TAMPERE.
Consequentialism is often considered a lost tradition in domestic ice hockey.
At least it’s not completely that, Tuesday’s SM league match in Tampere was the latest example of that. In the match against HPK, Ilves raised Eemeli Finland already played his 500th match in the club’s shirt.
Suomi, who spent his childhood in Lempäälä, has played one match for Mest in the Lempäälä Kisa as an adult, but otherwise only represented his parent club.
Only one of the active players representing a league club has reached the club of 500, in addition to Finland, Kärppien Atte Ohtamaaof HIFK Micke-Max Åsten and Tappara captain Otto Rauhala.
In continuation of the list below, Finland joined on Tuesday evening:
Finland is on its way to becoming one of the many legends of the famous 93-year-old club. Although the winger is only 28 years old, this already ranks fourth in the club’s all-time match statistics.
At the beginning of November, Finland rises Juha Järvenpää over to third place and in December Vesa Viitakoski over to second place.
Only the one who played 750 matches in the club, perhaps the greatest of the club legends, remains ahead. Raimo Helminen.
– I haven’t even given it much thought. It just feels like time has passed quickly and that there is more ahead than behind. Haven’t even had time to think of something like this, Suomi set the mood and thanked the supporters who stood and showed their support after the break of Tuesday’s match.
Hand in hand – Finland and Ilves
Finland debuted in the SM league in the 2015–2016 season. He scored 14 power points in his opening season.
Suomi became Ilves’ captain in the fall of 2018. The previous year, he had surpassed the 40-point mark in one season for the first time.
Finland’s journey to becoming a club icon is interesting, because nothing has come easy to the skilful and powerfully built winger. This may be forgotten if you think about the current level of the player.
With the exception of one injury-delayed season, Finland has been among the top ten in the SM league points market for the previous five years.
However, Finland has not risen to the league’s elite via the traditional route.
– He has not passed a gold spoon in his mouth through the junior national team pipeline and NHL booking, the KooKoo pilot who has coached Finland for more than ten years in juniors and in the league Joko Myrrä says to Urheilu.
Myrrä remembers how in the first year of the A-junnu Finland was at the bottom of the pile, when there was a jumping exercise. A year later, he was right at the top.
– When he moved to the SM league, the first year there was a bit of survival, but he has always had two sides: even when he was younger, he was an excellent gambler, besides which he has always been a really tough and persistent fighter, such a fighter.
Behind everything is a merciless amount of work.
– His tough nature can be seen in the way he has put in the work hours. The force started to catch up with him later, but if you bump into him now, it’s like running into concrete, Myrrä talks.
– When the others in the A-junnu stayed after training to play around and joke around, Finland went to the corner to protect the puck. Vainion’s Olli beat with a cross, push and shove, as much as he could. Even in that matter, he was ready to do something extra, which might not be so nice.
Finland and its breeders’ association have grown hand in hand in a great way.
When Finland started its league career in mid-September 2015 against Sport in a three-way series Joonas Riekkinen and Markus Jokinen aside, times in Ilves were different. The final result was 14th place in the fifteen-team series. A year later the ranking was 10th, two years later 11th.
In the era of Tampere’s new arena, Ilves has been among the champions’ favourites, a restrained and calm Finland as an individual to the national team level.
Myrrä sees the status of a Finnish club legend through the way he acts in everyday life and in games.
– The character of a competitor is how he has taken that club forward. He wants to win every situation and every match, and that’s more leadership than sulking in the booth.
– Eemeli does not present anything. He himself sometimes understood that the booth needs other men, contiolas, men and streamers, to hold a älämölö.
Finland unexpectedly gave up the captain’s position of trust in the summer of 2023 after serving in it for five seasons. Since then, Finland has acted as vice-captain.
– It was certainly a good solution. I can keep the idea in the basic work, so that it doesn’t run away too much into what other people do. That way, the basic work is a little easier, Suomi opens.
The growth of Finland and Ilves has also taken its toll. Ilves returned to the medal base two years ago by winning bronze and repeated the trick a year later, but the semi-final losses to TPS and Pelicans were huge disappointments for the club.
Especially in the spring of 2023, some of the club’s players were known to focus on secondary matters during the most important moments of the season.
The firing of Jouko Myrrä, which was personally upsetting for Finland, also fit in between.
Myrrä had coached Finland for a couple of seasons, except for a break from C-juniors.
– You can ask the club management why the dismissals came, a confused Suomi commented at the time Ilta-Sanom.
No championship
Finland captained Ilves to victory in the last local match at the legendary Hakametsä ice rink against Tappara in the fall of 2021.
Finland is already an Ilves club legend. Ilves returned to the medal base in the spring of 2022 after a 21-year break, not least thanks to Finland’s leadership.
Finland and Ilves don’t have time to stay and savor the milestones, because in the season that has started, the Ilves icon and his troops have only one goal that drives their activities day after day: Ilves should be returned to the championship position for the first time since the spring of 1985.
The pressure is not reduced by the fact that the neighboring club Tappara has since won no fewer than nine championships.
Suomi is a player whose jersey will probably still be hanging on the ceiling of the Tampere arena one day – and with these prospects fully deserved. So far, only one thing separates Finland from the current legends in the ceiling: the championship.
Finland’s contract with Ilves ends next summer, so the stakes are high in this regard as well.
Jouko Myrrä believes that Finland also has personal goals, like the national team and the World Cup, or in terms of playing abroad, but at the moment there can be no other goal than winning the championship.
– He also understands that there has been an excellent opportunity for that in recent years. That’s why it’s even more on the mind and would make winning even sweeter, Myrrä sees.
– Of course, it’s a big goal and dream, but you can’t miss it too much. Even more, you have to think one day at a time and just try to develop and improve your game. Agreement issues will be looked at when the time is right, Finland acknowledges.
HPK won Finland’s celebratory match in Tampere with a score of 4–1.