The opening round of the season starts on Tuesday, September 10 at 18:30. follows events on its website. You can listen to the start of the season starting at 18:00 on the Ice Hockey Tour from Areena via this link.
Too many teams. Too few good players.
The level differences between the clubs in terms of games and finances are crushingly big.
The series of other countries (Switzerland, Sweden, Czech Republic, Germany) ran away to a long lead.
And so on.
Finland’s only fully professional league, the hockey SM league, is facing enormous challenges. Concern about the state of the dominant sport is justified in many ways.
But.
This fall, something will happen that could at best be the beginning of something big.
The line of referees in the SM league is changing significantly.
Holding on and blocking will be eradicated in an unprecedented way. Or at least that’s what was planned before the start of the season.
At this point, someone might – understandably – ask that what the heck does any change in the line of referees have to do with the appeal and competitiveness of the SM League.
The answer is to trigger a big cliché from the keyboard: if the product is in order, the business will be better.
For far too long, the SM league’s game product description contained ingredients that killed the most interesting factors on the rink, i.e. skill and speed. The ingredients that tasted bad, even poisonous, were the aforementioned blocking and holding back. They made the game at worst static hanging and wrestling.
If the line chosen now holds, it will change the main league of men’s hockey even to a confusing extent.
Not a goal blocking game, but a scoring game
The game becomes faster. Skating, the number one thing in the evolution of hockey, will rise to the role it deserves.
The new policies are guaranteed to please the players. Or at least those who want to develop. In the NHL, the importance of skating skills is emphasized more and more every year.
If the SM League becomes a series where the pace accelerates and skill players can shine, it will be an attractive option as a career springboard towards the dream that exists in North America. The background groups of young players aiming for the NHL are really specific about what kind of environment the future stars of the sport will grow up in.
In addition to rule interpretations, one attractive factor in the future will hopefully be the promising example of last season: you can succeed in Finland with brave and attacking winning play.
Rikard Grönborg became Tappara’s head coach a year ago and showed with lightning speed that Härmä no longer needs to desperately rely on sleepy late starts and frequent mid-range thrashing.
Not a goal blocking game, but a scoring game. That’s what people want to see. Tappara’s hugely increased audience numbers in the last season underscored the importance of the game’s entertainment value.
Grönborg also repeatedly criticized the “liana hockey”, where the opponent could be blocked, even caught with two hands without fear of getting cold.
Now, hopefully, we will get rid of it once and for all. A bit in the same way as the handle hockey of the previous decades. No one has asked for that either.
A reason to celebrate if the chosen line holds
Releasing the skill from the binding paste is also a treat for the spectators. Or which would you rather pay to watch: the tearing and hanging in the corner of the rink or the smooth-flowing, action-packed game?
It’s also worth remembering that rule interpretations by no means mean that you shouldn’t fight on league ice. Fighting play is an integral part of hockey. Referee Director Jyri Rönn put it succinctly. According to him, it is now a question of understanding that the struggle takes place body against body, not by grabbing with the hand.
However, all reforms always require time. At the beginning of this season, those who follow the SM league have to repeatedly look at the head referee’s hand. It is almost certain that it will take some time for players to unlearn old habits. At least for those whose skating speed or skill is not enough to play modern hockey.
But now you just have to push through that phase. Even if sometimes the game is just about overpowering and underpowering.
The fresh interpretations of the rules can really be the start of SM League being able to seriously compete with other European hockey leagues in the future.
Admittedly, that would require, in addition to a renewed line of judges and saying goodbye to delayed starts, but also, among other things, a considerable reduction in the number of teams, secondly, revitalizing the highest league level – and in the bigger picture, fixing the numerous pain points of the entire sport.
But those are the subjects of the second or third comment.
Either way, the much-maligned home league has at least one reason to celebrate. If the chosen line lasts the whole season.
The opening round of the league at Areena on Tuesday 10.9. at 18:00. From then on, Ice Hockey Rounds throughout the season on Wednesdays on Radio Finland and on Fridays and Saturdays at Areena.