I can’t wait to see who will be able to solve the big questions of domestic ice hockey, writes journalist Jussi Paasi.
20:00•Updated 20:09
The discussion around the SM league has revolved around only one question in recent weeks. Should the series be opened?
Less, even insignificant, attention has been paid to the recent news of the SM league, which can have amazingly far-reaching effects on Finnish ice hockey.
– The league is looking for a sports director, I have completely missed it!
With such a message, my friend who works closely with hockey approached me. Even I hadn’t noticed it.
The best hottie-themed news for men and women, I thought.
The SM league is therefore looking for a sports director for its organization. Someone may immediately wonder what is special or noteworthy about it? One recruitment among others.
No. Far from it.
Just the fact that the men’s major league has decided to hire an athletic director is in many ways a fantastic thing.
The lack of a sports director in Finland’s only fully professional sports series has been downright embarrassing.
Now the SM league underlines that it is genuinely interested in the development of the main product itself, the game. What kind of laat do you want to see in Finland in the future? Previously, no one from the SM league could even ask such a question.
Of course, the sports director cannot alone decide the quality of the final product, because the clubs and their coaches define with their own guidelines what the game looks like on the rink. The most important thing now is that the SM league will soon have someone under whose leadership we will start thinking about game-related policies, together.
The sports director can therefore definitely influence the game itself, if only he is capable of it.
The job description sounds startlingly demanding. And that’s what it is.
Ismo Lehkonen and Ilmari Pitkänen expressed their opinion on the topic at the Ice Hockey Tour.
Pesti includes, among other things, “developing sports and coaching expertise, building functional sports work practices and development programs, developing games and game products”.
And on top of that, among other things, the following: “management of discipline, comprehensive strengthening of player safety, moving referee work forward”.
Huh. A real 24/7 job, where you have to comprehensively manage practically everything that belongs to hockey.
Where can you find such a leader?
If, hopefully, a candidate who meets the criteria appears somewhere, he will have an unprecedented opportunity to shape Finnish hockey and its future.
Think how refreshing and exciting it would be if the new sports director announced to his first job that he wants narrow, NHL-sized rinks in the SM league! After that, UJ would outline that the skills of tackling play must be brought to a much better level than the current one – and would give a working recipe for that.
Then, of course, it would be the turn to have a weighty and well-founded opinion on whether the series should be opened or kept closed…
I can’t wait to see who will be able to solve the above-mentioned – and many other – key questions of domestic ice hockey.