The Ice Hockey Championship League said on Thursday that it will renew the playoffs for next season. In the future, instead of ten, 12 teams will qualify for the deciding games, the first four of which will advance directly to the quarterfinals.
In addition, the last two points of the regular season in the best-of-seven match series, the loser of which has to be eliminated against the winning team of Mestis.
Previously, the season of five teams ended with the regular season, but after the reforms, only two, although the series will grow to 16 teams as Kiekko-Espoo expands.
Sports Director of the SM League Jussi Markkanen says that the reform was aimed at attracting interest for spring.
– Everyone is of the opinion that the best hockey is played in the spring and we see that there is an order for it. We believe that the 12-team playoffs are a reasonable reform for this point.
According to Markkanen, the reform will not extend the season very much. The World Cup will start a little later in the future, so the SM League will have more time for matches than before.
Unfair?
Before the reform, the six best teams in the regular season avoided the first round of the playoffs, in the new system only four. At the same time, more and more teams advance to the playoffs.
If the finished season had been played with a renewed style, Jukurit, who finished fifth in the regular season, would have faced KooKoo, who finished 12th, in the opening round of the playoffs.
– It suddenly sounds a bit unfair, but in the big picture, I understand that the money is certainly on the cards for several clubs and the clubs need income. With such a compromise, there were now more betting games, the Jukurit conker Jesper Piitulainen says.
According to Piitulainen, the reform is a double-edged sword. The fight to get into the top four could get tougher.
– In the end, two teams get to the so-called jackpot place to end the season without betting games. For the rest, sequels have been invented.
– Each has its own side. When the league is growing, we certainly had to make some system reforms as well. I guess that’s not it, the gentlemen decide and the player plays.
Artificial?
Urheilu’s ice hockey expert Top Nättinen estimates that the reform slightly lowers the importance of the regular season for middle-class teams, because you don’t have to win every match to get to the next round.
– I don’t really know if it goes hand in hand with sportsmanship that 75 percent get to the playoffs, Nättinen says.
With the new rules, the fifth worst team in the regular season gets to the “playoffs”.
– After all, it’s kind of creepy. Of course, he finished sixth worst this season too, so the change is not massive. I would clearly like to see in top sports that there would be a big contribution in both the regular season and the playoffs.
On the other hand, according to Nättinen, the top teams will invest even more in the regular season in order to secure a place in the top four.
Despite the criticism, Nättinen estimates that the new system is a workable solution in a situation where the SM league wants to distribute money to as many of its participating clubs as possible.
– Yes, this is pretty close to where I would have ended up myself, but the problems are deeper.
– I don’t think there is a problem with the system itself, but the fact that the situation has been allowed to become such that there are 16 teams in the league, which means that we have to make such rather artificial solutions.
Where are the local games in the capital region?
There will also be changes to the regular season match schedules. The 60-match series is still based on a four-fold series model, punctuated by intermediate series.
The SM league team plays against others four times in the regular season. The exception is the teams of their own intermediate series, of which one team will meet six times, one team will meet four times and one team will meet twice. There used to be five intermediate series of three teams, next season there will be four, and each of them will have four teams.
The solution targets financially important local games. Part of Tappara’s training Juha Juujärvi was pleased that Tampere will see six Ilves local games in the coming season.
– The motivations for the reforms have certainly been financial well-being and security in the clubs, as well as increasing competition, Juujärvi, who heard about the reform in an interview with this story, estimates.
Topi Nättinen is surprised that the capital region’s teams HIFK and Kiekko-Espoo have not been placed in the same intermediate series. HIFK will face Kärpät, Kiekko-Espoo Jukurit six times in the regular season.
– I thought that the matches between HIFK and Kiekko-Espoo would be self-explanatory. It’s confusing that Kärpi is given HIFK three times. It is one of the largest and richest clubs in Finland. They don’t need those euros, says Nättinen.
Pressure on the stern
In the future, you can at least in principle drop out of the SM league if you lose the match series between the last two teams of the regular season (best of seven), and suffer a defeat in the qualifying series against the winner of Mesti.
According to Juha Juujärvi, the meeting with the jumbos of the regular season brings much-needed tension to the tail of the SM league.
– Nobody wants to qualify. If you lose, it’s not over yet. With that law, there has certainly been competition, says Juujärvi.
– This leaves the possibility that even if you are last in the regular season, you can still save yourself. When the Mestis champion is decided a little earlier, we get games for the league team, so that the qualification does not come after a break of weeks, says Topi Nättinen, on the other hand.
Promotion from Mesti to the SM League is still difficult, as the promotion candidate must meet the SM League’s strict license requirements by April 30.
Nättinen says that he is waiting for the qualifiers to return to the highest league level.
– In theory, it is possible that they won’t even be played if Mestis is won by a team that has no guarantees or chances. If there is a team that can play from the rise, of course it will be of interest. It is a historical story with threat and opportunity.