Sweden has speed and scoring power, while Finland has high-end, two-way play. Adam Proteau breaks down their strengths and weaknesses ahead of the 4 Nations Face-Off.
The NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off is close at hand, and we're examining the rosters of Canada, the U.S., Finland and Sweden to identify strengths and weaknesses.
We began the process of breaking down the Canadian and American rosters, and today, we’re focusing on the strengths and weaknesses of the Finnish and Swedish teams:
Team Sweden
Strength: Speed And Scoring Power
Sweden's speed and skill up front should drive them in games.
Star forwards William Nylander, Filip Forsberg, Lucas Raymond, Elias Pettersson, Jesper Bratt and Adrian Kempe are all threats to score, while defensemen Victor Hedman, Erik Karlsson, Rasmus Andersson, Rasmus Dahlin and Gustav Forsling can contribute a bit of offense as well.
The Swedes aren’t the most physically imposing team in the 4 Nations Face-Off, but they’re banking on their defense corps and goaltending to hold the fort just enough for their swift forwards to do damage in the offensive zone. They’re a relatively healthy group that could thrive and beat the favored Canadian and American squads.
Weakness: Experience In Best-On-Best Tournaments
Only two players on the 4 Nations roster were on Team Sweden at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey: Hedman and Karlsson. Those two are also the only Swedes on the team with 1,000 games of NHL experience under their belts.
This is still a relatively young Swedish team, and Hedman and Gustav Forsling are the only two Swedish players with Stanley Cup championships on their resume. Experience matters in showdowns like this, and Sweden doesn't have enough of it.
Many Swedes on the 4 Nations Face-Off roster have World Championship experience to draw from, but those tournaments happen when some of the league's best players are still in the playoffs or recovering at the end of the regular season. Sweden needs its leadership group to impart its experience and poise to the rest of the group so that they bring full effort on the offensive end while being responsible in their own end.
Team Finland
Strength: High-End Two-Way Play
The Finns have less elite depth than the other three teams at the 4 Nations Face-Off. But at the very top of their forward group, they have excellent two-way performers, including captain Aleksander Barkov, center Roope Hintz and right winger Mikko Rantanen.
Centers Mikael Granlund, Teuvo Teravainen and Anton Lundell also bring a great blend of offensive production and two-way play.
The forward group will make life difficult for their opponents with responsible play, but they’ll need their key high-end stars to do much of the heavy lifting to win this tournament.
Finland is known for its consistent work ethic, and with Barkov and Hintz leading the way, they will have opportunities to thwart their opponents’ offensive attacks. Squeezing out enough offense will be their biggest challenge, and they will need all of their players to clamp down on ‘D’ to give the offense a chance to come through in high-stakes moments.
Weakness: Defensemen
It's a good thing many of the forwards have a strong two-way game, because the defense group looks rough right now.
The Finns were dealt a massive blow when star defenseman Miro Heiskanen was ruled out of the 4 Nations Face-Off with a knee injury suffered at the end of January. Heiskanen is clearly Finland’s best defenseman and the anchor of their defense corps, so there’s no replacing his high panic threshold and tremendous vision for the game.
Finland also lost veteran Rasmus Ristolainen, who suffered an upper-body injury on Feb. 2. The loss of Heiskanen and Ristolainen could be the biggest blows to Finland’s hopes of winning the tournament.
They now have Niko Mikkola, Esa Lindell, Olli Maatta, Juuso Valimaki, Henri Jokiharju, Urho Vaakanainen and Nikolas Matinpalo making up the back end.
Mikkola and Lindell have been reliable defensive defensemen, but when you've got key components on the sidelines in this high-stakes showdown, it’s all but impossible to win.
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