Florida Panthers At The Olympics: Day 1 Recap

Men’s Olympic hockey is finally underway in Milan, and Panthers fans got their first look at four of the ten players who will be playing in the tournament. Wednesday had matches with Finland and Sweden taking on Slovakia and Italy, respectively. Finland had a tough outing as they fell 1-4 to Slovakia, but Lundell, Luostarinen, and Mikkola all had solid games. Gustav Forsling was a stud as always on defense for the Swedes, scoring the first Florida Panthers goal and assisting on another. He helped lift Team Sweden to its first win of the tournament. 

Team Finland:

All three of Florida’s Finns got the start for Finland. Lundell’s line with Luostarinen and Kaapo Kakko, while the Mikkola-Ristolainen pair got the starting nod. In the first period, Lundell’s line was arguably the Finns’ most effective line, something that’s not uncommon to Florida fans. That line helped Kaapo generate two shots on goal in the opening twenty minutes and had some good scoring chances. Unsurprisingly, Mikkola was involved in a few scrums, including a couple against Oliver Okuliar, a player that the Panthers have the signing rights to. Niko also had two shots on goal. Lundell had an excellent night in the faceoff dot, going 7-4 for a FO% of 61.11. That number’s up from Lundell’s 52.5% with the Panthers, which isn’t surprising since Anton is centering Finland’s 3rd line, not their 1st line. Luostarinen, as always, didn’t light up the scoresheet, but his defensive game was as good as ever. There’s been good chemistry between the Florida Finns and Kaapo Kakko of the Seattle Kraken. Finland outshot Slovakia 40-25, so they certainly got the shot volume; the Seattle Kraken’s Eeli Tolvanen scored the only goal for Finland. Did they just get goalied in their first game? Perhaps, but they might also be missing the presence of two players: would’ve been team captain Sasha Barkov and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, who likely would’ve been the starting goalie. But games march on, and hopefully the Finns can have a bounce-back game against rival Sweden on Friday. 

Team Sweden:

All aboard the Gus Bus. Gustav Forsling netted the first Panthers goal of the Olympics to give Sweden the 2-1 lead over Italy heading into the first intermission. Forsling picked up a rebounding Jesper Bratt shot and then made a hard slapshot past the Italian goaltender Clara. It was a beauty of a goal from the Panther defenseman, and he’s got one of the hardest shots in the NHL; he’s clocked slap shots at over 100 mph. Gus played on Sweden’s 2nd defensive pairing at the Four Nations Tournament last year, but for the Olympics, he’s been elevated to the top pairing playing with Rasmus Dahlin. Forsling also logged an assist on the Hedman empty net goal at the end of the third period. Gus had one of his most offensively minded games this year, with 5 shots on goal in only 18:53 TOI. The TOI is down from his numbers with the Panthers, but that’s not too surprising since Sweden can easily spread the load out across their defensive pairings. It was a surprisingly close game between the Swedes and the Italians until Sweden was able to get some separation in the third period, resulting in a 5-2 win. They’ll face down their rivals, the Finns, on Friday.