“When we talk Tommi from Niemela, we are talking about mental training. About being able to be yourself in the hockey booth. I ended my career at the age of 27 and the main reason was that I never had a coach like that. I couldn’t be myself.
There must also have been something incredibly wrong with the mirror. I certainly don’t blame my coaches. I have received an incredible amount from the coaches and I am grateful to each of them.
In the ice hockey team, meeting new people often happens according to statuses, egos, points, salary bags and age. Cultures meet when foreigners and Finns are in the same booth.
Then roles and places are easily built. Everyone knows how to go online to see where that person has played and where that person hasn’t played. The salaries of fellow players are approximately known and everything else.
I have talked with the Pelicans players and tried to watch and listen to Tommi Niemelä’s interviews and every speech he made. You can be yourself in the Pelicans. That is one of the most important things.
It sounds pretty simple, but everyone knows it’s one of the hardest things in the world. You go into a booth where you have to be competitive and not show any weaknesses. But with the Pelicans, you can be who you want to be. The doors are always open.
Tommi Niemelä always says that everything is spoken in the we form. I’ve been in a booth where the coach says after a winning game that we won and after a losing game that you lost.
It’s like dumping 300 kilos of poo on the players, if you can say that. That’s where the relationship of trust goes. Players no longer play for their coach. In the Pelicans, it’s never me, it’s always us.
I’ve listened to a lot of speeches where the coach of the old league talks about how nowadays you can’t shout and there’s this modern coaching. They say we have to be so modern. You can already hear that they don’t really do it, but they don’t dare to be as stupid as they used to be.
Niemelka doesn’t really have a playing career. He was a junior, went abroad a little and ended his career at a young age with injuries in the minor leagues. He doesn’t have the burden of how he’s been coached.
Of course, he has gained something from his junior years and is also a product of a certain era socially. But he has been able to realize in everyday life what modern management is. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a level of demand. It is certainly demanded even more there than elsewhere, but the flip side is that there is also giving.
I’ve been in many booths myself, where demands are made, but you don’t get anything back. Not even at the best of times. It’s a massively important thing.
Freedom and responsibility are related to exercises, among other things. I’ve heard from the players that during the Friday-Saturday doubles, you don’t have to come to the hall on Saturday morning if you don’t want to. The player enters the game and is ready. On the other hand, this is becoming more common.
The average age of the team is around 25 years, but they have been given responsibility and they have used it and know how to utilize it. At first, it may have been a situation for a while, that someone has gone under the rug, taken it the wrong way, and doesn’t understand what freedom means.
At Pelicans, everyone is committed and understands what it’s all about, because understanding is given a chance. They are allowed to go through mistakes and create their own skin, their own way of thinking. You don’t get told from above how to think about hockey.
Of course, you have to have a way of playing, how to move in certain situations and what patterns to try to prevail. They are natural and belong to elite sports.
I think the players are also in really good shape. They want to practice and learn new things. Niemelä can certainly watch from the sidelines that now the players challenge each other, talk to each other, want to learn and live everyday well when given the chance. Players have a sense of autonomy.
All these things have been in textbooks for however long, but they haven’t been brought to hockey because they haven’t dared. Have thought at a difficult moment: well no, it won’t work.
Now such a head coach has been acquired, who has been given a chance. And players who basically commit to this kind of thing.
When we move to the field, Niemelä’s influence can be seen in the fact that mistakes and failures are allowed to happen. It is allowed, as long as you commit, put your whole body into the game, arrive as yourself and throw yourself into the game.
The Pelicans lineup is flat. The team is certainly at the top, but surely everyone feels important. It’s not automation.
Of course there are roles. Some play with superiority and others with inferiority. They show that they have been practiced. Repeated. Focused on details. But permission has been given for it. It shouldn’t be terribly surprising. If there is permission, a person often succeeds.
The players currently want to go to Lahti. Individuals will move on and players from that team will jump to the NHL in the future. The team is nameless, but there are more experienced guys like Teemu Eronen.
The Pelicans have also given rejected players a chance and brought out the best in them. Keeper Patrik Bartos too history in civilian life is really varied, but in the Pelicans, he believes that he is trusted. You can learn from your mistakes. Also Ben Blood there is one story in the team.
Pelicans personifies Niemelä. We have talked a lot about coach-centeredness, but the matter can also be approached in a positive way.
I can’t speak for all Pelicans players. However, I believe that the more experienced players have been under many coaches. I wonder if they have had better relations with the head coach than Niemelä has.
Niemelä wants to see and hear the individual exactly as he is. It’s a big asset.
Niemelä is coaching the Pelicans team in his third season. He is from Helsinki, but once coached juniors from Lahti and grew up with the players. He has a turquoise heart, if you can say so. The community certainly buys his way of doing things.
Joe, I don’t completely misunderstand the hockey world, Tommi Niemelä secured his place as the head coach of the A national team for some time. He may not be next. The NHL is his goal and dream, but he can also go to Switzerland to siphon money. If those doors don’t open, I see no reason why he can’t get on the Lion.
This is not just one story. I believe there is something much bigger here. Both for the coaching culture and the way the game is played. I hope it’s the beginning of an era.”
Top Nättinen
Urheilu’s expert Topi Nättinen summed up his thoughts on the Pelicans’ place in the finals after the decisive semi-final match.