4 Nations Face-Off blog: Mikael Granlund

Mikael Granlund of Finland is keeping a blog throughout the 4 Nations Face-Off, which runs through Feb. 20.

In his second entry, the Dallas Stars forward writes about the 6-1 loss in Finland's opening game against the United States at Bell Centre on Thursday, including his part in the only goal for his team when defenseman Henri Jokiharju scored in the first period to give Finland its only lead. He also talked about parking the loss immediately and getting back to work Friday to prepare for a make-or-break rivalry game against Sweden at Bell Centre on Saturday (1 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, SN, TVAS).

It was a great atmosphere at the start of the game and I was excited to get going in the game.

We got that first goal and got the lead and that was the start we wanted. We got an odd-man rush and were able to score there. With the odd-man rush, I was just trying to cut to the middle and pass it to the weak side and Jokiharju made a nice shot and fortunately it went in. It was a really cool moment.

It’s hockey, you get a first and you move on and try to get the next one and build on it and build on the lead. Unfortunately, at the end of the day, it didn’t help us win the game, so it is what it is.

Look, we did some good things the first two periods. In the second period, we had our chances to get the lead, but obviously it didn’t happen. Then, the third period happened and it was game over. That’s it. There’s nothing you can do about it now. You just move on.

Now, we’ll just try to get something to eat and get our rest and get ready for tomorrow. Get on the ice tomorrow and get ready for Sweden.

This is a short tournament. You can’t really think about what happened. It’s over. We’ll flush this and move on.

It doesn’t matter that we are playing Sweden, I’m sure everyone in here wants to get to playing again as soon as possible. Obviously, it will be an exciting game and I’m excited about the opportunity.