On Saturday, the regular season of the Ice Hockey League culminated in an exciting and staggering way. The situations varied widely during the evening, but in the end, the Flyers who had gone to the season with a lot of effort were out of the playoffs.
The solution offered a tremendous drama as HIFK got the place in the top four 28 seconds before the end of the third round. The disc to the empty goal hit Iiro Pakarinenwhen the goalkeeper of the Flyers Damian Clara Purd the puck directly into Pakarinen’s blade.
Clara tried to unleash the puck from the middle towards the empty goal as HIFK sought a victory without a goalkeeper.
– This is not the case with this kind of shock, Sports Expert Topi Nättinen amazed.
– First of all, I even went to try the paint. It is always very risky in one goal lead. He gave the team a chance, but now those good grips are no longer remembered. Only this trace of Clara will remain in the fly community.
Nättinen points out that hockey players make mistakes, but it was one of the more expensive mistakes that have been seen for a moment. He sees the performance of the fly during modern hockey as one of the worst in relation to the efforts.
– This season has not fallen into Clara’s mistake. Oulu has been done for a long time, not just this season, but already in the 2020s a lot of wrong decisions in the coaching department, the club’s leadership and the Flyers have lost their grip as a big club.
A huge disappointment for the Pelicans
The last playoffs went to Sport and TPS, who each won their own matches. In particular, the encounter between the Pelicans and TPS provided tremendous excitement.
A couple of times, the Pelicans were even rising to the playoffs, but the team eventually fell into the Playout series against the Jukurs. The previous two silver teams were a big disappointment with the betting, with a player budget of about EUR 3 million.
– Pelicans’ idea was already wrong when the team started to build. After two silver, he rose to the hat and greedy: the Pelicans tried to force something more in the team, Nättinen estimates.
Nättinen can’t say if the Pelicans really went to find the Finnish championship or whether it wanted to establish its position as a big club. However, according to the expert, the biggest mistake was the newcomer coach Juhamatti Yli-Junnilan hiring.
– If you do such investments, you should not bring a newcomer coach.
– The Pelicans never brought up their potential. I don’t know if they deserve the last place last, but it’s not terribly far from their performance. From the point of view of the club’s existence, a really important series of Jukurs is now starting, Nättinen says and refers to the Pelicans financial situation.
Experienced SM league coaches shone
An interesting phenomenon can be seen in the SM League regular season investments. The top team’s team coaches have worked Tomi Lämsän, Tommi Niemelän, Ville Peltonen, Jouko Myrrän and Jarno Pikkarainen Likes like.
The teams 10-16, with the exception of TPS, started with inexperienced head coaches in the Finnish Champions League.
– JYP Johan Pennerborn Of course he was an experienced head coach, but he has not been in the Finnish Champions League. HPK Maso Lehtonen Had coached one season, but Sport, Pelicans, Jukuri and Kärpät went to the newcomer coaches. After all, that trend is pretty much the hard thing in that league standings.
Nättinen particularly ponders the choices of the Pelicans and Fly. Both invested a lot in their team.
– If you put 3-4 million in the team, the head coach must be one that can handle the pressures of the team and especially the betting.
– The newcomer coach has to deal with inadequacy, fear, anxiety and everything else. In addition, if there is external pressure from the club and the club, it is a cocktail that is not worth putting a newcomer coach.
The new system surprised positively
The SM League series system finally surprised. Before the start of the season, there were criticism from many directions, with as many as 12 teams joined the playoffs.
Eventually, the system provided tremendous excitement until the end, and no familiar players from last seasons were seen.
– Yes, this came as a surprise. I, too, criticize and wonder that there is a lot of differences in levels. In the end, the Jukuri was the only one who fell out of the sled.
According to the expert, before the start of the season, it was said that “playing” would reach the playoffs. However, this did not happen.
– Now the Flies and the Pelicans couldn’t get into the playoffs with such investments. The talk about gaming was completely forgotten, though of course the game gods and top teams helped. This was the second lowest score, which has won the regular season with a 60 -game system.
The winner of the point exchange was even uneven
The colorful regular season also offered a historical surprise when Sport’s defender Atro Leppänen He achieved the victory of the point exchange as the first defender in history. Leppänen made a score of 21+42 = 63 in the regular season.
– I think the value is raised by the fact that he won the points exchange on the team, which was ranked 11th. Although the overwhelming one has been good, he has not received any free points in the losing and middle -caste team, says Nättinen.
Nättinen also drew attention to the fact that Leppänen did not score any points in 27 matches.
– If I had made one point in those matches, he could have broken up to 70 points. In other words, despite the smaller unevenness, he was able to score such scores. It tells about his enormous potential.