The Hockey League playoffs and Aurora League finals will start on Tuesday 18.3. The matches can be listened to in EPN’s hockey round starting at 6.10 pm.
If you listen solely to SaiPa’s head coach Raimo Helminen Comments from the upcoming TPS series, you may think that the Lappeenranta group, which has been fifth in the series, would be a significant underdog in the series.
– Really dangerous team. We lost last game with 6-0 tennis readings. We have a little weighing to improve. Very tough resistance, skillful and experienced players in defense. A big site is ahead, Helminen tells Sports.
But you are clearly pre -favorites?
– Well, probably not.
Are.
– There are no pre -favorites, but yes we try to put it in the knife.
61-year-old Raimo Helminen has got SaiPa on a fierce flight this season. Although the sensation of the season was dramatically over the last moments of the four, Helminen did not feel annoyance.
– It wasn’t a disappointment. SaiPa was fifth and it was a really good investment for SaiPa, Helminen acknowledged with a smile.
“Raipe” cultivated short sentences in his familiar style. This time, however, the legend seemed more liberated than before: in several places, the Helminen’s mouths stretched to a smile.
Helminen even laughs when asked about the theses he has emphasized during the season. Already in the fall, the Finnish Champions League released an exceptional video of Helm, where the legend was psyching his team with great energy.
For example, the difference was great for press conferences where Helminen has performed very calmly.
– Don’t just remove any gas. We don’t have to force this game at all. We are just ground, ground and ground, Helminen roasted in the locker room.
Are there any new spices now?
– Well, let’s try to come as wide as possible and play a good hockey, Helminen smiles.
The head coach of Kiekko-Espoo, who has exceeded expectations during the season, also Jyrki Aho There was also a relaxed mood at a press conference.
Aho was even so relaxed that he forgot his assistant coach in the middle of the interview Tomas Westerlund When I talked about the top guard of the showtime nickname Petteri Rimpinen.
– Showtime has been good and the opponent has a goalkeeper too. After all, it is the goal of the goalkeeper to fight the discs, Aho begins.
– That’s what our goalkeeper coach Tomas Westerlund … not when he is not our goalkeeper coach. Tomas simplifies things and says it is the goalkeeper to fight the puck, and he always stumbles on to Petsku. When one goal goes, he says he didn’t reject everyone, Aho carved with a smile.
Aho takes a 1st round opponent with respect for Tappara. He often says he said how nice it would be if, one day, the puck-Espoo was a similar club that would always be able to struggle with championship battles.
– Whether it is suitable for us or does not fit, I will answer more in a week more than what has been invented and what has happened. It’s nice, however, that we can start in Espoo. I wish the cottage would be full a couple of times or three, if necessary, Aho says.
Both Aho and Helminen have been delighted how clubs’ fan products have been seen on people in the city. Aho says that the difference in the street scene is significant, for example, for Blues years.
Aho recalls that the next step is how the big deal is for Espoo and Espoo.
– I believe it’s a big deal, but now we measure how people arrive in the hall. I wish it was a big deal.
The head coach also recognizes that the reachable of the Kiekko-Espoo as a series as a series was not obvious.
– It is not obvious to anyone to play the playoffs. A few teams play playouts, after that someone is pruning and something ended in the season. You have to be able to appreciate it and grab it.
“These are a bit of phrases, but these phrases become a little more real as they get older,” Aho still carries a smile on his lips.
Jussi Paasi and Topi Nättinen belong to the standard sound of EPN’s hockey round. The hockey round follows the Finnish Championship playoffs from start to finish in Arena and on Wednesdays Radio Finland.