Hurricanes’ Mikko Rantanen needed to be better at 4 Nations
While Finland showed a lot of heart at the 4 Nations Face-Off, despite having the odds stacked against them, one of their star players certainly underperformed when the team needed him to step up.
While Finland had big names like Aleksander Barkov and Patrik Laine, many hoped Mikko Rantanen could be a game-changer to help Suomi sneak into the championship game. However, the Carolina Hurricanes forward came short of expectations.
The Nousiainen native potted just one goal in the tournament, that coming in Finland’s dramatic 4-3 overtime over rival Sweden last Saturday. That tally in the first period was the only shot Rantanen put on goal across the three contests. Despite averaging over 20 minutes per game, he wasn’t enough of a factor to make a difference in Montreal or Boston.
When it comes to international events, you need your big names to make contributions if you want to succeed. While his performance won’t necessarily affect his status as a favorite to make Team Finland at next year’s Olympics, but many will wonder what kind of impact he will be able to make after this year’s tournament.
It will be intriguing to see if Rantanen’s performance in the 4 Nations will sway his confidence when the NHL returns to action this week.
On Monday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk explain why Rantanen underwhelmed at the first-ever 4 Nations Face-Off.
Frank Seravalli: He was pretty quiet most of the tournament. It’s been a pretty fascinating start for him in Carolina. He struggled to produce, but if you look at some of the underlying metrics and the expected goals for, it’s actually better than it was in Colorado…when this tournament ends–players have now been required to report back to their teams–on the back end of this championship game on Friday, we’ve got 13 sleeps until the NHL Trade Deadline. What do the Carolina Hurricanes do, and can they get a deal done before then?
You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…