The contribution and power of Finnish players in the NHL championship teams has been surprisingly low in recent years. There are now numerous candidates for hero roles. The hottest of them is Mikko Rantanen from Colorado.
Finnish players have a lot to prove in the NHL playoffs, which start in early May. For a long time, Finns have not celebrated the Stanley Cup in solving roles. This is despite the fact that the number of Finnish players in the entire series and in its top teams has been steadily increasing.
In the heroism hunt, the gaze turns to three players in particular: Colorado Mikko RantanenFlorida Alexander Barkov and Carolina Sebastian Ahoon. They are now expected to make an iron bet in the playoffs. Everyone has the potential to even lead their team to the end.
Let’s start with Rantan. In his time, Avalanche has not gone beyond the second round in the playoffs. Now there is perhaps the strongest bundle since the 2000-01 season, when the club took the Stanley Cup.
Rantanen has always played the last three playoffs with an average of more than one point per game. The striker has forged 48 points in 37 games, so it is not appropriate to blame the line of statistics. Only Nikita Kutsherov (P. 68), Brayden Point (57) and Nathan MacKinnon (53) have scored more points than Rantanen in the previous three playoffs. Of these, Kutsherov and Point have celebrated two championships in Tampa’s shirt, while MacKinnon, like Rantanen, is disappointed in Colorado.
The team’s pitcher hunt hasn’t caught on to Rantanen, but there is room for improvement. A year ago, he had no plus against Vegas in just one of six matches and that too was the first game in the second round of the series.
Of all Finns, Rantanen has the highest probability of becoming the hero of the Stanley Cup winning group. I saw it for two reasons. The Avalanche team is extremely tough and the number one favorite to champion. And on the other hand, Rantanen has scored in every playoff break in the playoffs over the past three seasons.
Barkov’s Florida hasn’t been a Colorado-like favorite before through this, but now expectations are high.
A year ago, in the opening round, the Panthers faced Tampa, who advanced to the championship. The Florida skipper squatted badly in the series and was left eight points in the frost. The reading was clearly the weakest on the team. Now Barkov needs to be able to do better. Florida is a strong bundle throughout and a genuine candidate until the Stanley Cup, but needs top performance from its No. 1 center.
What about Aho? Carolina shares have been on a downward trend towards the end of the regular season, but Hurricanes cannot be flagged out. The group’s way of playing works and the experience of the playoffs has accumulated a lot in recent years.
Aho has made 35 points in 34 playoffs in the last three seasons, so the pace is quite good. It is noteworthy that, for example, a year ago the powers came in clusters. He missed out on binoculars in six of 11 matches. Especially with superiority, Aho should improve, as only 9 out of 35 points have become superior. The reading is the weakest in recent years in the playoffs in Vegas Mark Stonen alongside.
The Finnish player has not won the Stanley Cup in five years. Now there are so many Finns on the top teams that it would be a big disappointment to have the pitcher completely past the Finns.
The hardest performance in recent years has been the defender Miro Heiskasen The 27-game power spin in the summer of 2020. He scored 26 (6 + 20) points, but Dallas had to bend to Tampa 2–4 in the finals.
The graphics below show that the Finnish champions have scored only eight power points in the final series since 2010. That is a very poor reading compared to other large disc countries.
The main roles revolved around Finns
The previous Finnish winner has played in Pittsburgh Olli Määttä, who celebrated the coveted vertical in the Penguins shirt in 2016 and 2017. Määttä was part of the championship team’s standard packs and played in the finals for about 20 minutes in two summers in the tube. There were four entry points in the 12 finals.
In the summer of 2015 Teuvo Sharp brought breadth to the Chicago attack in 11-14 minutes of play. He collected 4 + 6 in the playoffs, 2 + 2 in the finals.
Five years earlier Antti Niemi rejected the Blackhawks championship. In the six finals, Niemi’s combat percentage was five times or less than 87.5, so we can’t talk about the Finnish wall, even though he played a big role until the end.
In 2008 there were Valtteri Filppulan It’s your turn to celebrate the championship. He scored 2 + 2 in six final games in Detroit and once succeeded in the decisive game. Filppula’s playing time was in the range of 17-18 minutes, so the plot can be described as quite large, but other players were staring at the stars of the Red Wings.
A year earlier Teemu Selänne crowned his career at the Stanley Cup in Anaheim. Your back was one of Ducks ’most watched players, even though there was no goal in the finals. In five matches, the powers were 0 + 3.
2001 Ville Nieminen helped Colorado champion in the finals of seven games. Nieminen hit once in the weaving game and the balance of the series was 1 + 2.
Finnish heroism at the time of the settlement was last seen in abundance in 1999, when Jere Lehtisen Dallas defeated Buffalo in the third round of the sixth game 2-1. Lehtinen scored from the penalty spot Brett Hullin profit hit. In total, the Espoo player scored 10 goals on the way to the championship.
Of the current Finnish players in the NHL, only Teräväinen and Määttä have won the Stanley Cup. None of the brightest stars in the pitcher hunt has yet been successful.