Foreign Rosters Dripping With Local Flavor

Defenseman Mattias Norstrom of the Kings and right wing Tomas Sandstrom of the Mighty Ducks were among 23 players chosen Tuesday to represent defending Olympic champion Sweden at the Nagano Games in February.

Duck right wing Teemu Selanne and King defenseman Aki Berg were among 14 players announced by Finland. The Ducks will send seven players to six Olympic teams, and the Kings will have five on five teams. The Colorado Avalanche will send the most NHL players, nine, to six teams.

Also selected from the Ducks were left wing Paul Kariya, by Canada; goaltender Guy Hebert, by the U.S.; defenseman Dmitri Mironov and goalie Mikhail Shtalenkov, by Russia, and defenseman Ruslan Salei by Belarus. Also selected from the Kings were defenseman Rob Blake, by Canada; center Jozef Stumpel, by Slovakia, and left wing Vladimir Tsyplakov, by Belarus. Center Olli Jokinen may be added to the Finnish team when that country rounds out its roster.

Stumpel, Tsyplakov and Salei are likely to miss their teams’ openers. Under a new format designed to allow NHL players to participate in the Games, Slovakia and Belarus will compete with six other nations in a preliminary tournament that begins Feb. 7. Two of those teams will advance to the next round to face the six major powers. The NHL’s Olympic break doesn’t start until Feb. 8, and teams may not release key players early.

Jari Kurri of Colorado, the former King and Duck who is the highest-scoring European player in NHL history, joins Esa Tikkanen of Florida, Saku Koivu of Montreal and defensemen Teppo Numminen of Phoenix, Jyrki Lumme of Vancouver and Janne Niinimaa of Philadelphia on the Finnish team.

Berg was awed to be in such distinguished company. “I was a little surprised because this is the Olympics, where the best players in the world play,” he said. “We have a pretty good team, with Teemu and Saku. Everybody knows the U.S. and Canada are going to be good and we will have to fight.”

All but two Swedish players have NHL experience, and 14 played in last year’s World Cup of Hockey. Sweden lost to Canada in the semifinals.

Swedish Coach Kent Forsberg chose his son, Peter, but there’s no nepotism involved. Not only has Peter Forsberg blossomed into one of the NHL’s top all-around players with the Avalanche, he scored the shootout goal that helped Sweden win the gold medal in 1994 at Lillehammer. Also returning is goalie Tommy Salo of the New York Islanders, whose save on Canada’s Kariya clinched the gold medal.

Toronto’s Mats Sundin and Ottawa’s Daniel Alfredsson lead a group of skilled forwards. The defense includes Calle Johansson of Washington, Tommy Albelin of Calgary, Ulf Samuelsson of the New York Rangers, Nicklas Lidstrom of Detroit and Mattias Ohlund of Vancouver.

Russia added forwards Valeri Bure of Montreal, Alexei Morozov of Pittsburgh and Sergei Krivokrasov of Chicago and must add a third goalie.