The Athletic Hockey Show - Finland wins bronze in blowout over Slovakia | Instant Reaction

Episode Date: February 21, 2026

Team Finland, the Men's 2022 gold medal winners, captured bronze with a convincing 6-1 win over upstart Slovakia. Sean Gentille and Sean McIndoe couldn't help but wonder if Finland would have had more success at the tournament if they had difference maker Aleksander Barkov in the lineup and Sean and Sean take a look at the gold medal matchup between Canada and the United States, slated to begin at 8:10am ET Sunday morning.This episode was recorded live at 5:00pm ET on February 21, 2026.Hosts: Sean Gentille and Sean McIndoeExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Jeff DometWatch full episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowJoin our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/VTm9VjkFSubscribe to The Athletic: https://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic hockey show. What up, what up is the athletic hockey show for February 21st. It is a Saturday. It only took until one game remaining in the Olympic tournament for me to realize that these live shows work best when I start speaking before my face is on camera. It's a lot less awkward. Sean McHen-do. What have you learned about the live podcast production process over the live? couple weeks.

Nothing at all. Is that? Yeah. Is that okay? I don't know what I mean. We suck at this. We're terrible at it. I've told you.

I'm too old to learn new things. I'm done. I'm done learning. This is it. Braz metal game just went down. 6-1 win for Finland over Slovakia. A little bit of an anticlimactic affair. I'm not going to lie about that.

We liked what we saw from Slovakia and Finland a varying degree as I think in the semifinal game. So I was hoping that we would get some. something a little bit more memorable than what we got. But Sean, those the two goals, 42 seconds apart in the third period, that was, that was game over stuff. It was a power play, power play one from Rupa Hins off a tip of a Meru Heiskinin shot. And then Capo caco turned to Slovakian turnover into a pretty sick snipe. So that was that six one Finland.

I think, you know, they showed themselves to be pretty fairly the third best team in this tournament, I would say. Yep. And I mean, Slovakia had been that, I don't necessarily want to call them like the underdog or the Cinderella story because I think that is maybe not giving them enough credit for some of the success they'd had coming into this tournament. But certainly early on, they were the story. And it kind of would have been fun to see them finish it or at least maybe come closer than they did. Although, you know, we had a close game going into the third period today. But full credit to Finland. This is what. they do. This is the now they're, Finland has never won a best on best tournament, but they are always right around it. And in the NHL era of the Olympics, Finland now has more medals than anyone else. And we leave this tournament with more medals than anyone else. And that includes Canada. Finland is just, this is what they do. They get to the final four. They take care of business in bronze medal games. They certainly, we've seen them make the favorites pretty nervous on a few different

occasions, including just a few days ago. And yet another medal for them, fifth in six tournaments. Pretty impressive. Yeah, plus someone told them they were allowed to actually try to score goals when they had a lead today. I think that was helpful. That was, yeah, better than mashing all five guys into the defensive end. I haven't heard from Timoselani.

Are we okay with the officiating? Has it been given the staff of approval? I wish there had been a Slovak referee that he could have tried to blame something on this. I would have loved to have seen a true team with Salani heel turn in this. I don't feel like we really got it. I think we have.

I think we've seen that in some regards. It would be okay. I mean, nothing was, nothing may ever match the Wayne Gretzky and this is, you know, this is 20 plus years ago, Wayne Gradsky, when we still liked him in Canada, but him in 2002 doing his referee rant, I mean, that's the gold standard, literally,

when it comes to the nice guys that everybody likes suddenly. Yeah, you can just add. Add that to the growing list of similarities between Tivaslani and Wayne Gradsky. So I still, you know, You know, I've, we've talked about this. You and I have, I think, in a couple different spots in a couple of different ways. But watching that game, certainly watching, watching the Canada game, I could not help but think, like, what if Alexander Barkov were here?

Like, that's, it was impossible for me to watch a Finland game at any point during this tournament, not think. Like, yep, these guys are great, but you know what would be really helpful. if they had the best two-way center on the planet on on on top of this lineup how different things would have looked and then you know truly if if the rest of the team hangs together in in the way in the way that it did i think you know we're not talking about them who knows maybe the end result is still that they did is that they win a gold medal game six to one right but god the the other elements that were present on on that team in the way some of those guys played um halavae was great the the goaltender I think if all that's, if you could have kept all that stuff and somehow had a player like Barkoff to the mix, man, I think, I think the North American teams would have been sweating out a little bit more than they were. Yeah. And that's a great point. I mean, it's the country's best player was not available. And I mean, that's life and hockey, obviously.

It's the way of us. We've seen it for other teams. We still very well may see something similar tomorrow for Canada. if Cindy Crosby can't go. But you're right. I mean, especially given the how thin the margin was in that Canada game. Yeah. They had them.

They had them. And it's, yeah, it's awfully. They could have used a dude who could swing puck possession by himself, basically. Like, that's, that's what Barkov is when he's, when he's at his best. He's, he dictates where the puck is and what happens when it's there. And I think if he would have been in the mix, man. It's tough to not look, especially at that semi-final game and not think that things would have gotten different. But, hey, that's life.

People get hurt. It's sports. It's the Olympics. It's the way the cookie crumbles. Yeah, I heard about Slovakia, too. And you touched on this. But it has been funny as NHL players have been absent from the Olympics over the last 12 years. It's been funny to the Slovakia had a chance to rebuild kind of in the background.

Because 20, the Sochi games were just, Mark Lazarus has written about this at length, that was like a devastating outcome for them, right? Because they knew that team did, the Yaroslav Halakz of the world, knew that, you know, the next generation of players was, was pretty far away. So what we've seen, you know, as the Olympics, you know, stop being best on best is, you know, the year I slavikovikis of the world and the Dalbert of Orskis and some of Nemech. And players like that have been able to pop up and really turn themselves into, you know, make them relevant in tournaments like this. And it's, it's cool to see and it's fun to see because that really was, even in the moment at Sochi, the Slovakian crash out was kind of a memorable thing because I think they know. knew the stakes and they've spent the last 12 years, you know, resock in the cupboard and doing what they needed to do from that standpoint. And it's, it's, I mean, hockey in the Olympics sometimes feels like the ultimate team game,

especially when you see these guys that are superstars on their own team coming and playing, those lower roles in the lineup, taking out fourth line duty, all that stuff. But you do still get the individual performances. and there are guys who elevate their reputations. And, I mean, when you look at Slifkovsky, has anybody in this tournament done as much to bolster their NHL reputation, other than Macklin Celebrity? He's maybe the guy that you would point to and say,

if you weren't already on the, this guy's a legitimate superstar right now, not in two years, not on his way, he's there right now. But Svkovsky's right, it's got to be right there too. I mean, if you're a Montreal fan, you got to be giddy to have seen what you just saw over the last couple weeks. We know what he did in the last Olympics. That might be a big game player. Yeah, there's something about his development arc, I think, just generally that's really gratifying. I've enjoyed watching him progressively get better.

He's improved year over year. You know, he's a good reminder. This is another thing that you and I have talked about in various capacities. over the years is that not on number one picks are created equal. Not everyone deserves the generational talent label. Just because someone in the flip side of that, just because someone steps in and isn't Macklin-Selabrini straight away when they're 18 or 19 years old, there's still, you know, it's still very feasible that they can turn

into, you know, a franchise caliber player. And I think we need to treat Slavkovsky as if he's pretty close to wearing that label because he's been great for the Montreal Canadiens. And he's been great at things this season for them that he wasn't great at in the past. So we've seen steady improvement, not just at the Olympics, but in the Canadians lineup, too. And I just like, I like seeing that. I appreciate that because it teaches people, you, me, anybody, that patience is necessary in that sometimes development curves, you know, don't, when you're talking about number one, number two, number three picks, sometimes,

sometimes they, you know, it takes a little bit longer for a guy to, for a guy to cook. And I, I think Slavkowski's a great, a great bit of proof of that. Yep. That's, I think that's absolutely true. And, I mean, now he goes back to, to Montreal to a well-rested team because, you know, luckily for them, they, none of their other players got invited. So, he doesn't have to worry about Cool Cawfield being tired out from, you know, three-on-three overtime yesterday.

Yeah, you wouldn't, that, that ended up being, being just fine. because Bill Garon has already nailed this thing, man. He's fine. There's actually nobody should ever criticize him for anything. That's my big takeaway today. We got the gold medal game tomorrow, obviously, 8-10 Eastern Canada versus the United States. You were certainly aware of that already. Sean, we talked about this before the record.

Very funny. This is not a knock on Pierre because, you know, Pierre is the greatest in this piece. certainly deserve to be written. But there's a piece on the athletic that it was published earlier today, you know, where it's Doug, it's Doug Armstrong and, uh,

in, in, in, in, in, and, in, in,

not quite taking a victory lap because they know they haven't won anything necessarily yet, but, but they're both like, yeah, we did a pretty good job with this, right? Like, nobody should be all that mad about,

about, about the line of the citizens anymore, right? Right. Like, okay, we'll see. We'll talk to you guys at about 1130 Eastern tomorrow and,

and, in see if, see if the whole, you know, to see it, to see if the, maybe sooner to see if the premise actually stacks up. It's very funny.

It's going to come down to who loses the game and how they lose the game too will be a big part of it. So, uh, we will, uh, because both teams, the,

the most likely outcome is that if either of them loses, the odds that they lose because of the exact things that people are criticizing those two for, like, They're pretty high. If Canada loses, it's probably going to be because Jordan Bennington isn't great. And if the United States loses, it's probably going to be because they don't have a goal on the ice whenever they need it most. And those are the things that people are mad about.

And especially if it comes down to a two one game either way, one team will be proven right. Because both of these teams, certainly the U.S., but I think to an extent Canada as well, these are the teams that are designed to win. in the two one game. We need the penalty killers. We need the face-off guys. The grinders, great. And then the question is always, but what if you're the team that's down two to one?

Did you bring enough offense? And, you know, that's where the Cole Coughfields and Jason Robertsons and Connor Bedard's and all those guys come into the conversation. And if it's a close one tomorrow, one of those teams is going to be able to say, see, we grinded it out. We found a way, like we said we were.

That was the game plan. and the other team is going to be sitting there going, we were one goal away. And we left a lot of goals back. We left. Yeah, we left goals back in, you know, Michigan or whatever. To me, that should already be put to bed, Gere, instead of the second guessing.

I believe I took the right players. I believe Doug took the right players. I don't get into their business. But from knowing what he's been through and what I've been through, I think we both did a pretty good job. Fair. You did. You did a pretty good job.

You did a job that's, guaranteed to net you a silver medal. Let's see how this stands up tomorrow morning. I can't wait till the Wilder facing a game seven in the playoffs. Carl Caprizov says, you know what? Win or lose? I feel like we've done enough already. I feel like this is, you know, this is bangor after banger from Garan. That's the real big picture here. How great this is for our game, whether you're American, Canadian, Czech, Slovak, Finnish, whatever, this is just so good for you. I do. Do you feel that way? Is it a Canadian,

hockey fan, Sean, that can do? Do you feel that like, you know, everybody's won in a way already? Your head, no matter what happens, the outcome is fine. Why even keep score? Because it's, you know, U.S. and Canada, there's no bad blood here. And, you know, he's right. It's, it's all the other countries, too. They're so glad that it's Canada and the U.S. being a gold medal again. They, uh, they're, they're really rooting for those two teams. They're, they're super sympathetic to us complaining about like start times, not, not being, uh, the, the, the, the right ones for the two North American teams. They just, boy, if you're, if you're, you know, you're a Finn, you're Czech, you're

Swedish, you're just like, can we get more attention on those two North American teams and make the whole tournament feel like it's about them? So, yeah, Billy's got his finger on the pulse, I think. What concerns you about tomorrow? Like, we're outside of the, outside of the obvious, as a Canadian, we're not going to talk about, we're not going to talk about Bennington. Thank you. You need to pick something else that's, I mean, I mean, you.

I mean, they're either not going to have Sidney Crosby or they're not going to have like capital S. Sydney Crosby. There may be a version of him out there, especially with the rules with the extra forward spot. But they don't have the real Sidney Crosby. I'm not sure they have the real Nathan McKinnon. He is, you know, we've seen him look banged up. We've seen him. I don't know what the hell situation is there. So that that's a little bit worrying.

just the fact that, you know, a tournament like this, you get so caught up in the most recent results, but the narrative that started to percolate a bit over the last couple days of Team USA peaking at the right time, whereas Canada's had two very tough games to get here. Maybe. Maybe that could be the sort of thing that does have an impact, especially when you consider these two teams pretty close to a coin flip coming into this. and now, you know, with the injury side, Josh Morrissey being another one that we haven't even mentioned yet. Team Eose is the healthier team,

and they've maybe got a little bit more of the momentum, although I'm not sure that's going to matter that much. I keep going back and forth on how much I care, or how much an issue it may or may not be that, you know, celebrating played 26 minutes last game, and on and on, all the Canadian big dogs had serious, serious minutes logging against Finland. That's been another kind of bit of narrative that's popped up over the last, you know, 24 hours or so.

And I'm struggling with how much I think that's going to matter. Yeah, I mean, you wouldn't think certainly a 19-year-old is going to be gassed, especially these guys when they're playing the biggest game. You know, this is it. Of their lives that, you know, so far just about all of them, if not all of them, So, uh, the big part of being tired is when you know that there's some crazy amount of stuff

ahead of you. Like that's, that's, that's, that's when you feel the most beat, whether it's a normal person who's, who's talking about work or whatever. You're always most tired in the middle of the race.

And I think, you know, the fact that they're at the end of this, I, I tend to, I tend to not put a ton of, yeah, I tend to see the finish line.

You leave it all right there. Exactly. Exactly. Blah, blah, blah. Pick it, pick a, pick a cliche. Um, on the American and of things, I'm worried about Tage Thompson being,

hurt. I think his presence has, you know, that's the big variable outside of Quinn Hughes. His presence in that forward group is the big variable between the Four Nations tournament and now. And if he's not 100 percent, you know, the power play alone, whether it's one opportunity or three or however many it ends up being, that's, he's such a crucial element there with that with that shot, you know, with that right-handed shot, that's a big deal. And also it's going to be really interesting in the first period of the game to watch Jack Hughes

because I think he was fantastic against Slovakia. Game Changer, you know, did a highlight real, highlight real gold that we're all going to see for a long time when he shook the Finnish defender there. Great. I'm not sure how that's going to translate into a gold medal game. like we need to see. It's very possible because Canada has the last change in this one. It's easy to envision a world where his line gets a pretty steady dose of Sam Bennett, Tom Wilson, you know, Brad Marchand earlier, and they just make it their business to bang him around

and erase him from that game. Because he's really important. His increased relevance at this tournament is a pretty serious, a pretty serious change. Yep. And, you know, whether we see that line going up against the Kachukes as well. And can they bait them into anything? Can the Kachukes walk that line? All right.

This is a big game. This is not the time to do the side show stuff. And, you know, it's not that time for the Canadians either. But if you're Tom Wilson, I think you know that you take that trade off. If you can, you know, whether it's two minutes or more, if you can take one of those brothers off with you. you'll take that. So does Sam Bennett and whoever else. I think Brady's the one that Tomlinson should be targeting.

I think Matthew personality type wise, history wise. I don't know if I necessarily mean this is a compliment or not, but I think he knows how to play that game a little bit more. There's a level of cunning with him that I don't think Brady's necessarily got in the bag. So if you want... Good way to put it. Yeah. Yeah, I'm trying to be diplomatic here.

I think I think of Wilson bates somebody, it's going to be the, it's going to be the little one. We shall see. Probably right. Probably right. And look, I mean, it's, we say we weren't going to talk Bittington, but I'm going to be watching, you know, both the goal is. And not just as far as, okay, obviously, I don't know, if TBSA comes out and scores on the first two shots, that's a big deal. Yeah. Just watching even the saves, right?

Watching those rebounds, does he look like he's fighting it? Does it, you know, and same for Connor Hallibook. We all know. We know the deal there, and it's a narrative, and it's a narrative that should probably die and maybe will in not that many hours from now. But, you know, do you, can you get up in his head, get up into his crease? Sam Bennett do that without going so overboard that he actually gets a penalty, which I guess is, is that an international rule that San Diego can be penalized for taking a run?

That's like the best thing that could happen for you, and for you, the Canadian hockey fan, the best thing that could happen was Benicketing called for that in the in the semifinal game. Because now he knows, like, okay, I got it. I got at least add some plausible deniability to the mix here. I can't, I can't just steamroll anybody. I got to do it Brad Marchion and did. Like that was like correct call to or correct non call on on on on marshan late there against uzi sorrows that that should not have been goaltender interference but he also interfered with a goaltender he knew exactly what he was doing he knew exactly what he could get away with and I think the fact that they spent you know a decent chunk of that game figuring out what the line was I think that I think that bodes very well for that line in particular what's your pick I don't want to put you on the spot here I'm picking Canada Because still boring.

Be the man, you got to beat the man. And Team USA has not been able to beat this team in a very long time. And I think that, you know, the, the, you talk about an X factor like it's some, you know, like you're picking something subtle or something other people may have missed. I know. I'm not doing that here. But Conor McDavid is absolutely on fire. Best player in the world looking unstoppable that I hope can negate.

some of the other stuff that we've talked about. And yeah, maybe this is the Connor McDavid game where he just grabs it by the throat and says, no, we're not, we're not doing this. We will see, but I think it's going to be a great game. I think it's going to be

excruciating miserable, horrible experience to watch it. And then half of us will, it'll have been worth every second and the other half will have to hear about it for four more years. Has Timiosi figured out if they lose, like, have they figured out what tournament is going to be the real one that they were?

Or does that, is that like something they just decide after the fact when they lose, they go, you know, what? It's actually the Spangler Cup next year is the real one that we want. It's a really likable group of players. I'm sure, I'm sure whatever, whatever they decide to do. That's it. It'll be great. Yeah, easy, easy bunch to cheer for. Absolutely.

Dylan Larkin, golden goal. It's coming. well specific that is that is oddly specific write it write it in pen you think golden goal you think we're getting O T yeah sure what okay

what would happen if they if we go to overtime and both teams we're just like we're gonna let's just do five on five we both want to do five on five and not this completely completely nauseating I I I hate three on three overtime in these games more than

that it bothers me to a point that I didn't think sports stuff could bother me like it like it's it's not that it's not that big of a deal but like I was watching I was the you look look US women won gold great I was seething throughout throughout that overtime

like it is it is a perversion of the nature of the game for for that to happen I agree with you fake gold medal doesn't count. I'm with you 100%. I'm glad you had the courage to stay. Yeah, like I said, we're getting an American overtime goal and coming here because then that'll be great. Americans, when goal and Canadians get something to complain about, that's the most important thing. As long as we can get a nice, lengthy offside review after the goal so that we can't get too excited about it in the moment. I think that that's what everyone here really wants to see.

more memes more more more curling memes about you know macon celebrini being a quarter inch a quarter inch on side or whatever it's what i'm looking for Sean McAnew enjoy the game buddy you're I won't but uh yeah consume it consume it consume it and watch it so we can discuss it at some point down the line for our jobs sounds good could just do that that's what I'm going to do thank you man and thank you to producer jeff as always we love you jeff We are off tomorrow, dude. This is good news. It's Max Bowman and Jesse Granger,

who are going live after the gold medal game between Canada in the USA and Sunday morning on the athletic YouTube channel. Thank you, folks. Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening. Enjoy the game tomorrow, man. This is what it's all about.

Hope everyone has fun. We certainly will. Frankie Crado and me and McIndoo are back on Wednesday. We're going to get to set for the NHL stretch drive to the deadline and the playoffs and beyond. Oh, God, we've got to talk about NHL hockey again. disappointing. I hope this tournament never ends. Thanks again. Enjoy tomorrow.