That most certainly isn't the case this year since there's two rounds in SM-liiga between this tournament and Christmas.
Err... we have quite a bit of heavy hitters in KHL. They're getting a two weeks' downtime with this schedule.
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Have to say though... now that I look at it more closely, I don't even see that many weaksauce calls in there.
Goalies have definitely both deserved a look. They're nothing than a sign of depth we have on this department.
Defense, well... Laakso and Eronen are even WHC contenders, good to have them here. Näkyvä definitely deserves a look based on what he's done thus far. Ohtamaa has been a solid DD. Lepistö, Kukkonen are NT staples. Mäenpää semi-staple, Jalonen sauna buddy. Melart is the only one that really doesn't make sense no how.
Forwards. Lehterä, Kiiskinen, Pihlström, Enlund and Aaltonen are all solid NT material on a good day. Ramstedt has been slowing down from early fall, but still has earned his chance based on that. Sallinen has been very solid two-way player for HPK. Kähkönen, Koho... meh. Guess they do the basics well enough. Huhtala, Kuusela and Lahti are those out of forwards that seem to have no justification whatsoever.
All right, maybe it's unusual to have this borderline cases in one roster, but the thing is, most of those guys should be able to handle themselves. Some of them will no doubt have sore backsides coming back, but hey, it's the only way to see what cloth they're made of. Even the staples have gone through those motions once in the time.
what a team 
