Expert Top Nättinen considers JYP’s communication about coach firings to be a serious failure. Honesty and transparency have been missing. JYP club boss Jukka Seppänen56, has been at the center of events that have caused confusion.
– The first comments should not come from the principal owner and the chairman of the board. The head coach Mikko Heiskanen it is clear from his performance that he has had no support of any kind from within the club and he has not been instructed. He hadn’t prepared himself for it. Sports director Mikko Viitanen should have supported the rookie head coach, Topi Nättinen reflects.
Nättinen sees that the Jyväskylä team has shown Jukka Rautakorvin and Ville Nieminen in connection with coach firings, that its sense of reality is blurred and it forgets the meaning and importance of the most important pillars of hockey.
At the time of Rautakorvi’s kicks, JYP was sixth in the series based on point average, which is a tough achievement for a small club in the hockey league. In the era of Heiskanen, who was promoted from the position of the team coach to the responsible pilot, JYP has lost all seven of its games and the ranking has fallen to 14th.
– It’s confusing that JYP’s strengths seem to be being forgotten now. When the club is doing badly, the club boss Seppänen talks to the media about hockey without a place to play, the advanced statistics (how the team performs on even playing field) and the fact that during Rautakorvi’s coaching period, the team was only at a point per game pace in the last 12 games, Nättinen wonders.
“We underestimate winning, we underestimate the result”
Topi Nättinen underlines that the keys to success in hockey are still special situations, goaltending and the fact that the top players beat the opponent’s top players. These things are used to win the most important games of the spring, and they cannot be ruled out, even though the JYP club management is doing this with practical measures.
– Goalkeeper game (Wine Vehviläinen) is the world’s single most important player issue in ice hockey and 33 percent of the SM league goals come from force majeure. JYP had these things in order during Rautakorvi’s coaching period, although the goalkeeping could have been even better in my opinion. The club’s top pack (Sami Niku) and two key forwards (Jerry Turkulainen, Reid Gardiner) have been in the top ten of the points exchange of the SM league practically the entire season.
The expert is surprised that the JYP club management brings up Seppänen’s (weak) five-on-five playing (advanced statistics) in a big way, even though the club was at a good pace according to all other important indicators, including in the opinion of the club boss himself.
– I think this is a nullification of hockey’s legality. At the same time, winning is underestimated and the importance of the result is underestimated. We want the game to be in accordance with the strategy and look like something (hockey without a place to play). You can’t win the Canada cup with any advanced statistics!
– I have never come across something like this in my long hockey career. Seppänen’s statements are the most confusing hockey statements I’ve ever heard in the sport, Nättinen spins his head.
Tommi Hämäläinen is an idea junkie
Topi Nättinen points out that despite the dismissals, the club boss thanked Jukka Rautakorven for bringing the daily level of demands, training culture and sportsmanship to JYP.
– In my understanding and experience, the things mentioned above, i.e. everyday, everyday and once again everyday, are the basis of everything in this sport. But even that was apparently not enough for Seppänen.
– There is even a question in the whole sopa, whether Jukka Seppänen is disappointed with the way JYP played in the championship years 2009 and 2012. That was it Risto Dufvan and Jyrki Ahon nihilistic trap hockey and its golden age, where risks were avoided until the last.
According to ‘s puck expert, the JYP club boss’s comments are not spur of the moment. He has not previously spoken about the way he plays, until last spring he brought the matter to the public for the first time in Keskifinomali.
Nättinen is sure that someone has “fed” the club management an outline of a way of playing without a place to play.
– In this context, it is necessary to highlight the assistant coach of JYP Tommi Hämäläinen name. From what I’ve talked to people close to the club, he is clearly behind this playful ideology of JYP. I believe he “sold” this “modern way of playing” first to the club’s juniors and their coaches, and then also to the club management.
According to Nättinen’s information, he coaches JYP’s A-juniors Antti Turunen is no longer allowed to continue in his position after this season, even though he has implemented the desired way of playing and the club is currently leading the U20 age group SM series.
– If you think of a professional team, then its number one task is to win in practice and make a result. The result sells season tickets and brings people to the hall, which brings in money and sponsors. A good result attracts good workers. It is not a good thing if this is forgotten and we only talk about the way of playing, and if we start talking about it through the mouth of the chairman of the board to the media.
The gameplay is the spice
In Nättinen’s opinion, the way of playing is also an important thing, but it will first be introduced calmly, with small steps in the juniors to the core of the club.
– JYP has been really deep lately compared to the 2010s. For that, the first thing would be to succeed and create a solid footing properly. Fix the economy and attract players. The gameplay is then a spice to how the game looks. Nättinen knows that it doesn’t matter to the supporters how the game looks in the end games, as long as there are wins.
The club’s boss, Seppänen, has pointed out himself that he has been involved in ice hockey for 25 years and has seen 1,600 games of the club he owns.
– It seems strange that you justify your own authority by having watched something a lot. Especially if you are focused on just one club. It doesn’t make me a film and music professional either, even though I’ve seen 1,600 movies and listened to 1,600 songs.
Nättinen sums up JYP’s latest turn, where the club management completely involved outside fans.
– This is exploitation of supporters and really unfair. First, they are “directed” to prepare a statement and then it is denied that the conclusions drawn by the fans were not said.
The expert thinks that Jukka Seppänen has taken on too big a role for himself in connection with the coaching dismissals. Paikallislehti Keskisuomainen’s barking does not brighten the club’s image either.
– After Seppänen’s statements, it seems that the people who are in decision-making positions in JYP are not up to date. They are as if in their own bubble, Topi Nättinen estimates.