Montreal Canadiens winger Joel Armia did not have his best season in 2021-22. He signed a four-year contract extension just before hitting free agency last summer, but wasn’t able to make it look good in year one.
He scored just six goals and 14 points in 60 games, a year after scoring just 14 points in 41 games. His best season came in 2019-20 when he had 16 goals and 30 points in 58 games.
The big, Finnish winger is not just known for his offence, as he is a great penalty killer and defensive forward. He showed in the 2021 postseason that he could play a great depth role by lining up with big, physical, smart linemates who cycled the puck well and used their size to their advantage against defenders.
Armia filled in on a fourth line with Eric Staal and Corey Perry for most of the 2021 postseason, and they played valuable minutes in each series. He will turn 29 next week so a bad year isn’t something to be overly worried about, especially since he was able to find a way to end the year on a positive note.
The native of Pori, Finland missed the end of the Habs regular season for personal reasons, but was able to play for in the World Championships in his home country. The reasons for his absence at the end of the season were not revealed, but it was great to see he was able to play in Finland so hopefully nothing too serious was happening.
Armia turned that opportunity into a great tournament. He entered today’s gold medal game against Canada with four goals and seven points in nine games and he added to those totals. Finland was up 2-1 in the third period when Armia grabbed a puck right off a faceoff in Canada’s zone and wired it top shelf on the short side.
ARMIA 💥
— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) May 29, 2022
Joel Armia makes it 3-1 for @leijonat #FINCAN #IIHFWorlds @canadiensmtl pic.twitter.com/y1gQCe58S3
The goal gave Finland a two goal lead with less than six minutes to play in regulation time. Canada somehow came back to tie it with two late goals and send the game to overtime.
Canada’s second goal was scored by Zach Whitecloud and Canadiens winger Josh Anderson earned one of the assists. He got in on the forecheck as he usually does and knocked the puck out of a large scrum to Matthew Barzal who fed Whitecloud in the slot.
Thomas Chabot took a hooking penalty in overtime and Sakari Manninen score on a one-timer off a perfect pass from Mikael Granlund on the man advantage.
With that, Armia earned a gold medal and played a big part by scoring five goals and eight points in the tournament. Anderson grabbed a silver medal and had a goal and eight points in ten games as well.
Sean Farrell and the United States lost to Czechia earlier in the day in the bronze medal game, so the Canadiens prospect goes home empty handed. However, he did show well in the event, scoring six points in ten games for a shorthanded USA team.
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