JYP has risen above the playoff line in the SM League. Injuries have been the team’s scramble.
30.1. 19: 53 • Updated 30.1. 19:54
JYP has played in the Finnish Champions League playoffs last spring 2019. Then the road was up in the first round.
In the spring of 2020, JYP would have played again in the playoffs, but at that time the corona pandemia interrupted the regular season.
So six years have passed since the last experience of the playoffs has been experienced in Jyväskylä. This spring there is a chance again. JYP’s early year has been excellent and the team has risen slightly above the playoff line.
Vainio’s injury scared
JYP has suffered injuries this season. Important players have been on the sidelines for weeks, some for up to months.
One of the injured is an experienced defender and a team’s deputy captain Juuso Vainio. He got a concussion in a home game in October. Eventually, the ambulance applied for Vainio from the ice to the hospital.
– I remember it when I was in an ambulance. I don’t remember anything about the situation myself, Vainio says.
Vainio was on the sidelines for two months. The worst thing was uncertainty. The concussion was not the first career.
– When you don’t know how everything goes on, hockey and life outside it. It’s stressful, but when you give yourself time and have good professionals to help.
Returning to the real action has done well thanks to the team.
– It is a group where things are going through and trying to improve all the time. It was easy to get in it again, Vainio says.
With positive thoughts for the rest of the season
Although many people think the rest of the season is the most important, JYP’s head coach Johan Pennerborn You see it differently. The season is like running a marathon.
– Important games are always played, from the first round of the season to the last. Sometimes you lose, sometimes you win. We still have the opportunity to make this season good. The mind is positive, Pennerborn says.
According to his own words, he does not stress or at least not want to show it. He wants to remain calm and consistent.
– It won’t work if I cry and live around. Then it also sticks to the team. And I do not mean that sometimes I do not raise my voice.
In Jyväskylä, Pennerborn is delighted by the team’s supporters and power they get from.
– We want to earn their confidence by working hard every day.
JYP will meet KalPan on Friday and Saturday. After these games, there are 13 games left for JYP.