TAMPERE, FINLAND – When Finnish SM-Liiga team Tappara’s head coach Petri Mattila had resigned mere three weeks before the start of the season citing personal reasons, Pro Hockey News said it would follow up on the developments of the story. In a recent exclusive interview with Finnish Veikaaja magazine, Tappara’s General Manager Mikko Leinonen has revealed some reasons behind the departure.
In preparation for the season, Tappara’s performances have not been up to scratch and a team that boasted that it would contend for the championship has all done everything, but impressed. In the recent European Hockey Trophy tournament, Tappara had lost all of its five games to teams including Swizerland’s SC Bern, EC Red Bull Salzburg and AZC Lions and SM-Liiga’s TPS and Karpat .
A hockey analyst, Juha Hiitela, said that Mattila’s departure was not a surprise. Hiitela said in a radio interview that “Hiring a new head coach at the stage of the preparations is incredibly difficult as no coaches have been let go by their teams. What makes the situation even tougher is that there are no competent Finnish coaches available anymore.”
In the Veikaaja interview Leinonen revealed that Tappara was aware of their head coach’s problems. Leinonen says that Mattila had authority problems with some of the players. “From our point of view, these problems were not related to the future or the direction of the team. “ Leinonen said in the interview when asked about the decision to hire Mattila as the team’s head coach.
Tappara is still without a head coach and those duties are being looked after by Sami Hirvonen, who acted as an assistant coach under Mattila.
“I really hope that Hirvonen can do the job if he is hired,” Hiitela said in a radio interview. “He has good character and has coached senior hockey before, which is something that wasn’t on Mattila’s resume. Hirvonen has desire to develop and go further in his career.”
Judging by the options available and the time to go to the start of the season, Tappara’s smartest option would be to appoint Hirvonen as its head coach. The other option would be to bring in a foreign coach, but as history teaches Finnish hockey fans, using a foreign coach has not been overly successful, with the exception of Vladimir Jursinov who coached TPS in the 1990s.
Recent ‘import’ coaches have included Jokerit hiring Doug Shedden, who had some success in the Finnish league and even coached the national team for a tournament. Others such as Bob Francis, who was with HIFK was fired due to poor performance and reported alcohol abuse. Infact newspaper stories reported saying that Francis’ “breath often smelled of NHL during morning skates”. Jokerit also tried its hand by hiring Glen Hanlon to no notable merit.
Hiitela also admitted that if the pre-season is anything to go by, Tappara is far off the top of the table and will not be contending for the title.
In other Tappara related news, the team has signed experience in between its pipes, for now. Former Buffalo Sabres goalie, Mika Noronen, has signed a temporary contract with the team to replace the number one goalie, Harri Sateri, while he attends San Jose Sharks’ training camp.
Contact Janne.Virtanen@prohockeynews.com
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