Of the countries that participated in last winter's Four Nations Faceoff, Finland might just be the team that is flying under the radar for the Olympic men's hockey event. For their own reasons, a lot of people will be giving Canada and the United States the title of favourites. Canada might just have the most feared power play lineup in the tournament, while the United States could easily be the grittiest. But Finland does enter this tournament as the reigning gold medallists, and they'll be getting their own infusion of NHL talent.
Offensively, Finland will have one of the deeper units in the tournament. From the Dallas Stars, Mikko Rantanen and Roope Hintz will look to translate their ability to score at will and in the biggest moments towards the Olympic stage; the former was able to score a Game 7 hat trick in the first round of the 2025 playoffs against the Colorado Avalanche. Speaking of the Colorado Avalanche, Artturi Lekhonen will also look to lead the Finns to a deep tournament run; Lekhonen famously scored Stanley Cup Final berth-clinching goals in both 2021 for the Montreal Canadiens and in 2022 for the Colorado Avalanche.
With the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche set to play two colossal games post-Olympics and with the two teams potentially set for a playoff clash for the third-consecutive postseason, all three of the aforementioned forwards are going to be in a strong position to lead their respective teams in terms of scoring.
Some other notable additions on the forward line include Mikael Granlund of the Anaheim Ducks, who is set to captain Team Finland, and the Montreal Canadiens rookie sensation Oliver Kapanen.
The X-Factor for Finland? The defence, which wasn't great at the Four Nations Faceoff. In that tournament, Finland gave up five goals or more in two of their three games; conveniently, those games were against Canada and the United States. Their lone win of the tournament was a 4-3 overtime win against Sweden; despite Finland winning the game, Sweden was able to reverse a second-period deficit by scoring two goals in five minutes.
Considering that much of that defensive group is going to remain intact for this Olympic run, there is going to have to be some noticeable improvement in play. In the group stage - which sees Finland play fellow Four Nations foe Sweden, host nation Italy, and Slovakia - there will be some room for flexibility, especially as all twelve nations will automatically qualify for the knockout tournament.
That said, such flexibility will be gone in the knockouts. If Finland can't find a way to defend, their gold medal defence could end relatively quickly.
While Italy does have an outside shot of snatching a top-two finish, I do think those spots will be filled by Finland and Sweden, who will likely play for first place on February 13th. The Finns should be able to outscore their issues, but are they capable of once again holding off Sweden? While Finland has the deeper offence, Sweden's defenders are currently playing much better hockey. In addition, goaltender Jakob Markström is more than capable of putting strong performances together, while both Minnesota Wild goaltenders (Jesper Wallstedt and Filip Gustavsson) will be on Sweden's Olympic roster.