Laine And Armia Make Finland's Top-Nine While A Former Hab Gets Top Line Duty

Team Finland held its first complete practice on Tuesday and revealed what their lineup would look like in the process, both Patrik Laine and Joel Armia made the top-nine, but it's a former Hab who landed on the top line.

The Montreal Canadiens have two players who will be skating for Finland in the 4 Nations Face-Off; Patrik Laine and Joel Armia. Their team held its first complete practice on Tuesday revealing its lines and pairings in the process. 

As we mentioned earlier this week, Laine had a very successful tournament at the World Junior Championship in 2016 playing alongside Sebastian Aho and Finland's coach for the tournament was an assistant coach back then. Antti Pennanen must have remembered how successful that combination was as Laine will play alongside Aho and Roope Hintz on the second line.

The Canadiens' sniper will also be deployed on the first power play with Aho, Hintz, Aleksander Barkov and Mikko Rantanen. The Finnish blueline has been decimated by injuries and it explains why their coach has elected to go with five forwards, chances are he would have like to be able to put Miro Heiskanen on that unit. 

As for Armia, he will be on the third line with Kaapo Kakko and Eric Haula. It remains to be seen if he'll see any penalty killing action as the Finns have got quite a few players who could fit the bill. 

Meanwhile former Canadiens Artturi Lehkonen will be playing on the top line with Florida Panthers captain Barkov and Rantanen. 

Finland will kick off its tournament on Thursday night at 8:00 PM when they take on Team USA at the Bell Centre. Considering how badly hit they've been by injuries and the strength of the Americans, it will be a tough task to start with. 

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