HIFK is the giant of the Finnish Championship League, but the championship has still not been won in euros – sports director Salmelainen defends his player acquisitions

The semi-finals of the Finnish Championship League will continue with the match between Tappara and KooKoo on Thursday. Listen and follow the events here.

The culmination of the season in the Finnish Ice Hockey League is approaching, but the lights at the Helsinki Ice Rink have been off for a long time. HIFK once again left the season with high expectations, but the sky in the playoffs was unnecessarily short.

Ville Peltonen the first season as head coach of the HIFK hockey league team ended in bitter disappointment. HIFK bowed to TPS in the quarterfinals and missed out on medal games.

– Huge disappointment. We feel responsible for the fact that our goals were not achieved. The semi-finals in Turku was a miniature model for our entire season, Peltonen returned to a 1-3 loss, which sealed the end of the Helsinki season.

– We did not reach our goals, there is no question about that. Quite frankly, the season was not successful, I take great responsibility for it, Peltonen admitted in an interview with Sport.

Until Christmas, HIFK’s game was in the style of a favorite. As spring approached, the coronavirus ravaged the team with a hard hand and watered down the joint exercises.

– Our joint training almost ended. It’s really hard to get a level high enough without doing things together. The team spirit is killed by not being able to practice together, Peltonen repeated.

Peltonen believes that future winners will be matured through adversity.

– Demanding more equality and peace in doing our own thing. Everything comes through experience and hard work, no result comes easily. In this series, the skeins are so tight that everyone needs to be able to perform well, Peltonen emphasized.

From the graphs below, you can first see the evolution of HIFK’s player budget. You can then see how HIFK has been successful over the same period.

Sports Expert Topi Nättinen described HIFK ‘s disappointing season as confusing.

– I tried to find a certain continuity in playing HIFK throughout the season, but it seemed that the players and coaches were not on the same page on the tactical side, Nättinen commented.

– I didn’t really get what HIFK’s playful idea was. There was a lot of talk about values, but at least it never occurred to me what those values ​​really were, Nättinen asked.

HIFK’s dreams of success began to crumble even before the playoffs, when the first goalkeeper Michael Garteig was injured. Niilo Halonen had to fill an oversized box during the settlement stages of the season. According to the show, HIFK could have played its cards in another way as well.

– A club at the HIFK level cannot leave for the spring without a fallback option, however, when purchases were made. It remained a big question as to why they did this, Nättinen referred to the player acquisitions of Helsinki residents.

Nättinen raises the question of whether all of HIFK’s player acquisitions were justified.

– Did the acquisitions eat away at the team’s spirit when there was even too much competition for certain offensive spots?

With HIFK’s resources, the demands for success are tough. The pride of the stadium is expected to be at least the semi-finals every spring. However, the HIFK championship has been a rare treat. The latest championship is 11 years old, from spring 2011.

– The championship is a goal here every year, but this year it was badly in the barrel. Of course, I’m not very happy when the athletic result was so poor, HIFK’s sports director Tobias Salmelainen grant.

HIFK actively acquired attackers in the last meters of the SM League transfer window. According to Salmelainen, hitting the chips with the attackers was a completely conscious choice.

– One of our worst threats was that Korona would strike again. Now that we see how the rest of the season went, I thought it was justified to get four strikers. We always got the full lineup on the ice, it would not have been possible without the players we acquired, Salmelainen pointed out.

– The result was left in the barrel, but I am still proud of the amount of work everyone has done. Many players made their record points this season and played their best puck, Salmelainen notes.

According to Salmelainen, continuity is now being sought and no major changes are planned.

– I know none of us will forget this feeling of disappointment. We will use force for this next season, the starting point for next season is better.

Topi Nättinen estimates that HIFK made a bold decision when hiring Ville Peltonen as head coach. But now that Peltonen is at the helm, the company should have enough temperance to look further into the future.

– Of course, it is now easy to say that Peltonen was not the right choice as head coach, at least in terms of results. But I feel that now that he has been selected for the job, he will be given time to train, Nättinen said.

– Many clubs are committed to projects that think about things over a longer period of time. I would also like HIFK to have continuity in both players and coaching, Nättinen continued.

Salmelainen reminds that head coach Peltonen got into the crown of the corona in the spring and was on the sidelines for most of the playoffs. Therefore, his success is difficult to judge.

– Peltonen was sidelined from five playoff games due to the corona, a terrible situation for the head coach. We saw a very good puck from the team this season, but we didn’t make the game work for the entire season, Salmelainen summed up.

Thanks to its large player budget, HIFK is in a positive situation for the future. It is able to compete for players better than many other league clubs.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will revolutionize the European player market as a large number of high-level players are released from KHL.

– KHL is completely dead in my own eyes and probably in the eyes of most players. There are really a lot of foreign players being released in Europe, and excellent players are also available in Finland, Salmelainen sees.