HELSINKI, FINLAND – Jokerit, Helsinki, the other of the two Helsinki based teams. The team with the biggest budget, the team with the brightest stars, the team with the biggest arena that is always almost half empty, the team that has developed talents such as Jari Kurri or The Finnish Flash, Teemu Selanne. The star studded Jokerit is a team that everyone loves to hate, but Jokerit fans across Finland are total fanatics. Fanatics to the point that many other teams have barred members of the Jokerit Supporters club from attending games due to the disruption the fans cause.
The disruption is nothing compared to the football hooliganism experienced in the UK throughout the mid 1990s, though emergency flares lit inside arenas, broken seats and general anti-social behaviour have been regularly featured in the news.
From difficulty to success.
As written in the last team profile about Ilves the same can be said about Jokerit as the team wasnât always the image of success it has been known as of late. In the 1980s the team actually fell to the first division from the elite level and was faced with a bankruptcy, until Harry âHjallisâ Harkimo bought the majority share in the team in 1991. Harkimo is an entrepreneur and with his business acumen Jokerit began its transformation from an ice hockey club to an internationally recognized franchise. Harkimo had the right combination of skills to make Jokerit a success. He knew the sports market, having been a competitive sailor as well as owning a degree in Economics. As a small side note to Harkimo, he is today more renowned for his role in the Finnish version of the TV show The Apprentice, and has visibly cut down his business activities owning to poor health.
âThe Harkimo Effectâ was felt in his first season as a majority owner and chairman of the club as the team won its second championship in its existence in the 1991-1992 season. A young Finnish talent named Teemu Selanne was part of this team and the championship was much credited to the teams core of own junior players who had made their debut in the Finnish Elite level.
The mid 1990s were a golden era to Jokerit as it won the championship in 1994, 1996 and 1997. The period was a constant battle between Jokerit and TPS, the two biggest teams at the time and Finns living outside either Helsinki or Turku were starting to get bored with the same teams appearing in the finals, though the league didnât seem to mind, after all Jokerit and TPS had the biggest arenas as well so it meant more money to the league and it could say that spectator average had increased, yet again.
Into the new Arena,
In 1997 Jokerit moved to the purpose built Hartwall Arena, another inspiration by Harkimo who identified early on that if the team was to have any kind of continuity it needed its own arena. Prior to this Jokerit had shared the facilities with HIFK at the Nordenskold street arena. Since moving to the new arena, Jokerit has won the championship only once in 2002; since then the team has competed with varying degrees of success. Since 2003, the team has battled with performance pressures from the fans and the media alike and has had coaches as renowned as Glen Hanlon who coached the Washington Capitals, but none have been able to bring the trophy back to Hartwall Arena.
In 2005-2006 season Jokerit hit bottom. The team finished 11th after several goaltender acquisitions that all backfired, firing the coaching staff and bringing in Curt Lindstrom to head the team, no-one could turn the team around.
Since the 2005-2006 season, until 2009-2010 season that is, Jokerit was succeeding steadily. The biggest crisis the team faced was when it froze the number 5 jersey that belonged to Edmonton Oilers and New York Rangers super pest Esa Tikkanen. The freezing of the jersey drew criticism because Tikkanen never actually played for Jokerit as a junior. He acted as the teamâs mascot and shot pucks into the goal during period breaks. Tikkanen would later say in his autobiography that freezing of the jersey felt like a slap in the face.
The 2009-2010 season was a similar to 2005-2006 season. Though the team managed to get into the playoffs, the season was classed as a disappointment. The teamsâ star studded roster failed and by the time of the Christmas break the team had sank to the last position in the league. A quick firing of the coaching staff and addition of more stars, including Michael Nylander from the Capitals didnât save the team in the end. In fact the only thing that Nylander did in Finland was push a referee over and potentially end Rauman Lukko playerâs career after hitting him in the eye with his stick, accompanied with many tantrums on and off the ice.
The new season will start yet again with pressure from the fans and media to succeed and bring the cup back to Helsinki and looking at the roster, the team certainly has the tools to do it, but it had the tools last few previous seasons. However the biggest acquisition has not been in the player market as Jokerit hired Jarmo Kekalainen as its General Manager from the St. Louis Blues. Jokerit did however think that it had staged a coup by hiring Ilari Filppula from the champions TPS, only to learn that Filppula would exercise his NHL release clause and sign with the Detroit Redwings. Ilari Filppula is the older brother of Detroit Redwingsâ star playmaker Valtteri Filppula.
The problem with Jokerit isnât so much that the team isnât good, itâs just that the rest of the league has finally caught up with them and in places sailed clean past them. Itâs easy to sit on the top and get complacent, but Jokerit really has to work hard to get into the playoffs today and manage to get further than the first or second round.
City: Helsinki, Finland
Founded: 1967
Home Arena and Capacity: Hartwall Arena 13,506
Colours: Red, White, Blue, Yellow
Championships: 6 (6 times Silver, 1 times Bronze)
Notable Players: Teemu Selanne (Anaheim Ducks), Jari Kurri (Retired five time Stanley Cup winner with Edmonton Oilers, current GM to Team Finland), Juha Lind (retired, former Montreal Canadien), Raimo Summanen (retired, Currently coaching the in KHL), Teemu Pulkkinen contact the author: janne.virtanen@prohockeynews.com
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