HC TPS announced on Wednesday that Jonne Tammela, Lassi Lehtinen, Aleksi Anttalainen, Ruben Rafkin mixed Topias Haapanen will not play in the same night’s match against Jukurei.
According to the club, the absence of players from the lineup was an internal matter for the team. TPS announced that the five will again be available for coaching in Friday’s TPS–HIFK match. The Turku club did not want to comment further on the absences.
According to Urheilu, the dropping of players from the lineup is related to the events of last weekend. The above-mentioned five had gone to spend the evening according to a longer pattern in Vaasa last Saturday, when TPS stayed there on their way back from the match played in Oulu.
Sunday was granted as a day off for the whole team, but the management of TPS still did not look favorably on the bar evening of the five.
– Here, in a way, the whole other team was made to suffer because of the behavior of five players. This and a possible loss could have had far-reaching implications as to whether TPS will be among the six in the end or not, Urheilu’s hockey expert Juha Juujärvi pointed out at Puhe’s Ice Hockey tour.
Juujärvi was surprised that the disciplinary measures came up on the day of the game.
– A special episode at this point in the season and in general in professional sports. A lot of things have happened that shouldn’t have happened. The way the skein flashed to the eyes probably didn’t go according to plan in the organization.
The Turku club’s performance on Wednesday was kind of a surprise, because the absence of three injured and five suspended key players didn’t take away TPS’s best edge. After five consecutive losses, the team returned to the winning position at the expense of Jukurie with goals 4–2.
Was the punishment given by TPS correct?
So TPS stayed in Vaasa for the night on Saturday after the match played in Oulu. Expert Juujärvi estimated that TPS management wanted to maximize recovery by stopping in Vaasa.
– TPS has a really tough schedule coming up from Wednesday, and at the same time they are playing really important games. If you had sat on the bus all Saturday night, then Sunday would have passed.
– Of course, there would still have been Monday and Tuesday to recover and train. But if you have once decided that a hotel night in Vaasa is for recovery, then fine.
Sunday was marked as a day off at Turku Palloseura. Was this all about picking?
– If the club management has invested in sports and recovery, then of course I could not (as a coach) have given permission to the players to leave.
– In North America, everyone takes care of their own evening. There, we trust the players and keep our fingers crossed during the long season. If they want to go to a team dinner, then the professionals go. The bus leaves the next morning at 10 a.m., explains Juujärvi.
According to Juujärvi, it is clearly the case that five players have violated the team’s rules, i.e. the internal code, and at the same time agreed matters.
– If it has been agreed not to go anywhere, then the player cannot defy the order.
– When the punishment is public and this severe, this speaks of the humiliation of the players. Violations within the team always result in sanctions. One can always wonder if the sanctions could have been something other than this drastic.
Could the stop in Vaasa have been skipped?
Juujärvi emphasized that the announcement literally said that the five players of TPS will be available for coaching again on Friday.
– This suggests that the club management has decided, as it were, that the coach Jussi Ahokas players who have broken the rules may not be included in the lineup. TPS club management directly announced that their decision will be done this way.
During the puck round, we also thought about whether TPS’s decision to spend the night in Vaasa was the right one at all.
– Personally, I wouldn’t have wanted any sauna evening in between (as a coach), because it’s only recently been Christmas and New Year, Juujärvi reflected.
Juujärvi himself would have driven straight home from Oulu and gone straight to bed.
– On Sunday, there would have been an opportunity for outdoor activities and feedback, so that all players would have been bright and ready to practice on Monday. Then there would have been no knocking of the beak.
Captain Jasu: There was little sleep during the test
TPS captain Juhani Jasu said after the Jukurit victory that the absence of five players did not affect the game much.
According to Jasu, the disciplinary matter has been discussed in the team and conclusions have been drawn.
– Of course, we have held meetings, but there is nothing as big as the headlines might say. When 25 guys are found together, it sometimes hurts and happens.
– Of course, this is part of (the captain’s) job in a certain way. Personally, I always want the best for the team, whether there is a letter on the chest or not. The matter has been thought through thoroughly and from every angle. It was a bit of a night’s sleep during the test, but we got through it well. Let’s go ahead.
The head coach Jussi Ahokas commented on the case on Wednesday succinctly.
– Big three points in this situation.