With players assembling for the first time over a very long period, its natural for big hockey nations to need extensive practise-sessions to recapture the chemistry on the ice. But ahead of the 4 Nations Finland have chosen to go down a different path as their familiarity with each other inside the team allows them a luxury which other teams don't have.
"We're saving out energy for the ice. We want to do things together,” Finland general manager Jere Lehtinen said in an interview Saturday. “I think that’s helped in past years, they’ve been together enough, played together enough, those combinations have played together. That’s helped us to come together quick.”
Team Finland may from an outside view not have the same talent in their squad compared to Canada, the United States and Sweden going into this tournament but familiarity with each other and lack of big egos is the secret weapon for the Finns who have won medals at seven of the last 10 Olympic tournaments, including four of the five Olympic tournaments that included NHL players.
According to Patrick Laine, one of the Finnish profiles, the Finns have a clear strategy going into the tournament which has worked wonders for them before.
“I feel like Finns overall, everybody knows their role, there’s no egos involved. We know what we’re here to do, it’s to play for our country,” said Laine in a recent interview. “Everybody knows where they’re at and we’ll try to win for each other, so I think that will be the biggest strength of our team. Then we’ll just try to shut everybody down. Play some normal Finnish hockey and just shut everybody else down. Sandpaper hockey. It works."
“It’s not the most entertaining way to play. But it’s efficient", says Laine according to the New York Times.
We'll get the first indications if that strategy once against will carry Finland towards success when the Finn face face the U.S in their first game early Friday morning CET.