Raimo Summanen takes a stand on the Lions’ player selections

For months and weeks of speculation ended late on Wednesday night when the Lions’ squad for next February’s 4 Nations summit was announced.

The announcement of the team did not allow for great drama, as the Player List was quite expected.

Expert, former head coach of the Lions Raimo Summanen drew particular attention to one point in the Lions’ player list.

”Henri Jokiharjun being left out clearly shows that Leijoni’s management team wants to go all the way,” commented Summanen.

Miro Heiskanen and Esa Lindell besides, the clear choices for the Leijoni defense were already in advance Niko Mikkola, Rasmus Ristolainen and Olli Määtä. All are playing top 4 minutes in their NHL teams.

Selected for the team Jani Hakanpää the situation is particularly interesting.

The smart 32-year-old konkar has only been able to play two games this season in Toronto. Hakanpää has suffered a bad knee injury. On Monday, the Leafs put Hakanpää on the injured list again.

Hakanpää being named to the team means a lot to Summanen as the head coach Antti Pennanen brainstorming.

“It is a clear indicator. The choice of Hakanpää has a lot to do with the fact that Leijonat wants a really conservative defensive game and wants to box strongly.”

On paper, the Lions’ defense equipment is modest compared to rival countries. There are no Finnish NHL defensemen lined up for this emergency.

Of the available defenders, only Heiskanen is the clear number one defender and leader on the puck in his club team. Otherwise, the Lions’ defense has big defensive backs.

“The choice of Hakanpää reflects the identity that the coaching team wants. A strategic choice. They want defenders there who can defend under heavy pressure and physically. This is emphasized even a little beyond skill,” says Summanen.

“This reflects the fact that the passing concept is not so much present in the departures of the own end. Rather, we defend the puck away from it and up from it with the power of the attackers.”

The attack roles are highlighted in the selections. There are players who can play either over or under power.

”Patrik Laine special situation expertise is emphasized. He can be a bit of a wildcard on this team through dominance. There have certainly been discussions about this. I believe that we will try to make the superiority strong by all means,” Summanen says.

“Underpowered skills can be seen, for example Eric Haulan and Joel Armian under. Even under power, the size is emphasized. There are a lot of big defenders there, so that the goal advantage is also maintained.”

In the Lions’ attack, Summanen’s attention is especially focused on the middle lane.

“The Lions have never had so many good centers. That’s a clear strength for this gang. Finland has clearly better centers than Sweden. Shockingly much better! Finland has never had so much abundance in the middle”, Summanen says.

“When the middle lane is strong, many things are in order in the team. On top of that, a strong goalkeeping game. This Finnish gang has a lot of potential.”

Summanen reminds that 4 Nations is clearly different from typical value tournaments. There are only four teams and there are only 3-4 matches.

“This is a different tournament in the sense that you can take bigger risks and overload the players because the tournament is so short. It’s a different story at the Olympics and World Championships.”

“In this tournament, you can give certain players 25-30 minutes of ice time. With it, you can play more and play a lot with three chains and 4–5 defenders. Few defenders are used to it. This makes this tournament strategically very different,” says Summanen.

The entire 4 Nations Face-Off tournament will be shown in February 2025 on Nelose and Ruudu.