After a rough showing at the 4 Nations Face-Off, Finland's Juuse Saros was outperformed by an AHL goalie in a 4-1 loss to Team Slovakia at the Olympics.
The 2026 Olympic men's hockey tournament is barely underway, and Team Finland should be thinking hard about their goaltending.
The Finns lost 4-1 to Slovakia despite outshooting them 40-25. While the loss can't be pinned entirely on goaltender Juuse Saros of the Nashville Predators, he didn't give his team enough timely saves. After the same issue happened at the 4 Nations Face-Off, the goaltending question returns for Finland.
Saros, who allowed three goals on 24 shots against, didn't do what Minnesota Wild prospect Samuel Hlavaj did for Slovakia.
Hlavaj, a 24-year-old goalie who helped Slovakia earn a spot in these Olympics, has a 3.33 goals-against average and .884 save percentage in the AHL this season. He outperformed Saros, who's been an NHL starter for the past seven years and played in the All-Star Game twice.
Saros also allowed a couple of goals in the third period that he should've stopped. The first was to St. Louis Blues center Dalibor Dvorsky, and Montreal Canadiens left winger Juraj Slafkovsky scored his second goal of the game in the other. In both cases, Saros had a clean, unobstructed view of the shots, but he was beaten, essentially surrendering the game to the Slovaks.
Again, it would be unfair to Saros to suggest he was the culprit for Finland's loss. His teammates couldn't get more than a single goal on Hlavaj. Having trouble scoring or preventing goals against can't happen again if the Finns hope to play for a medal.
In the wake of Finland's loss, they must decide which goalie to play against their arch-rivals, Sweden. That already feels like a must-win game for the Finns if they want any chance of avoiding the qualification round and going straight to the quarterfinal.
So does Finnish coach Antti Pennanen stick with Saros, or does he make the switch to backup and Vancouver Canucks veteran Kevin Lankinen?
On the one hand, Saros has been subpar this season, with an .892 save percentage and 3.20 goals-against average in 44 games. At last year's 4 Nations Face-Off, he posted an .870 SP and 3.96 GAA in two games. Saros fared better at the 2025 World Championship, putting up a .943 SP and 1.67 GAA in six games, but the Finns can't afford another letdown performance from Saros.
That said, Lankinen hasn't been much better this season.
He has an .876 SP and 3.67 GAA in 32 games. But he's been playing on an abysmal Canucks squad. He also had a 4.84 GAA and .811 SP in two games at the 4 Nations.
Playing Lankinen behind a better team than what he has in Vancouver could lead to the type of performance Team Finland needs to rebound from its loss to the Slovaks. But that goalie change clearly didn't work at the 4 Nations Face-Off.
Then there's Joonas Korpisalo, who replaced injured goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. Korpisalo has an .893 SP and 3.15 GAA in 22 games for the Boston Bruins, but he was a healthy scratch on Wednesday.
Pennanen is facing a stark choice that could be the difference between his team flaming out at the Olympics or bouncing back and eventually getting on the podium.
Saros is a name-brand player who has been above average for most of his 11 NHL seasons, but his statistics have gotten worse every year since the 2022-23 campaign. If the Finns stick with Saros and he doesn't prove his coach right for not going with Lankinen or Korpiaslo, that decision could haunt Finland fans.
No team can afford to give their goalie a long leash at a brief tournament like the Olympics, so Saros has precious little landing strip to turn his game around. If he or another Finnish netminder can't play like a brick wall, then the skaters will have to put on an offensive clinic to compete for a medal.
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