The issues with the lineup decisions stretch much farther than Boston Bruins defenseman Henri Jokiharju playing just 2:12 in Finland's game against Sweden. Jokiharju played 7:34 against Slovakia in the team's opening game. Still, some poor defensive play in the first period sent his partner Mikko Lehtonen to the press box for the second game and Jokiharju to the seventh defenseman role.
It made sense for Finland to make some changes for the game against Sweden. They suffered a disappointing loss to Slovakia in the opening game and needed a win against Sweden to have a chance of avoiding the qualification round. They defeated their rivals 4-1 to set up a big day on Saturday.
Sweden's team has been the backbone of the lineup decision talks. Sam Hallam designated Filip Forsberg as the team's 13th forward for the first game against Italy, and played him just one shift in the entire game. He designated Oliver Ekman-Larsson as the seventh defenseman and didn't let him see the ice for a single shift.
Hallam played those two players more against Finland, but it still shows a deeper problem with the international rule to allow teams to dress 20 players. Some coaches aren't aware of giving everyone ice time, and they'll take advantage of the rule by keeping players stapled to the bench for entire games.
While it's a competitive tournament and no one is going to feel sorry for unfair playing time, the IIHF could fix the problem by adopting the NHL rule of 18 players dressed. The problem becomes when a player like Jokiharju, Forsberg, or Ekman-Larsson doesn't play for over an hour of real time, and then the staff expects them to play at a best-on-best hockey level.
NHL teams don't want to see their players suffer unnecessary injuries because their coaches aren't managing their benches correctly. The last thing they want to see is one of their players going in cold and risking an injury. Canada and the United States have done a great job of getting all their players into game action with 20 skaters, but it seems like the European teams haven't found a way to adapt.
Jokiharju played a little over two minutes in the game against Sweden, and wouldn't have gotten that ice time if not for the scrum at the end of the first period that ended with three Finnish defensemen in the penalty box. Jokiharju started the second period and played most of his minutes while waiting for those penalties to expire.