Valtteri Filppula, 40, who is the only Finn to belong to ice hockey’s prestigious triple club, returned to his home rinks on Tuesday – as the captain of the Jokers in Mesti.
Timo Uusitalo,
Jussi Saarinen
17.9. 18:52•Updated 17.9. 19:33
Valtteri Filppula joined the rare “three gold hockey team” in spring 2022. At that time, he became the first Finn ever to win the Stanley Cup, the Olympic gold and the world championship in his career.
On Tuesday, the eyes turned to Filppula, who returned to the Joker’s shirt in the Helsinki ice rink, who started the match in the first line on his wings Emil Kuusla and Samuel Salonen.
The last time Filppula played for the Nordis was during the NHL lockout, at the end of 2012 in the HIFK–Jokerit match. During the lockout, Filppula represented the Jokeris in 16 matches, where he collected 15 power-play marks.
– Expectations are high, because I haven’t played for Mest and there aren’t any training games either. Of course, it’s better to play than to train, so the feelings are good in that sense as well, Filppula said in advance.
At the same time, the match was also a coach’s victory Risto Dufvan the first behind the bench of the Jokers.
Jokerit beat the Turku club with a score of 5–0. Filppula completed a beautiful 2-0 goal from the drive at the beginning of the second set.
“One of the most important seasons of Jokers”
Urheilu met the Tuto match before the Jokeri fan Ville Pyöttiälän.
– Of course, I expect Valtteri Filppula to be the leading star of the Jokers – a prime mover who with his own contribution can solve games and lead the team towards the inevitable, i.e. the Mestis championship and the Jokers promotion to the SM league.
There were some rumors about Filppula’s return to the Jokers in the summer, but Pyöttiälä, for example, at least didn’t believe it until it became concrete.
– I calmed down my thoughts for the summer and didn’t even want to think about the whole thing. I couldn’t believe it, I really had to see the press conference before I believed it was true.
The most die-hard and loyal Jokeri fans know that the rise is the only thing that catches the eye.
– This can’t be put into words other than that one of the most important seasons in the history of the Jokeris is about to begin, if not the most important. It really takes a lot to rise, both luck and skill and above all wins, Pyöttiälä knows.
The Jokerit caused a bit of a stir right away in their opening home game of the season against Tuto Hockey, because Mestis’ winning club unexpectedly hid Helsinki IFK’s championship pennants and frozen shirts from the public at the Helsinki ice hall, i.e. Nordis.