Puheen Ice Hockey Tour next time on Friday 16.9. from 6 p.m. Listen to the broadcast at this link.
Let’s try a little mind game.
Let’s pretend you love fast cars. So extremely fast.
One fine day, you’ll get to test the exact go-to game you’ve been craving. You get the Kies of your dreams in your hands on a track with no speed limits. You can do whatever you want with the car as long as you don’t hurt yourself.
Once in a while, there is a chance to tear it up properly. Still in permitted and safe conditions.
Do you do it? Do you want to feel G-forces, the charm of insane speed?
Or do you prefer calm acceleration, Sunday hustling, controlled corners and, finally, moderate pocket parking?
I’m guessing you’re flooring the gas.
I don’t own a car, and this kind of crawling comparison will certainly be tasteless to many during the climate crisis. But I hope it best describes what I’m trying to get at in this comment.
I would like to take the head coach of Oulu Kärppie Lauri Marjamäki and his colleague from Tappara in Tampere Jussi Tapolan to test what they would do in the situation described above.
I’m worried, even scared, that they wouldn’t dare or want – for whatever reason – to press the gas to the bottom, even if there was an abundance of horsepower and full-body euphoria on offer.
Jussi Paasi and expert Juha Juujärvi discussed the topic at Puhe’s Ice Hockey Tour. Listen to the best bits below. The story continues after the audio embedding.
Why am I worried?
Because Tapola and Marjamäki have the most daring puck games in domestic hockey in their hands. The teams boast skill, speed, experience, versatility and quality. Ax chests and beast shirts are cemented as the final pair of next spring in the estimations of almost every expert.
I’m afraid that the head coaches of the pre-favorites will still choose an extremely tightly controlled way of running the stick course. They do it because they know that’s the most likely way to get to the finish line as a winner.
Both pilots are known for their meticulously constructed gameplay, from which players are not allowed to deviate. You can ask, for example, the puck expert who represents Ilves today From Petri Kontiolaall of which Marjamäki forbade him to do in the rink when Kontiola played in the Jokers.
Slow and controlled brake play was already “enjoyed” in the first match of this season, when last season’s finalists Tappara and TPS opened the season. The people of Turku also seemed to have adopted Tappara’s clinical, sometimes even disgustingly realistic way of playing.
Top sport is all about winning. Both Tapola and Marjamäki have shown that Finnish championships can be won with their coaching driving skills. That will probably happen this season as well. Either of them will be elevated to the golden chair at the end of the season.
However, elite sports are also about entertainment. The public pays for it. And the audience is hungry for entertainment.
What does entertainment mean in hockey? What do viewers want for their money?
Winning is certainly entertaining, but is it enough if the game offers nothing to excite. If the final buzzer rings in a regular season game and the game has ended with the team winning, but the spectator did not experience anything memorable, has the product then offered the consumer what he definitely wants more of?
I would hope that Tapola, Marjamäki and the entire Finnish hockey team would look west. That is where the gas is pressed unhindered. And you don’t even have to look all the way to North America. In the Swedish hockey men’s main league, the SHL, the rink is run at full capacity.
When I watched the final series of the western neighbor last spring, I gasped on the verge of hyperventilation. It was going hard there. At most, the brake pedal was touched once in a while. It was amazing to see how even in the playoffs, at the most important moment of the season, the game can be of entertainment value of wild artillery, far from careful backup.
‘s expert Juha Juujärvi aptly summed up the difference in the Ice Hockey round: Sweden aims to maximize its own goal posts. In Finland, the aim is to minimize the opponent’s goal posts. There is quite a difference between pressing the gas and the brake.
Which does the paying public want to see?
So.
And if you ask the opinion of the players, the answer is clear: hockey players want to give back. They don’t want to pack up and wait for the opponent’s late starts in the middle area. Preparation and overflowing game tactics do not inspire players to present their best to the public.
This is also connected to perhaps the most essential question of the SM league: where can the famous new audience be found? How can the younger generation be attracted to the halls, who will buy tickets to the games or at least subscribe to the payment channel?
Are potential puck watchers in their teens or twenties interested in over-tactical and ultra-cautious play, even if it results in three points for the team in Wednesday night’s game? Expert Ismo Lehkonen in terms: “sterile teasing” is of no interest to anyone.
I claim that young consumers want emotion, speed, even dangerous situations, hecticness and speed – i.e. everything that they have grown up with all their lives in the rhythm of social media and numerous other fast-paced services. And of course, on top of that, a versatile offer outside of gaming events as well.
The event industry’s competition for people’s free time is heating up every year. The coaches are also responsible for selling the ice hockey product. At Lätkämatsi, you have to experience something from which the audience gets experiences.
Kärpi and Tappara could afford to do what many smaller clubs only dream of. In Oulu and Tampere, it would be possible to offer people the very best hockey entertainment. Shows why you should come to the hall. I believe that the G-forces of hockey would also produce enough results in the form of series points.
Fortunately, some small clubs dare to try. Mikkelin Jukurit, who unexpectedly rose to second place in the regular season last season, gave a handsome example of what daring and brave playing can lead to.
I ask, Mr. Tapola and Marjamäki, that this season you let the players do what they want and push your ride to such a speed that more and more spectators thirsting for experiences would jump on board. It would be a great service for the entire SM league. How good it would feel – from your, the audience’s, everyone’s point of view. What would it matter if a few regular season games ended in losses as long as the spectators were hyperventilating with their income.
Jussi and Lauri! Now gas, no brake!
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