{"id":454280,"date":"2026-02-11T12:16:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T12:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/454280\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T12:16:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T12:16:14","slug":"stars-finns-leaning-on-chemistry-built-in-dallas-in-pursuit-of-olympic-gold-repeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/454280\/","title":{"rendered":"Stars\u2019 Finns leaning on chemistry built in Dallas in pursuit of Olympic gold repeat"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NHL hosted the 4 Nations Face-Off<\/a> in February of last year as a primer for the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics<\/a> and to reintroduce fans to best-on-best hockey.<\/p>\n

Just a few months later in the Western Conference finals of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Dallas Stars<\/a> foreshadowed what one Olympic team could look like.<\/p>\n

On May 23, 2025, the Stars started five Finnish players<\/a> in Game 2 of the third-round series with the Edmonton Oilers \u2014 the first time in NHL history that a team put out five Finns to start a game. Those five players \u2014 Mikko Ratanen, Roope Hintz, Mikael Granlund, Esa Lindell and Miro Heiskanen \u2014 are expected to be reunited as Finland\u2019s starting five skaters in the upcoming men\u2019s Olympic tournament, beginning with a game against Slovakia at 9:40 a.m. CT Wednesday.<\/p>\n

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While Finland\u2019s roster will be different than four years ago now that NHL players can compete in the Olympics for the first time since 2014, the Finns are looking to defend their first gold medal from the 2022 Beijing Games. The Finns won bronze the last time NHL players participated.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s good for the hockey world in general to have the best players playing in the Olympics, so I was obviously really excited to hear that it\u2019s going to happen,\u201d Rantanen said.<\/p>\n

The success of the Finnish national team this year runs through Dallas. The team was assembled by general manager Jere Lehtinen, a longtime Dallas Star and member of the 1999 Stanley Cup team. He selected four current players from the Stars\u2019 roster \u2014 Rantanen, Lindell, Heiskanen and Hintz \u2014 while reuniting them with former Finns who passed through Dallas, like Granlund, who signed with Anaheim in the offseason<\/a>, and Colorado\u2019s Joel Kiviranta. <\/p>\n

Projected lines have Granlund, Hintz and Rantanen, who skated together last postseason, as Team Finland\u2019s top line and Lindell and Heiskanen, who have skated together all season, as its top defensive pairing.<\/p>\n

The Stars\u2019 Finns hope it will help their chances in the tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cMe and Roope and Granny had some good chemistry last year, so obviously, that helps in a short tournament if you\u2019ve had guys who have played together before,\u201d Rantanen said. \u201cHopefully, we can take advantage of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 18 games last postseason, the three forwards combined for 44 points. In just shy of 60 games this season, Heiskanen and Lindell have combined for 68 and rank first and second, respectively, on the team in ice time, with both defensemen averaging over 23 minutes per night.<\/p>\n

The Finns will get a big boost with Heiskanen on the roster, as the nation\u2019s top defenseman was unable to play in the 4 Nations Face-Off due to a knee injury<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt always sucks when you get hurt and you\u2019re not able to play,\u201d Heiskanen said. \u201cIt sucks to watch those games, but it was good watching on TV. It was really fun to watch those games, so it\u2019s probably gonna be pretty similar.\u201d<\/p>\n

All four of the Stars\u2019 Finns said playing in the Olympics has been a childhood dream. Lindell remembers watching Finland\u2019s silver medal finish in 2006 when he was just 11 years old \u2014 its best finish in nearly 30 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember that from my childhood,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m pumped up to see what the whole tournament is going to be and just honored to represent the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Childhood memories will also be renewed for Lindell, who will be reunited with Bruins goalie Joonas Korpisalo, his former classmate in school from ages 10-15. With a population of just 5.6 million, Finland\u2019s stars \u2014 even those who didn\u2019t cross paths in Dallas \u2014 are already quite familiar with one another.<\/p>\n

Rantanen and his fellow alternate captain Sebastian Aho<\/a> played together in juniors. He\u2019s also from the same town as right winger Kaapo Kakko and defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we have a really good team there,\u201d Heiskanen said. \u201cAlmost everybody knows each other really well. It\u2019s a tight group. I feel really good about our chances.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tournament also offers Dallas\u2019 Finns a feeling of being closer to home. Instead of the typical eight-hour time difference between Dallas and Helsinki, it\u2019s just a one-hour time difference for their friends and family hoping to watch their games. Many are even planning to make the three-hour flight to be there in person.<\/p>\n

The four Stars also know they\u2019ll have a strong support system halfway across the globe in Dallas, waking up early each morning to watch them play.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice that they\u2019re supporting us, even though we\u2019re kind of the enemies of the USA,\u201d Rantanen said. \u201cThey\u2019re still on our side a little bit. I\u2019m happy to hear that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Twitter\/X: @Lassimak<\/a><\/p>\n

Find more Stars coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NHL hosted the 4 Nations Face-Off in February of last year as a primer for the 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5117],"tags":[196,147,5278,5,270,423,4,2602,1716,43,197],"class_list":{"0":"post-454280","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-stars","8":"tag-dallas","9":"tag-dallas-stars","10":"tag-dallasstars","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-mikko-rantanen","13":"tag-miro-heiskanen","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-olympics","16":"tag-roope-hintz","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-stars"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116051956588780043","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}