Finland-Sweden game at 4 Nations Face-Off turns NHL teammates into foes

MONTREAL -- Kevin Lankinen and Elias Pettersson flew to the 4 Nations Face-Off together, the Vancouver Canucks teammates discussing a few different topics.

The rivalry between their countries in hockey -- Lankinen is from Finland and Pettersson from Sweden -- was one of them.

“Obviously since they announced the team, we’ve had some pretty good chats about this tournament,” said Lankinen, who will start for Finland in goal against Sweden at Bell Centre on Saturday (1 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, SN, TVAS).

The two last faced each other in the IIHF World Championship in 2019. Finland defeated Sweden 5-4 in overtime in the quarterfinals and went on to win gold; Lankinen allowed four goals on 18 shots in that game, including one by Pettersson.

“As of now we’re not teammates for a week,” Lankinen said. “But maybe when we get back, we’ll talk more.”

When Pettersson found out Lankinen was starting for Finland, the forward said with a grin, “He’s having a fantastic year for us. He’s been standing on his head but hopefully he has a night off tomorrow.”

Yes, that seems to be the general gist of those NHL players from Sweden or Finland who will be playing against each other on Saturday: You’re still my friend, hope you have a great tournament, but not against us and we’ll talk once it’s over.

“Obviously it's always a rivalry between Sweden and Finland but I mean, you saw it in the first game playing Sid (Pittsburgh Penguins and Canada captain Sidney Crosby) there, said Sweden forward Rickard Rakell, a teammate of Crosby with the Penguins, referring to Canada's 4-3 overtime victory against Sweden in the tournament opener Wednesday. "I think when you're here, all you're thinking about is winning hockey games, and being teammates in a club team doesn't mean that much.

“But, yeah, it's a great challenge for us tomorrow. I think everybody has realized it's not going to be any easy games here and we're just going to try to build from the first game. We obviously didn't get the start that we wanted to but after that, I think we really felt good about our game and hopefully you can just get better from that, learn from that, and just get some more chemistry within our group. We're excited for tomorrow.”

Sweden has one point in the tournament after the OT loss to Canada; Finland has zero points following a 6-1 loss to the United States on Thursday.

Forward Filip Forsberg said Thursday that the rivalry between his native Sweden and Finland “goes back to medieval times, pretty much.”

In recent history, Sweden has defeated Finland four times in seven games at NHL international tournaments, including a 2-0 shutout win in their latest matchup, the 2016 World Cup of Hockey round robin.

Five of those seven games were been decided by two goals or fewer, including an 8-6 win by Finland in the 1976 Canada Cup round robin, which remains tied for the most goals by both teams in an NHL international tournament game.

“It's fun to play against Finland. I have a really good friend on the team too in (forward) Mikael Granlund, and so it’s going to be fun to play against him, too,” said Sweden defenseman Jonas Brodin, who was teammates with Granlund with the Minnesota Wild from 2012-19.

“When I get out there, I don’t even think about that, though. I will just try to play my best and try to win the game. And then after the game, it’s like normal.”

For some, it’s eyeing each other due to the rivalry, but it’s also looking forward to the challenge of playing someone they know well. That’s what Sweden forward Jesper Bratt is anticipating when he faces Finland forward and New Jersey Devils teammate Erik Haula.

“We spoke a lot before the tournament started," Bratt said. "Obviously, it’s a fun challenge to get to play against each other. He’s a key player on our team, does so much for our team, so it’s going to be special seeing him on the other side of the ice.

“He’s going to be a tough player to play against. It’s going to be hard but it’s going to be fun.”

There’s nothing like playing your rivals. It happens in the NHL all the time, but less often on the world stage. There’s tremendous respect between Sweden and Finland, but winning ranks most important on Saturday.

“We just talked with the guys in the tournament overall,” said Finland forward Anton Lundell, one of five Florida Panthers who will play in this game, along with Finland forwards Aleksander Barkov and Eetu Luostarinen and defenseman Niko Mikkola, and Sweden defenseman Gustav Forsling.

“It’s going to be weird to play each other but at the same time, you put the different friendships away for a week and you do everything you can for your country and your team.”

NHL.com Editor-in-Chief Bill Price contributed to this report