Turku Palloseura has fallen into a real downward spiral in the ice hockey SM league. Of course, TPS got a 3-2 overtime win over KalPa on Wednesday, but in the big picture, the Turku team’s season has been full of chaos.
With its KalPa win, TPS moved past HPK in the standings, but even 14th place doesn’t warm anyone up.
The standings of the league’s last 20 matches speak harshly: TPS is at the tail end in 16th place.
Sports expert Top Nättinen lists the problem areas of the people of Turku.
– My head hurts, since the goalkeeper game. It seems that TPS hasn’t got its head game right. All the time, more and more goals have been conceded.
“Ahokka’s firing was a mistake”
Nättinen goes back in time to the moment when the current head coach of TPS Tommi Miettinen your replacement in the task Jussi Ahokkan. Ahokas was allowed to retire in the spring of 2023, when the Turku team’s season ended in the first round of the playoffs.
– Ahokka’s firing was a mistake, although he certainly had a difficult second season. Miettinen’s period and the extension contract that has now been signed seem really confusing.
– Of course, we have to think about whether there are willing visitors and people who are ready for Turku. Surely not everyone is ready to go into the middle of such a fire, Nättinen thinks.
Nättinen sees that things have gone wrong in Turku for years.
– In all large organizations, things flow from the top down. It seems that TPS has been doing things wrong for 20 years. After the final place in spring 2004, one “damage championship” and a couple of “damage silvers”.
– Otherwise, the rankings have generally been on the worse side of ten. There have only been a few glimpses. The operation was really bad at all levels, both in the office and on the ice, Nättinen uploads.
Big problems in the goalkeeper game
Poor goalkeeping has been one of TPS’ biggest stumbling blocks of the season. Adam Werner, Noa Vali and joined the team in the middle of the season Wine Vehviläinen have fumbled. Everyone’s save percentages are modest: Vali 88.49, Werner 87.53 and Vehviläinen 83.42.
It is clear that at least the goalkeepers have to improve their performances so that TPS would be able to correct its course.
TPS announced earlier this week that Vehviläinen will stay in the team with a contract for the rest of the season. Vehviläinen joined the strength of the Turku team in December.
As a nightmare against the Jokers in the league qualifier
In the SM league, renewed for this season, the two worst teams in the regular season play a play out series, the loser of which has to be eliminated from the league against the winner of Mestis.
The Jokerit are thrashing at the top of Mestis, and in TPS’s worst threat scenario, the season would end with a league qualifier against the Jokerit. The same clubs, TPS and Jokerit, dominated the SM league in the 1990s.
– Yes, it would be a massive disappointment and a disaster if TPS were to even end up in the bottom two and in the play out series. A club the size of Turku Palloseura should play for other rankings than avoiding the league qualifiers, Nättinen emphasizes.
Two thirds of the league’s regular season have already been played. However, TPS’s situation is not completely hopeless yet, because the SM league has been exceptionally even this season. The people of Turku still have a chance to reach the playoffs of the top 12 teams.
– There is quite a bit left to do this season. Of course, the number one thing would be to get to the playoffs and that way you could get oxygen. The player base is still quite sufficient. Of course, the goalkeeper game has to be fixed.
– Tommi Miettinen also needs to calm down and not throw players under the bus at press conferences, Nättinen sends his greetings.
“The soul and the heart must endure”
TPS coach Miettinen emphasizes that pressure is always an element in elite sports.
– I want to say here that the series has been open for a long, long time. This is a great situation. Now there is a real chance to rise from Mestis and drop from the league again.
Miettinen reminds that he has been criticizing for a long time that there simply cannot be a situation in the professional series where the teams that played the worst in the series during the last ten rounds have the least pressure.
– This puts a lot of pressure on us creators – as it should be. In this moment, the soul and heart must endure, Miettinen said.
Watch the latest episode of Paasi ja Nättinen: 5 minutas series. The standard sounds of the hockey round include the expert Top Nättinen and editor Jussi Paasi once a week, talk about the SM league in five minutes.