Finns Up! NHL playoffs consist of 13 players from Finland on

DALLAS (AP)– Dallas Stars coach Pete DeBoer has jokingly described himself as being Finnish during these NHL playoffs. After all, he has five of the 13 players from Finland who are on the rosters of the 4 teams still chasing the Stanley Cup.The Stars’ top line is a trio of Finns, with top-scoring forward Mikko Rantanen along with Roope Hintz and Mikael Granlund. They likewise have seasoned defensemen Miro Heiskanen and Esa Lindell, who both scored in the 3rd duration of a return win over Edmonton in the West semifinal opener.Advertisement “They’re extraordinary,”Stars forward Tyler Seguin said of his teammates playing more than 5,000 miles from their home nation.”I ‘d say we’re a Finnish-first team probably now.”In the East final, the Florida Panthers have

four Finnish players who were also part of in 2015’s Stanley Cup title: captain Aleksander Barkov, Eetu Luostarinen, Niko Mikkola and Anton Lundell. Carolina, which had Rantanen for a 13-game stretch this season before trading him to Dallas, has Sebastian Aho, Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Juha Jaaska.Luostarinen, who in 2017 was a second-round draft pick by the Hurricanes, had 4 points in Florida’s series clincher over Tampa Bay in Round 1. He added three more in Game 7 of the 2nd round versus Toronto. “It’s good to see a lot of Finns getting so far, and I think playing key roles on their teams, playing high minutes,”Luostarinen said.”I believe it’s just the work they put in Finland, from juniors all the method to the top level. It’s top notch.” Advertisement All 12 of the Finns who have actually played this postseason have scored objectives, and half have at least 10 points through Wednesday. Rantanen, initially traded from Colorado to Carolina and after that six weeks later to the Stars, leads all players with 9 goals and 20 points.Kasperi Kapanen is the lone Finnish player for the Oilers, and his only point up until now this postseason was a substantial one: an overtime objective to wrap up the second round series versus Vegas.From Finland to the NHL The Dallas and Miami cities each has more homeowners than Finland, but the nation of 5.6 million is a growing hockey power.There were 53 Finns on NHL lineups this season among 268 all-time, according to Hockey-Reference. com. Divide the number of NHL players into a nation’s population, and Finland sends about as lots of players to the league per capita as Canada or Sweden.Advertisement “They’ve done an excellent job

of establishing players over in Finland,”Stars general supervisor Jim Nill stated.”We understand they’re good players, but they’re just really excellent humans. … When you talk about the Finnish players, they play the game the proper way. They’re well-coached, they understand both ends of the ice.”Dallas and Florida played 2 regular-season games in Finland in November, the 10th and 11th the NHL has actually played there. The Panthers won both games in Barkov’s hometown of Tampere while the seven Finnish players combined for 11 points, led by his four.Team Finland won the gold medal in the 2022 Olympics, when the NHL’s choice not to send out players to Beijing kept Aho, Barkov and Rantanen from participating. They were amongst nine of the still-playing Finns who represented their nation in this year’s 4 Nations Face-Off, and likely will belong to the 2026 Olympics. “On my end with those guys, this is the golden

age of Finnish hockey, “said DeBoer, an assistant for Group Canada in the 4 Countries.”If you look at the last years, those guys have won a great deal of competitions, under-18, world juniors, world champions. They know how to win. They have those winning habits which’s what makes them easy to coach, simple to play.”Advertisement Jere Lehtinen, who played

all 14 of his NHL seasons with destiny and was part of their 1999 Stanley Cup championship, is the GM of the Finnish national team.Impact players In Carolina, Aho is the top-line center and the team’s top-paid player, a 27-year-old secured long term after signing an extension paying$ 9.75 million annually through the 2031-32 season. The group’s second-round pick from 2015 has been a core piece of Carolina being the

only NHL team with an active streak of winning a minimum of one postseason series for 7 straight years.When the Stars acquired Rantanen from the Hurricanes, that trade deadline deal

was contingent on the

28-year-old forward signing a$96 million, eight-year agreement extension.Advertisement He had 101 points( 34 goals, 67 helps)in 81 playoff games for the Colorado the previous seven years, consisting of the Avalanche’s 2022 Cup run, before his 12 points versus them in the preliminary this postseason that included his hat trick in Video game 7. Rantanen had another hat trick in the 2nd duration of Game 1 in the second round versus top-seeded Winnipeg.Speaking Finnish Panthers defenseman Gustav Forsling, who is from neighboring Sweden, still often does not understand Mikkola.”He’s uproarious.

He’s got the Finnish

accent, which is funny– sometimes I do not know what he’s saying,” Forsling said.”However he always returns to the bench saying something, and it’s amusing.”Ad Heiskanen, who was 19 when he made his Stars debut in 2018, said it’s great to have Finnish colleagues as he has throughout his NHL career.”It’s fun off the ice, too,”Heiskanen said when asked about the additions of Rantanen and Granlund, who at 33 is the oldest of the playoff Finns. “Can speak Finnish and do stuff together.”Seguin said he has actually discovered a couple of swear words in

Finnish, in addition to some easy phrases. However there are times when he and team captain Jamie Benn question what is being said, and “have the Google translator out trying to figure it out.”The only word that really matters today is”voittaa, “which normally translates as “to win.”___ AP Sports Writers Aaron Beard and Tim Reynolds contributed. ___ AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl