The ice hockey round will be heard next time on Wednesday at 18:02 live on Areena and Radio Finland.
The makers of Jääkiekkokierros made shocking revelations on Saturday’s broadcast, when the superstitions of SM league players were discussed.
Expert Top Nättinen admitted to having been crazier than average when it came to superstitions in his career. He told a story from his Mestis years in Jyväskylä.
– I then illogically went even further from home to the store. I wanted to go to a certain store to buy snacks. I bought pilts (fruit and berry purees), i.e. baby food. I’m allergic to all fruit so I had to have it. There had to be a certain number of those pilts, three pieces and a queen color, Nättinen recalled.
Even before entering the store, the car always had to be parked in a certain place. If not in the same box now, then in the next one. Of course, the place was chosen further away from the store so that there would not always be a car ready.
I had to leave home almost exactly to the minute. If it was supposed to be at the ice rink at 16:45, Nättinen had gone to the store between 16:12 and 16:15.
You always had to go through the store in the same order. When Nättinen got to the puree shelf, you always had to act the same way.
– There were always five pilts in a row. I always took them with me from the left side, as the goalkeeper usually has a shield hand on that side. I was a lefty player. When I shot the puck straight forward to the top corner, it went to the shield side. I then took three pilts from the shield side and the same route all the way to the checkout, Nättinen described.
The prejudice about Sami Helenius was broken
About the announcers of the puck round Simo Leinonen in turn shared another Kiekkokierros expert Jesse Saarinen the narrative. Saarinen had recalled becoming known as a scrappy defender Sami from Helenius. Helenius is remembered for his hockey career as a physical defender, actually even a “fist hero”.
– According to reports, Helenius always spoke to his bat in the changing room and even in English. “Be good to me” and “Daddy loves you”. Helenius turned the stick around and kissed the shoulder and then back to the ice, Leinonen shattered the stereotypes related to Helenius.
Topi Nättinen described that the difference between superstitions and routines is often blurred. Commentator Jari Haapala has been able to witness one such case in Kouvola. Czech-American Nick Malik played in three completed seasons in KooKoo. Especially in the first two seasons, Malik excelled as a goalkeeper coach Kari Lehtonen under.
Lehtonen had described Maliki as truly special, and not at all a Finnish “basic jantter”. Malik had had a lot of peculiar stories, but as a narrator, Haapala had seen some of them in public when he arrived at the hall on time.
– Malik was on the ice wearing civilians. He had a goalie’s stick and puck. He threw the puck up and tried to catch the puck on his shoulder. For another thing, he bounced the puck with the stick and was always trying to set a new record. This was before he started putting on his gear, Haapala said.
– When the teams came to warm up, Malik did not accept any bets. When the players went to bomb, Malik wasn’t there. In rotation practice, he took a few shots and then walked away. Malik was then in front of the substitution box and stared at what the opponent was doing. Lehtonen didn’t interfere because the puck caught perfectly.
Malik had a rocky last season with KooKoo, but has now started the season strongly in the Czech Premier League in Plzen. After two matches, the save percentage is strong: 95.7.
Quite a blacksmith and a strange question from a club legend
Goalkeepers often have their own special habits, but Kiekkokierros’ commentator Juha Järvenpää tried to be as little superstitious as possible in his own goalkeeping career. However, during nine seasons and 190 SM league matches, Järvenpää saw everything.
Järvenpää remembers his playing years at Kouvola Frédéric Cloutierthe Italian-Canadian goalkeeper who knocked on the NHL’s gates and played in the North American minor leagues for a long time.
– Before going on the ice, he used to spray some miracle myrrh and saffron from two different spray bottles. He sniffed them and let them settle on him. Then he did the same thing again, Järvenpää said.
In addition, Cloutier used a marker with a black cap when preparing for games.
– He took it in his right hand between the thumb and forefinger. He moved the marker about twenty centimeters away from his face from left to right and up and down. He followed the marker with his eyes. That lasted half a minute. Cloutier was quite a blacksmith to hustle, Järvenpää described.
The Ässien was also inspired to remember the club legend Pasi Peltonen routines. Järvenpää had come across them in his first games with the Ässie SM league team on the bench.
– Peltonen asked me what time it was. I wonder what it is. The game started at half past seven. Now there is another batch going. It could be half past eight. Peltonen wondered again what time it was. I replied that I don’t know. Let’s go to another round. I guess it could be half past eight. It could be more, Järvenpää told.
At the same time, Järvenpää’s peer Jesse Jyrkkiö had giggled on the other side of Peltonen on the bench. Järvenpää had no idea about Peltonen’s routines.
– After a little arguing, I realized that Peltonen meant to ask how much of the batch is left. I answered that three and a half minutes. When we went to the booth during the set break, Jesse held back his laughter. Jesse said that Peltos has a lot of routines. One of them was that he never looks at the board. He always asked others, there is a lot of game left, Järvenpää laughed.
Topi Nättinen culminated his memoirs into one “citizen’s report” about an unnamed player.
– When he has left his home and there have been fringes in the carpet, they have been combed. The fringes haven’t been anything like that. According to rumors, the same guy has put the boards with a cotton pass right before he goes into the game, Nättinen threw.
Why on earth do SC league players even have superstitions that seem insane? Nättinen has a comparison to everyone’s everyday life. Nättinen reminds us that everyone definitely has routines.
– After all, most people in the world wake up in the morning and do relatively the same things and in the same order. It’s a time and energy saver that you don’t have to think about what you’re doing every time, Nättinen says and reminds us of the same logic in sports.
– You have to focus on performance. Even in ice hockey, you have to think about a lot of things from the point of view of the individual and the team. First, the athlete facilitates his own process with routines. Frostings are made on top of it.