had to rely on good team chemistry. We needed to play as a team within the system that we had come up with. We had good goaltending and we tried to have good defense as well but at the same time you need to be able to score goals and therefore a good balance had been found. The main thing is to have good team spirit and chemistry, we want the team to play together. In the past when we had been successful we never had the most talented team but we had all the right parts to win tournaments. We had some challenges but we had a good plan that the players that were picked fell into.
How is the World Cup influencing the players that are being selected for this year's World Championship roster?
We have already picked 16 players and there are seven spots still open. Most of these seven players will most likely be coming from the NHL. We are also looking at players from Europe, we might have some players playing in Finland. If your season is over in the NHL or in Europe and you have a chance to play for the national team most do end up coming if they are invited to the national team.
For a Canadian or an American player the NHL playoffs is more important than the World Championships. For a player from Finland how important and how much pride to they have in having a chance to represent their country?
It is huge, most players had come up through the youth and junior national team program, and eventually in another country or the NHL so there is pride on able to play for Finland, their country. When the season is over everyone wants to come home and play in the world championships and have a chance to win something. As a player you never know when will it be the last time you can in the tournament or when will you be selected. You have to keep that in mind that a career can by so quickly. I know from my personal experience when it's over it's over and you have no more chances to play for your country. From this aspect we are lucky that players always want to play if they can. I think this is why we have great team spirit because everyone enjoys playing for the national team.
You have been working with the Finnish national program for five seasons and this is your second as the general manager for the senior team, is there a long term plan that you are in the middle of implementing or are you taking each international season year by year?
It is a year by year process but of course we are also looking at the long run. We are always keeping an eye on our junior national team as well as the guys playing in the NHL or the AHL. We are always looking to see who is coming up and is ready to make the jump to the senior team. Some players take a bit longer to mature than others. Overall we are very happy how all our national teams have been producing from the juniors to the senior team, we have process that is working. You can not be afraid to take the younger guys, sometimes this is the chance they need to really improve and get better. It is a good time to be working here at the Finnish Federation, we have a lot of young guys coming up and the World Cup is also around the corner, and then we have the Olympics, the national team processes is very exciting.
How is Finland preparing to face Hungary and how familiar are you with Hungarian hockey?
In today’s hockey when you go to a tournament it doesn't matter who you are facing they will be good and they can win and we have seen that in the past. Maybe 10-15 years ago teams would approach some countries that they will be an easy win. When you have earned a spot in the world championships you are a good team, it doesn't matter if you are playing Canada or Hungary you need to be prepared and stick to your game plan. I don’t want to say this but there is no easy games anymore at the World Championships, this is a good thing. I know Hungarian hockey a little bit, there are not that many players playing outside of Hungary but the ones that are playing outside of the country are good. Even though the lesser known countries have less players to pick from but it is great to see that they can also produce quality players and this is good for hockey. I have seen Balázs Sebők play KalPa.
FINLAND'S ROSTER
Goalies (3): Niklas Backstrom (Flames, NHL), Mikko Koskinen (SKA St.Petersburg, KHL), Juuse Saros (Milwaukee, AHL)
Defencemen (8): Juuso Hietanen (Dynamo Moskva, KHL), Topi Jaakola, Atte Ohtamaa (Jokerit, KHL), Tommi Kivistö (Yekaterinburg, KHL), Lasse Kukkonen (Karpat, Liiga), Esa Lindell (Texas, AHL), Ville Pokka (Rockford, AHL), Anssi Salmela (Brynas, SHL)
Forwards (14): Sebastian Aho (Karpat, Liiga), Alexander Barkov, Jussi Jokinen (Panthers, NHL), Mikael Granlund, Mikko Koivu (Wild, NHL), Leo Komarov (Maple Leafs, NHL), Jarno Koskiranta (SKA St.Petersburg, KHL), Patrik Laine, Jani Lajunen, Mika Pyörala (Tappara, Liiga), Antti Pihlström (CSKA Moskva, KHL), Teemu Pulkkinen (Red WIngs, NHL), Mikko Rantanen (San Antonio, AHL), Tomi Sallinen (Djurgarden, SHL)
HUNGARIAN ROSTER
Goalies (3): HETÉNYI Zoltán, RAJNA Miklós (Fehérvár AV19), VAY Ádám (Debreceni HK)
Defencemen (8): SZIRÁNYI Bence, WEHRS Kevin (Fehérvár), GARÁT Zsombor, MESTYÁN István, STIPSICZ Bence (MAC), DUDÁS Jesse, SAGERT Kalvin, (DVTK), VAS Márton (Fassa)
Forwards (16): BANHAM Frank, BARTALIS István, BENK András, KOVÁCS Csaba, KÓGER Dániel, NAGY Gergő, SARAUER Andrew (Fehérvár) ERDÉLY Csanád (Sioux Falls), GALLÓ Vilmos (Linköping), MAGOSI Bálint (Briancon), NAGY Krisztián (MAC), SEBŐK Balázs (KalPa), SOFRON István (Klagenfurt), VAS János (Slavia Praha)
World Championships, Russia, Group B (St. Petersburg)
May 7th, 12.15 (11.15): Slovakia–HUNGARY
May 8th, 12.15 (11.15): HUNGARY–Canada
May 10th, 20.15 (19.15): HUNGARY–France
May 11th, 20.15 (19.15): Finland–HUNGARY
May 13th, 16.15 (15.15): USA–HUNGARY
May 14th, 16.15 (15.15): HUNGARY–Belarus
May 16th, 20.15 (19.15): Germany–HUNGARY
Photo: László Mudra, IIHF