Rauman Lukko has fired his head coach Marko Virtase. Tomi Lämsä’s contract is for two years.
Rauman Lukko, who lost to HIFK in the quarterfinals of the SM League, has fired his head coach To Marko Virtase.
Still in November 2022 Lock announced (you switch to another service), that Virtanen’s contract has been extended to the next season. Virtanen, 54, started as Luko’s head coach in the 2021–2022 season. In the previous season, Lukko had won the championship.
Virtanen’s replacement is Tomi Lämsa, 43, who has worked as the head coach of the Young Lions, that is, the national team under the age of 20. Before that, Lämsä coached Ufa in the KHL as an assistant coach and two seasons as head coach.
Lämsä’s contract with the team from Rauma covers the seasons 2023–25.
– Things progressed quickly and we soon found common ground with Luko. What I am Kalle Sahlstedt (Lukko’s sports director) has been in contact with national team affairs before, so the club’s personnel side is really competent and the team is close-knit, says Lämsä In the lock announcement (you switch to another service).
– Good things have been done in Luka for a long time: there have been good head coaches and there are good people in the club management who have built the club in such a way that success is possible. Above all, I want to continue that well-done work and bring my personality and skills to bear.
Luko’s team training starts on Tuesday. Lämsä says that he got to experience the workday of an extremely tough hockey league in the KHL and top-level international play with the U20 national team.
– I would say that from the experiences of the last few years, the things that I think ice hockey is going towards at a high speed are currently coming into my own game thinking. Through that, maybe we can find a competitive advantage, which the League doesn’t necessarily have, Lämsä says in the press release.
Lukko says in the press release that the change of coach became timely because the performances of the team, which finished third in the regular season, did not meet the expectations of the club and sports management in the end of the season.
Managing director Jukka Kunnas explained that after the end of the season, a three-week interview and analysis process was carried out in Luko, during which both players, coaches and officials were interviewed.
– During the last two seasons, we didn’t get out of the team all the potential that we knew the team had, based on the fact that both seasons contained long and excellent periods.
Sahlstedt felt that it is best for the team to start under a new head coach.
– Ending up with a coach change in the middle of the contract period is painful. However, in addition to the head coach, the responsibility for the result lies with the players and especially the sports director. I myself have also made mistakes in my own role and I should have been able to do better in many things. A big thank you to “Veltsu” on my behalf for the good cooperation during these years.