With NHL action locked out indefinitely, one of the best collections of hockey talent can be found during Finland’s Karjala Tournament, which takes place Nov. 7-10.
The round-robin tournament features one squad each from the Czech Republic, Russia, Sweden and host team Finland.
Here are some standout players (aside from the Czech roster, which isn’t readily available):
Finland (via Leijonat.fi): Pekka Rinne, Tuukka Rask, Mikko Koivu and Niklas Hagman. Also: four guys named Teemu who aren’t Teemu Selanne. (Full roster)
Russia (via Leijonat.fi): Sergei Bobrovsky, Artem Anisimov and Nik Zherdev. (Full roster)
Sweden (also via Leijonat.fi): Victor Hedman, Patric Hornqvist, Carl Hagelin and Gabriel Landeskog. (Full roster)
A Swedish team including Peter Forsberg and Matt Sundin will take on a Finnish squad that boasts Jari Kurri and Jere Lehtinen in a legends game on Nov. 8 as well, according to Turku.fi.
Before you start pondering a hasty trip to Finland, let’s finish with a few facts about the tournament:
- Either Finland (10 times) or Russia (five times) finished in first place in all but one of the 16 tournaments, with Sweden taking it in 1997.
- The tournament is sponsored by Karjala beer, which has a rather interesting history.
- Again, it’s a round-robin tournament featuring three games per team. If two teams are tied for first-place, whichever team won the head-to-head matchup takes the No. 1 spot.