The regular season of the Finnish Hockey Championship League will culminate in the next two weeks. The Finnish Championship season has been high in terms of points, as the playoffs are not as easy as in previous years.
The Finnish Hockey League is smoother than it has been for a long time. The superiority of the regular season rankings will be discussed until the very last meters, as both the winner of the regular season and the last playoff place as well as the entry to the top six are completely open.
The evenness is clearly shown in the series table. With a drop-off of around 82-83 points since the 2015-2016 season, as many as 11 teams have scored 82 points well before the end of the regular season.
By more than a decade, the level is also tough. In the 2010s, the last playoff spot came off at its best with an average of 1.47 points, compared to an average of 1.547 for KalPa, which now ranks 11th.
Sports Expert Topi Nättinen has drawn attention to the fact that every team struggling for a playoff spot has had a recognizable and long – lasting worse period during the season.
– Some have had steady waves, but a lot of teams have had 5-10 matches, some with slightly longer, clearly scoring periods. The counterbalance has been quite insane victory and points tubes, which I think have built this evenness, Nättinen says.
In addition to the last playoff spot, the top end has also been smoother. In previous years, the winner of the regular season has played well above the average of two points, but currently no team has reached the same level.
According to the show, usually at this point one team would have already run away from the others in the league table. This year, the winner of the regular season will have to struggle for the top spot, which guarantees a home advantage until the possible finals.
– At best, five teams can win the regular season, but realistically it is ultimately a trade between three Tappara, Ilves and Jukureid.
– Often at this point, through certain teams have been able to share the load and deal with injuries. I remember that sometimes in ancient times the victory in the regular season would have been two trades, but I don’t remember three trades in recent history, Nättinen says.
There are interesting details behind the good and bad episodes. Nättinen believes that the league changes of the league clubs, the record number of young people and foreigners, and Korona have contributed to the evenness of the series.
As many as nine of the league clubs left the season with a completely new coach. In addition, HPK, who became a sensational team, changed Jarno Pikkarainen only after eight matches.
– Coach changes will definitely have an impact. Finnish hockey is now process-oriented and it takes its own time to get things moving, Nättinen says.
– The league has rejuvenated, but there are also a record number of foreigners in the series. All of these things interact with how a coach gets to drive their own ways of working on a team and makes the group commit to the way the team works.
Nättinen thinks that Korona has also influenced the teams. Some teams have had a long break and have been playing at a brisk pace since then.
Nättinen believes that some teams have played with even painful players, while other teams have played incompletely or supplemented the team with possibly A-juniors.
– I dare say that in some clubs the corona protocol has been different than in others. In Finnish, some have more sore players and a shorter recovery time. Others have played it safe again and expected everyone to be healthy.
There are five to eight games left in the regular season, depending on the team, as many teams do not play the full regular season due to match cancellations. Nättinen believes that the playoffs will be fought for until the last week, even until the last round.
– I argue that the solutions can go to the last round. Then you can see interesting situations when one game ends earlier than the other and we get excited about another game. Yes, there are really delicious still lifes.
The seemingly highlights the importance of rest. Avoiding the first round of the playoffs, you get four to five flute days before the semi-finals.
– I really like being in the top six. However, the first round is only from two games and is decided by a point difference. That is, winning the first match from the second match is enough to draw. That, too, creates a different starting point for this.
According to Nättinen, the starting points for the playoffs are very interesting. Many teams strengthened on the eve of the transfer limit, and the players on these teams had time to get into the team well before the main matches of the spring.
Nättinen believes that this spring, every playoff team has a good chance to advance to the semi-finals, although of course there are also pre-favorites in the series and the home advantage can have its own meaning.
– I have been watching hockey for 20-25 years and I would say that at least in the history of following my league, this time the rankings don’t matter. Sometimes it has felt like the first round of the playoffs will never make it to the semi-finals, but now I wouldn’t be surprised if even two teams could rise from there. This can spin just about anything, Nättinen says.