The historical hockey Olympic gold of the Finnish men’s hockey national team was confirmed early Sunday morning Finnish time. The achievement has been celebrated all over Finland ever since the buzzer was played at the Beijing National Indoor Arena to end the match.
The head coach has been deservedly praised for the championship Jukka Jalostawhich has created a recipe for success for Finnish hockey.
In order to implement the recipe, Jalonen needs the right kind of individuals, which seems to be found in Finland. Behind the hottest sharpest point in the NHL is a slew of top hockey players who have celebrated World Championships and Olympic gold in recent years.
Lions, who played excellent hockey at the Beijing Olympics, is an experienced team whose youngest players were born in the mid-1990s. Coincidentally, the team’s two youngest players, representing Avangard Omsk in KHL Ville Pokka (b. 1994) and the Jokers of Helsinki Hannes Björninen (b. 1995) hit Finland’s two winning goals in the final against a team from the Russian Olympic Committee.
In addition to experience, lions are united by versatility, but they have grown into hockey players mainly in southern Finland and on the west coast. The Jyväskylä JYP has the most puppies in the recent Olympic winners. Sami Vatanen, Joonas Nättinen and Harri Pesonen.
Most debuts in the Finnish Championship League have been made in Kärpi, Oulu. In the colors of the people of Oulu, they have made their debut at the league level Atte OhtamaaVille Pokka, Sakari Manninen and Saku Mäenalanen.
Some of the players have played in the ranks of one club throughout their junior time. Others, on the other hand, have moved to a new city, switching from their small home club to a larger one, where they have made their men’s series debut.
The duo, who have just scored in the finals, come from very different puck environments, for example. Hannes Björninen has grown up in Lahti.
Instead, Ville Pokka, who represented the IHC of Tornio until C-Juniors, has played on the same team with his parents for a year to get competitive games for himself. Instead of traveling to more southern Finland, TIHC has played against the juniors of Luleå IF, Skellefteå AIK and other Swedish clubs in addition to the region of Meri-Lapland and Northern Ostrobothnia.
Better to build on a good foundation
In Tornio, the Olympic final was tense in front of two players. Both Pokka and the striker Saku Mäenalanen were born in a border town. However, the medal grabbed by Poka for the local junior club was a big deal, as the defender’s game number has been frozen at the roof of the Hannulanmäki ice rink.
Poka’s former coach Petri Kauppila tells Sports he is especially proud of his former player. The long-distance hockey man who coached Pokka from the age of about ten until he moved to Kärpp in Oulu describes Finland’s first Olympic gold as meaning a lot to him as well. The presence of a Tornio employee adds “extrabust” to the issue.
– Yes, Ville’s paint raised his mood even more. At the same time, hopes arose that he would become an even greater hero if he shot even another empty one. It didn’t happen now, but it’s good, Kauppila throws.
According to Kauppila, the 27-year-old defender has used his strength above all his childhood, which is still reflected in the field in Leijon. The good aspects of Poka are emphasized by the high-quality game reading skills.
– When I started coaching his team, he was involved, but there in the “etc.” group. So not kind of stand out from the crowd, especially when playing with parents. But quickly he just started to stand out from the crowd, Kauppila describes.
– There has always been a clear difference in his game eye and vision. It is inherent and more difficult to teach. He has built his skating and puck handling on it.
Kauppila says that in his opinion, Pokka is very similar in nature to what he looks like to the outside world. The smiling tower man is the easy going and happy guy. That’s one thing that makes him a good individual, but also a good coach.
A small community puck as a family affair
Junior head of the PI Breeders’ Association TIHC Niko Nalli believes that disc farms in Meri-Lapland are ideally placed to have an impact. In addition to Oulu, there are large disco locations behind the western border of the republic.
– We have Luleå, Skellefteå and the Oulu region. We are rich in that we get to play on both sides of the border. I think Ville also sees that he has also played on the Swedish side as a junior, playing there when it’s a little different.
The so-called “Meänmaan model” offers juniors influences from both Finland and Sweden. For example, Edmonton Oilers from Tornio Jesse Puljujärvi has been able to experience this effect.
Poka’s family is also strongly attached to Hockey in Tornio. Ville’s brothers have carried the club’s representative team and are now the big brother Tomi Pokka can also be found as an assistant coach behind the team bench.
Hockey is a family affair that TIHC club employees are also proud of. The club of about three hundred puck juniors plays an important role for the locals.
– Ville has also been running a puck camp for our juniors. Of course, everyone in Tornio is proud of what kind of player and type he is. He may not enjoy scoring statistics, but his style of play is worth its weight in gold for a team like Finland now, Nalli says expertly.
A small or large breeders’ association?
On Monday, one of Finland’s largest hockey clubs, Lahti JuniorPelicans, spent time researching old seasonal publications and team photos. Executive Director of the Society Ari Suomalainen says that Hannes Björninen ‘s winning goal gave cause for a good remembrance of the old.
– For example, in addition to old player and team photos, we found an interview with Hannes in our annual puck book, where he was just a young man knocking on the gates of a league team. The goal in that interview was not Olympic gold, but playing in the NHL instead, Suomalainen says with a laugh.
– Still, no one could have known that he had already achieved so much at this point. Although he has shown clear planning and determination since he was young.
With more than 1,300 players, the turquoise Lahti club is more than four times larger than Poka’s breeders’ club. Its founding clubs have a total of six clubs, of which Björninen’s breeders’ club Kiekkoreipas is one. However, CEO Suomalainen does not see the difference between whether a player grows in a large or small club today.
– If we look at the development since the beginning of the 21st century, then with the increase in the number of ice rinks, the number of players in small localities also increased. There was good work done and players could get maybe more playing time than in larger clubs.
– With the support of coaches and skill coaches created by the Hockey Association, an umbrella club system has developed in which smaller clubs are part of larger clubs. Through that, everyone is in a good position for coaching. Coaching teachings are evenly distributed everywhere, which is why I don’t see the difference between starting with a small or a large company, Suomalainen ponders.
The difference only arises when we start striving for harder league levels, when the championship series played by the teams of larger clubs act as temptations.
The last start said it all
For a single player, many things decide. As part of the team’s father coaches, team leaders and guardians born in 1995, Vesa Parikka recalls that in Björninen ‘s interest and fire in self – development has been present since childhood.
– He had a passion for learning from the time we formed our team. He may not always have been the best, but at least very hard to try. The interest has been fierce and I think it has come from within the family as well, Parikka estimates.
Hard work and a desire to learn have been reflected, for example, in Björninen’s efforts to develop his weaknesses. The adequacy of Björninen’s skating, which was skated with juniors in the junior skies, has been questioned even after his debut in the Finnish Championship. The Lahti resident has continued to work to improve his mobility, which has brought him even further.
Even in the Björnist family, hockey has been close to my heart. The only Finnish champion in the family is Hannes’ big brother Anton, who was bringing the Pelicans A-youth to the Finnish Championship gold in the 2006-07 season.
According to Parika, the entire Finnish team was characterized by a similar blowing of coal, for example from Björn.
– Although Rene Fasel another claimed that the game was good and under Finnish control. It was also nice that Hannes scored a goal and fed one, and was also involved in the Russian goal from the ice rink, he starts.
– Better than those power points, I think “Hanua” was described as the moment when, in the last start, he blocked a Russian goal-scoring attempt by holding ten seconds on the puck while his opponents fisted him, Parikka describes Björninen’s will to win.
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Three reasons why Finland won the Olympic gold hockey gold – “Jukka Jalonen took the Russian head coach 100-0”
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