The Lions beat Norway in two rounds – soon the NHL reinforcements may be relevant for the World Cup charging national team

Two practice matches against Norway – two victories for the Finnish men’s ice hockey team. Now the Lions enter the next week of camp and the fans turn their eyes to North America.

2–1 and 3–0. There the victory figures for the Lions’ part in the two practice matches against Norway that were played at Bortais on Friday and Saturday.

– The process is only at the beginning, stated captain Atte Ohtamaa for STT after today’s victory, where the defender accounted for his second goal in as many days.

– There are many who haven’t played for a long time and that is very clearly visible in the passing game. But it’s nothing to worry about. We are getting even sharper and faster and that will also show in the powerplay, he continued.

All the goals against Norway came in five-on-five. The numerical superiority did not really roll as effectively as expected. But on that front, a substantial dose of excellence is likely to be forthcoming.

Soon time for NHL reinforcements?

For the Lions, the WC preparatory camp now continues, but the question is when the squad will undergo changes.

For one thing, players who went out of their respective playoffs in Europe can soon join – but above all, the NHL reinforcements are now starting to come into play.

Jukka Jalonen already said earlier that the NHL players could make it to the last EHT tournament that will be played in the Czech Republic May 4-7.

The basic series in the top league ended last night and, in addition, the players from the teams that go out in the first playoff round will make it to the World Cup.

Question marks around Laine and Jokiharju

Who could then be relevant?

The Finns who missed the playoffs in the Eastern Conference are Patrik Laine (Columbus), Jesse Ylönen and Joel Armia (Montreal), Rasmus Ristolainen (Philadelphia), Ville Husso and Olli Määttä (Detroit), Henri Jokiharju (Buffalo) and Mikael Granlund (Pittsburgh) ).

I Väst kunde Kaapo Kähkönen (San Jose), Matias Maccelli and Juuso Välimäki (Arizona), Kasperi Kapanen (St. Louis) as well as Juuse Saros, Kevin Lankinen and Juuso Pärssinen (Nashville) are theoretically available.

Of them, Patrik Laine is injured and Henri Jokiharju suffered some sort of concussion during his last game in the regular season. Jalonen has also said that players who are on expiring contracts “with a 95 percent probability” are above the WC. That applies to Maccelli.

And for Pärsinen and Ylönen, the season will continue in the AHL playoffs.

All players are still to be medically examined and after that the national team management (Jalonen and GM Jere Lehtinen) will probe the interest in WC games.

Many players may still be eligible after the first round

As I said, the players from teams that go out in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs also have more than enough time for the WC in Tampere.

In theory, the players who go out quickly from the second round could also make it to the tournament, but Jalonen has already said that he only expects players from the first round.