Olli Jokinen’s playoff history is very quiet after the spring of 1998.
Olli Jokinen couldn’t get HIFK off the ground this season. NIKLAS PEHKONEN / AOP
Olli Jokinen the coaching career still did not get the first playoff series win. KalPa beat HIFK in the decisive fifth match Juuso Könenen with a missile strike and march to the quarterfinals.
Jokinen, 47, coached Jukurei for three seasons and Timrå IK for one season before taking the HIFK helm last summer.
Jokinen took Jukurit to second, eleventh and fifth places in the regular season. Both playoff matches ended immediately in the quarterfinals: I won 3–4 for KooKoo in the spring of 2022, I won for Kärpi 2–4 in the spring of 2024.
Last spring, Frölunda, third in the SHL regular season, beat Timrå 4–2.
This season, Jokinen lifted HIFK from the bottom in the regular season in tenth place. The final ranking will be twelfth, as eleventh and twelveth in the regular season progressed to the quarterfinals.
Even as a player, the playoff phase wasn’t just a path of success for Joki. The only championship is from the spring of 1998, when he returned in the middle of the season from Los Angeles as the young cornerstone of HIFK’s champion team and eventually became a golden goal shooter.
After defeating Ilves in the finals, Jokinen has never tasted victory in the playoff series.
Jokinen played in the 2004–05 lockout season in the SM league. The fourth-placed HIFK lost to the fifth-placed Luko with wins of 1–4.
In the NHL, Jokinen played 17 seasons and 1231 regular season games – but only one playoff game, in the spring of 2009. Jokinen and Miikka Kiprusoff starred Calgary Flames lost to the Chicago Blackhawks in the opening round with a 2-4 victory.
KalPa continues to the quarterfinals, HIFK goes on vacation. NIKLAS PEHKONEN / AOP
