Pekka Rinne left off Team Finland's Olympic roster

by Dirk Hoag on Dec 30, 2009 8:02 AM EST

This comes from Jeff Marek of CBC's Hockey Night in Canada:

Nashville's Pekka Rinne was definitely up against some stiff competition, which reflects just how far Finnish goaltending has come in the last 10-15 years. Recall that as recently as the 1998-99 season, there were no Finn goaltenders in the NHL, and now there are 7, some of them among the league's best.

	GP	MIN	W	L		GA	GAA	SA	SV	SV%	SO
2009 - Miikka Kiprusoff	34	1996	19	10		74	2.22	1007	933	.927	3

	GP	MIN	W	L		GA	GAA	SA	SV	SV%	SO
2009 - Niklas Backstrom	33	1979	18	12		82	2.49	913	831	.910	1

	GP	MIN	W	L		GA	GAA	SA	SV	SV%	SO
2009 - Antero Niittymaki	18	1048	7	5		43	2.46	530	487	.919	0

Those all compare favorably to what Rinne has done this season:

Pekka Rinne

#35 / Goalie / Nashville Predators

Height: 6-5

Weight: 206

Born: Nov 03, 1982

	GP	MIN	W	L		GA	GAA	SA	SV	SV%	SO
2009 - Pekka Rinne	27	1472	15	7		69	2.81	720	651	.904	2

Pekka's been good, but certainly not great this season for the Predators, and "great" is what's required these days to make the Olympic squad. Perhaps this might serve as motivation over the rest of this season?

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The 3rd spot

Was really a toss-up. Can’t say I blame the Finns with his most recent performances.

Marty made the Czech roster, also per that guy’s Twitter page.

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by Chris Burton on Dec 30, 2009 9:23 AM EST reply actions

I was surprised when I heard that Pekka didnt make the Finnish team… but when you look at the stats, its really hard to argue. I guess I didnt really put two-and-two together, didn’t think about how many good Finn netminders there are and just figured he’d have a spot. Kipper and Backstrom pretty much had their spots locked up…. and Niittymaki has been REALLY good the few times I saw him this sesaon.

At least he’s young…. maybe he’ll make the team in 4 years in Sochi.

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by Matt Reitz on Dec 30, 2009 6:43 PM EST reply actions