Mestis 26.9.2008

A full round of matches tonight saw the league’s early pace setters, KooKoo, maintain their 100% record with a narrow victory in Heinola, the first chain of Matti Huilla (0+2), Lou Dickenson (2+1) and Michael Ramsay (1+2) being responsible for most of the destruction of HeKi’s defence. HeKi remain undefeated away from Heinola and without a victory in it. In Joensuu, Jokipojat’s once bright start to the season stumbled again with a second successive home defeat, this time the beneficiaries being K-Vantaa. Even after the hour, Roope Ranta secured the extra point on penalties. Across the country in Vaasa, a tight game ensued between Sport and the dreadfully re-branded D-Team. The home team built up a two goal lead through Antti Jaatinen and Kim´Nabb, but were then pegged back a goal by Tuomo Laukkanen. The final minute saw Miro Laitinen restore the two goal advantage while the D-Team goal was vacant, and then Riku Silvennoinen reduce the arrears, but to no avail. Down the coast in Turku, TuTo grabbed the near obligatory three points against strugglers SaPKo. In Lempäälä, Titaanit continued on their travels and scored another five, two of them being short-handed. The final pairing featured old rivals Jukurit and Hokki clashing in Mikkeli. A fast, skillful and competitive game that wouldn’t have been out of place in the league above, had the home side scoring early through Tuomo Jormakka, and the visitors equalising later in the first period through Ville Komulainen. The honours remained even through to the end of extra time, but the following penalty shoot out provided the roughest of justice for Ari Reunanen. Like his counterpart, Teemu Seppänen in the Hokki goal, he had played a very good game making a number of quality saves, but Timo Kuuluvainen’s penalty shot went past him and hit the post, then rebounded onto the goalie’s back to slide slowly into the net off the post again for the decisive goal.

     HeKi  3 - 4  KooKoo
Jokipojat  3 - 4  K-Vantaa [penalties]
  Jukurit  1 - 2  Hokki [penalties]
     LeKi  2 - 5  Titaanit
    Sport  3 - 2  D-Team
     TuTo  4 - 0  SaPKo

Helsinki Times: KHL ruffles feathers as Nordic Trophy fails to capture imagination

KHL ruffles feathers as Nordic Trophy fails to capture imagination

The Gazprom-backed Kontinental Hockey League has reached a transfer deal with the NHL, but the long term effects of the predominantly Russian league are causing discomfort for Finnish clubs.

EGAN RICHARDSON

HELSINKI TIMES

THE START of the Finnish hockey season has been coloured by back room politicking in response to the convulsions the sport is going through as a result of the petrodollar boom currently occurring across the Eastern border. The vast wealth acquired by Russian oligarchs and the Russian state has found an outlet in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), a new trans-national competition that will encompass teams in Belarus, Latvia and Kazakhstan.

Part of the raison d’etre of the KHL is to acquire players from the North American NHL, offering them colossal salaries to relocate to places like Kazan and Yaroslavl. This has achieved some notable transfers, such as Czech legend Jaromir Jagr. He left the New York Rangers in order to captain his new side, Avangard Omsk Oblast. He will be paid $7m USD a year and pay a flat rate tax of just 13%, giving him one of the highest net incomes of any hockey player in the world.

Not all transfers have been so smooth. While Jagr was surplus to requirements at the Rangers, Nashville Predators were desperate to keep their right wing, Alexander Radulov. The player himself signed for Salavat Ylaev Ufa, a team based in the Russian republic of Bashkortostan who will compete in the Bobrov division of the KHL.

Transfer deal

This was announced on July 11, the day after a deal was struck between the NHL and IIHF whereby all contracts would be respected by clubs in all leagues, including the major European competitions like SM Liiga and Sweden’s Elitserien. Radulov and his new club maintain that their contract was signed before the NHL-IIHF deal was struck, and now the case will go to court or binding arbitration.

“We would like to create an environment where mutual respect of contracts is more than just a nice slogan,” Gazprom Vice president, IIHF board member and KHL boss Alexander Medvedev said in a phone interview with thn.com.

“I believe every objective analyst or supporter of hockey, regardless of nationality or location, should appreciate that we are doing everything possible to have a civilized, transparent and legally solid method of player transfers between the KHL and the NHL. Our friends will never forgive (the KHL and NHL) if we create an environment and all of hockey will suffer. We know people are watching us and waiting for a decision.”

Nordic Trophy

Other European leagues are the target audience of that Medvedev missive. The smaller leagues have felt uncomfortable with transfer arrangements for a long time, and a suitable resolution to the transfer problems is one way the KHL can gain appreciation among the leagues that might feel threatened by the trans-national nature of the KHL.

That has caused fretting among SM Liiga management, as they worry how their clubs will be able to increase revenues in the new era of conflict between the KHL and NHL – particularly when the bigger clubs are being wooed to join the KHL.

Enter the Nordic Trophy, a pre-season tournament that certain teams would like to become a great deal more. The competition involves Kärpät, Tappara, HIFK, TPS and Jokerit from Finland, competing against HV71, Färjestads BK, Linköpings HC, Frölunda HC and Djurgådens IF from Sweden.

Keskisuomalainen reported that the Nordic Trophy participants would like to make it a Nordic League, but the reaction of fans and media in both countries has made that a more distant prospect. Jokerit and Kärpät have been mentioned in the Russian media as potential KHL participants, but that is not a priority for either team while the Russian clubs are unknown and unattractive to Finnish fans. If and when that changes, top-level Finnish hockey could look very different indeed.

Anorak’s Corner (updated again 11.9)

Are you a lover of statistics for the sake of statistics? Of cleverly generated plots and graphs that show nothing in particular? Do yerrself a favour, visit the still under construction Tables page. Have a drink and a plate of sandwiches handy first though.

The Silly Season

The ice hockey season finished aeons ago — in fact, so long ago that even the NHL has shut up shop, Juhannus has come and gone and the summer holidays are pretty much over. Season or no season, there’s always something to write about, of course, be it Janne Niinimaa turning old slaughterhouses into rock clubs, or idly wondering when Tony Salmelainen will get round to completing his national service. Alternatively, we could play around with SM-liiga figures and see what turns up. Let’s start with the never-ceases-to-be-argued-about “which team’s got the best supporters?”

I suppose this requires a definition of best, and I’m sticking with number of bums on seats since crowd figures are all I’ve got to work with. The rest of the question can be taken as read. So, looking at runko sarja figures only since it keeps all 14 teams on a level basis, then taking home and away fixtures for all 56 games for each team results in the title honours going to Jokerit, the crowd figures being the average per game:

1. Jokerit     7013

2. HIFK        6221

3. Kärpät      5711

4. Ilves       5438

5. Tappara     5361

6. TPS         5290

7. Blues       4804

8. Ässät       4613

9. Pelicans    4556

10. Lukko       4490

11. JYP         4485

12. KalPa       4137

13. SaiPa       4057

14. HPK         3984

There’s not too much rocket science here, an expensively assembled team playing in the largest arena in the largest city draws the biggest crowds, followed by, well, other expensively assembled teams in other — or in one case, the same — large cities. The smaller teams from the smaller towns occupy the lower half of the table. Another factor that distorts the figures is that, in being 56 games with 14 teams, the fixtures are not properly round robin. Each club has 4 “extra” games that, up to last season but changing for the forthcoming season, pit teams in local derbies. Twelve of the clubs play in groups of three (Ilves – Tappara – HPK, Kärpät – KalPa – JYP, TPS – Ässät – Lukko, Blues – Pelicans – SaiPa) while the pääkaupunkilaiset play against each other an extra 4 times. To level this distortion, the average for each extra game has been calculated (e.g. Kärpät play JYP at home 3 times per season, so these crowds are summed and divided by three) and the appropriate number of these averages deducted. This reduces the season to crowds based on 52 games, each team playing each other twice both at home and away.

1. Jokerit     6824

2. HIFK        5971

3. Kärpät      5780

4. Ilves       5398

5. Tappara     5321

6. TPS         5296

7. Blues       4853

8. Pelicans    4578

9. Ässät       4576

10. JYP         4472

11. Lukko       4434

12. KalPa       4136

13. SaiPa       4067

14. HPK         3952

There’s a sizeable chunk taken off both of the Helsinki teams average gate, proving the worth of the extra local derbies to them. Ässät and Lukko also have their figures trimmed, the derby in this case probably being the only genuine one between teams from neighbouring towns, rather than from the same town. Pelicans and JYP both jump up a place in response to the south-west fall. However, for most clubs the change in average gate is not very much (in KalPa’s case by a solitary punter), some drop a little others rise a little, which suggests that this local derby format isn’t fulfilling its purpose. Undoubtedly, this is the reason for the change for next season.

Back to arguing the toss, let’s look at the average crowds for each club at home only to see if this gives any more useful information. Two columns of figures are presented, the first using raw data, i.e. for all 28 games, and the second with the two extra derby games removed, i.e. for 26 games with each other team visiting twice. The teams are in the same order for both sets of figures:

1. Jokerit     8591   8401

2. HIFK        6573   6473

3. Kärpät      6055   6058

4. TPS         5979   5948

5. Ilves       5914   5864

6. Tappara     5712   5669

7. Blues       4838   4842

8. Pelicans    4253   4256

9. Ässät       4229   4195

10. JYP         4055   4060

11. Lukko       3733   3678

12. SaiPa       3558   3571

13. KalPa       3388   3372

14. HPK         3282   3272

In terms of sorting out who’s got the best supporters there’s no new information here. The raw figures, however, show very clearly the huge revenue generating advantage the larger clubs, especially Jokerit, have over the smaller clubs. Kerho’s figures have presumably dropped somewhat following a calamitous season, but even so it cannot have been by a colossal amount, and so one marvels at the numerous good seasons on such thin resources. Truly a club punching way above its weight. A glance at Tampere reveals that, despite the numerous barren years and repeatedly playing second fiddle to Tappara, Ilves are still the better pull by an average of 200. This is same city, same stadium, same fixtures. Languishing in a not too brilliant tenth place is JYP, drawing an average of 4055. Not too impressive for one of the top teams? Well, the capacity in Hippos is a meagre 4500, so the occupancy rate is extremely high, second, in fact, only to that of Raksila. A worthy mention also in this respect to Pelicans who come in third, while the bottom two places are filled by Jokerit and TPS.

All of which sort of suggests that looking at figures that are bound to favour the large cities, is simply far too biased. Perhaps a better measure would be to look at the crowds that clubs draw when playing away. This is partly going to be a measure of the attraction of the visiting team to the home supporters, but it is also partly a measure of how many away supporters are prepared to follow a team. There are also geographical biases in this, but it is better than looking at figures that weigh so heavily on population. Again, two tables are presented, those for 28 games first followed by those for 26 games: 

1. HIFK       5869      Kärpät     5503

2. Jokerit    5436      HIFK       5470

3. Kärpät     5367      Jokerit    5248

4. Lukko      5246      Lukko      5190

5. Tappara    5010      Tappara    4972

6. Ässät      4996      Ässät      4956

7. Ilves      4962      Ilves      4932

8. JYP        4916      KalPa      4901

9. KalPa      4886      Pelicans   4899

10. Pelicans   4858      JYP        4885

11. Blues      4771      Blues      4863

12. HPK        4686      TPS        4644

13. TPS        4601      HPK        4632

14. SaiPa      4556      SaiPa      4563

These are starting to look more realistic. The gap from top to bottom (right hand figures, just under 1000) is less than half the gap between the first two places for the home fixtures only, and the table isn’t entirely dominated by the big city clubs. Romping into a highly impressive fourth place is Lukko: one would struggle to describe them as fashionable or expensively put together or successful, or Rauma as a metropolis, yet they are showing a clean pair of heels to all except the most successful of recent times and the two Helsinki clubs. Startlingly, their near neighbours and former power house from Turku inhabit the opposite end of the table, barely scraping above Kerho. The ’90s must seem an awfully long time ago to them. The battle of Tampere is now won by the more garishly clad of the two.

The problem with the above figures — as if I needed to look too hard for problems anyway –  is that this now discriminates against the bigger clubs. For example, Jokerit’s large attendances are included in every team’s figure except for Jokerit. The solution is to take the right hand figures immediately above, and add to them twice the average of the balanced (i.e. for 26 games) figures for the home fixtures. This gives each team an average calculated from playing in every team’s stadium, including its own, twice. It also has the advantage of being fair, impossible to argue against, and, most importantly, completely official. 

1. Kärpät     5543

2. HIFK       5542

3. Jokerit    5473

4. Lukko      5082

5. Tappara    5022

6. Ilves      4999

7. Ässät      4902

8. Blues      4862

9. Pelicans   4853

10. JYP        4826

11. KalPa      4792

12. TPS        4737

13. HPK        4535

14. SaiPa      4492

So there we are then: the team with the best supporters is Kärpät. It was a close run thing though, with just one person separating us from HIFK, who, by an amazing coincidence, just happens to be me.

Mestis decision day

Tuesday 25.3, and two games are taking place to decide the second play off finalist and the second team from the qualification group to join Titaanit in Mestis next season. The situation facing each team is straightforward and perfectly equal: win or else.

Hokki 6-2 Jukurit
Two games each in the play off semi-final. After 40 minutes the home team led 4-2. A disastrous opening 10 minutes for the visitors saw them ship three goals. They replied late in the period to trail at the 20 minute mark by 3-1. Jukurit’s goalie, Joni Myllykoski, at this point was saving at only 50%. The second period started almost as well as the first for Hokki, scoring early in the period to restore the three goal lead, but shortly afterwards missing a penalty shot. In a repeat of the first period, Jukurit scored late to reduce the deficit back to two goals. Two further goals in the third period hammered the lid on Jukurit’s coffin very firmly down. This game got away from the visitors in the first ten minutes, and the reigning champions return to the final.

Salamat 3-4 D-Kiekko
The “extra” game in the qualification group, necessitated by the two teams finishing dead level in second place. A goalless first period, the men from Jyväskylä broke the deadlock after 4:25 of the second, only to give up two power play goals later in the period. At the second break Salamat led 2-1. D-Kiekko equalised within two minutes of the start of the third period, and then took the lead mid-way through the period. Five minutes later the home team scored the third equaliser of the evening, and with no further goals the score at full time was 3-3. Into sudden death extra time, and after 66:34 Pirkka Lahtinen, just out of the bin for diving, scored the winner. D-Kiekko climb up to Mestis, Salamat flash down into Suomi-sarja.

Salamat and D-Kiekko fight again

The final round of matches in the Mestis qualification group took place this evening. In Kotka, Titaanit ran out 3-2 winners over K-Laser, though with both teams knowing their destiny beforehand there wasn’t a huge amount at stake. A completely different story in Kirkkonummi, where Salamat met D-Kiekko in the battle for who goes where in second and third slots. The home side started well, Jarno Koskiranta scoring with just 2:29 on the clock; and that’s the way it stayed until full time, giving three crucial points to Salamat and leaving the final table looking like this:

  Team   P  F-A Pts
Titaanit 6 23-17 15
Salamat  6 16-13  9
D-Kiekko 6 15-13  9
K-Laser  6 12-23  3

The criteria for differentiating for second place are the head to head encounters, first on league points and secondly on goals for and against. With the former being tied at 3-3 and the latter being tied at 2-2, a deciding game must take place. With Salamat having a superior overall goal difference, this final final match will be played in Kirkkonummi. The men from Jyväskylä must be wondering where this weekend has gone. Before last Friday’s game they were perched atop the table, needing but a single point from the last two games to ensure playing in Mestis next season. They couldn’t get it, and face a difficult game on Tuesday.