Puckarinen

Sixteen years ago, Team Finland entered the Olympic tournament with anticipation. It had finished seventh, after it beat France in the game for 7th place, a disappointment for a country that had won its first Olympic medal in Calgary, four years earlier.

In 1994, the team had a couple of new faces: Ville Peltonen, Saku Koivu, and Jere Lehtinen made their Olympic debut as Finland pushed Canada to its heels in the semifinal and beat Russia in the bronze medal game.

In 2010, the trio is a part of the veteran core of the team, down a notch from their former first line status. Lehtinen, 36, will be playing in his fifth Olympic tournament, while Koivu, 35, and Peltonen, 36, missed the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City. That’s also the one tournament since 1994 that Finland did finish in the medals in.

Team Finland head coach Jukka Jalonen chose an experienced team with 18 NHLers on the roster. Of the five non-NHLers, one, Janne Niskala, plays in the Swedish Elitserien, and the remaining four in the Russian KHL.

While Anaheim Ducks’ Saku Koivu was named captain, this time, the main offense is expected to come from the line centred by his brother, Minnesota Wild’s Mikko Koivu - the leading Finnish scorer in the NHL, with ten goals and 38 points in 40 games, 23rd in the league - with Valtteri Filppula and Tuomo Ruutu helping along the way.

Of course, Teemu Selanne is still, at 39, “the Finnish Flash” who’s integral for his team’s offense, especially on the powerplay.

But Finland has never played firewagon hockey, where skilled forwards have skated around the opposing defensemen. The foundation of Finland’s success has always been stellar goaltending. In 2006, Antero Niittymäki stepped up from the shadows when Miikka Kiprusoff declined the invitation to play in the Olympics. Niittymäki is back, as is Niklas Bäckström, but this time, so is “Kipper”, the 2006 Vezina Trophy winner in the NHL.

Unlike Sweden and Russia, coach Jalonen picked seven defenseman and 13 forwards. Team Sweden and Russia opted for eight defensemen and 12 forwards.