Finland building chemistry at World Championship ahead of 2026 Olympics

STOCKHOLM -- Juuse Saros is hoping the lessons learned on the ice at the 4 Nations Face-Off and the bonding off of it at the 2025 IIHF World Championship can help bolster Finland's chances at the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics next February.

Chemistry, the Nashville Predators goalie admits, will be key.

"You try to spend as much time off the ice with the group," Saros said from the World Championship on Wednesday. "I think that's where it all starts off. If you have a few same guys that are in that tournament, you want to showcase for that, too. Obviously, it's an honor and you always want to give your best try and work your [butt] off for your country.

"I think that's always the staple of our game."

Saros had a 3.96 goals-against average and .870 save percentage in two games (one start) for Finland at the 4 Nations Face-Off in February. Finland finished with one win, a 4-3 overtime victory against Sweden, in three games at the best-on-best event.

The tournament was a lesson Saros feels his side can learn from looking ahead to when the NHL returns to the Olympics for the first time since 2014.

"Those games, the tempo of the game was super high," Saros said. "It's first-line NHL guys on the ice at all times. The speed and the skill is something else. You can't compare it. Maybe NHL playoffs is something close you can compare it to."

Chicago Blackhawks forward Teuvo Teravainen is hoping his side can take further lessons from the World Championship.

Finland, which won 2-1 in a shootout against Canada on Monday, is third in Group A with five wins, including three in regulation, with one game remaining in the seven-game preliminary round. The medal round begins on May 22, with the gold-medal game set for May 25.

"Of course it's good, but it's still different," Teravainen said. "It's bigger ice here now and not all the NHL players are here. It's still good to get some chemistry. It's good. I didn't know many of these guys before, so I'm getting to know them better every day. They're a good group of guys. It's always fun to play for your country, so it's always awesome."

The World Championship provides an opportunity, too, to build on some recent success on international ice.

Finland, then captained by Valtteri Filppula, is the defending Olympic champion in men's ice hockey after winning the gold medal at the 2022 Beijing Games. The country also won the silver medal at the 2006 Turin Olympics and 1988 Calgary Olympics, and bronze in the 2014 Sochi Olympics, 2010 Vancouver Olympics, 1998 Nagano Olympics and 1994 Lillehammer Olympics.

At the World Championship, Finland won gold in both 2019 and 2022, and finished with silver in 2021.

"Just look at the success that Finland has had the last couple of years," Seattle Kraken forward Eeli Tolvanen said. "You want to play for something. It's not that you go to the tournament just to play in the tournament. It's always to win something. It's no different if it's a World Championship or Olympics. You watch the playoffs right now. Who are the top guys on Dallas? The guys from Florida, too. Florida has those top-end guys.

"Anytime Finland puts a team together in a tournament, they expect to win."

The World Championship is no different.

Nor, Tolvanen suggested, are the Olympics.

"Obviously it's a big thing for Finnish people," he said. "Everybody wants to come to play. It's a big thing to play for Finland. When it's a game day you see people in Finnish jerseys and the whole country is watching, it's a big thing.

"Olympics are coming and everybody wants to be a part of it."