Now the chicken has a price! Jerry Turkulainen, 26, tells what life is like in Switzerland

Jerry Turkulainen26, is one of the Lions’ most interesting names in the weekend EHT tournament. Vikkelkintuttu’s winger leads the points exchange of the Swiss league.

– It’s been really cool, Turkulainen says about his amazing first season.

The winger, who is playing his first season abroad, has scored 9+25=34 in 28 matches. The call to the national team didn’t come completely out of the blue.

– Yes, you could expect it a bit, but it is never a given.

NHL lore

The unassuming pier thanks good chain friends for its flight deck. The man from Turku played in the early season by Philip-Michael Devos and by Jonathan Hazen with. Lately he’s been chilling Julius Nättinen and NHL champion Pierre-Édouard Bellemare on the side.

Turkulainen has played with Nättinen before, but Bellemare is a new acquaintance.

– Bellemare is a true professional. Note that he has many hundreds of NHL games under his belt. Playing in a small space and fighting is at a tough level. He can feed himself even from a tight space and is really good at small things.

The 39-year-old Frenchman has played ten years in the NHL. In Taalajää, the man served as the four center for Vegas, Colorado and Tampa Bay, among others.

In Switzerland, on the other hand, Bellemare forges results in the top chains. The balance of ten games is 5+9=14. Off the ice, he is at least as significant a figure as he is on the field.

– Really nice and friendly. When he first entered the booth, it immediately felt as if he had been there longer. Immediately took over the farm, Turkulainen says.

27.85%

The native of Turku has achieved results especially with superiority. The superiority percentage of the drives is a whopping 27.85. Only Genève-Servette (30.56%) and Lausanne (29.33%) are above.

On the other hand, Ajoie’s underpowered game (68.67%) is the worst in the entire series. It is one of the reasons why the team plows the league as a superior jumbo.

– Of course it sucks, Turkulainen says directly.

– However, the main thing is that the team wins. That’s why we go to the rink every night, so that the team would take those surfaces.

Especially the beginning of Ajoie was miserable. The team won one of the first 14 matches.

The head coach Christian Wohlwend got the boot after 13 matches. Then the GM of the team jumped in Julien Vauclair before the traction responsibility was transferred To Greg Ireland.

– With the new coach, we have tried to make the main points of the game clear so that everyone is on the same page. We have now scored a few points here and there, but the belt should be tighter. You can’t drop the level again after one good game.

Before the start of the season, the goal of the races was to avoid the qualifiers, i.e. the last two places. The difference to Lugano, who is third and last, is now already ten points.

– We haven’t talked about goals anymore. We’re just trying to get the game in order and raise our own level of performance.

Big rink

The 171-centimeter pocket rocket played in JYP for eight years in the SM league before moving to cuckoo clock country last summer. There is one significant difference between the series.

– The rink here is of maximum size everywhere. In Finland, that seems to be the case only in Kouvola, Turkulainen recalls.

As a skilled skater, the native of Turku knows how to make good use of the large space on the ice. However, the giant bowl does not mean that the game in Switzerland is less physical than in Finland.

– Fighting games are even a bit tougher here. The tackles are carried out to the end of the faucet, says Turkulainen.

The big ice seems to suit other Finns as well, as there are no less than seven Finns among the 12 best scorers in the Swiss league.

– Nice to see that the points exchange is blue and white. Let’s try to keep it that way in the future, says the Turku resident.

“Great atmosphere”

Ajoie is located in the northwestern part of Switzerland near the French border. The municipality of Porrentruy is the center of the Ajoie region, where the home hall of HC Ajoie is located. It can accommodate around 5,000 spectators.

– The cabin has usually been very full. The fans have a great mecca, and there is always a great atmosphere at the games here, Turkulainen praises.

Less than 7,000 people live in Porrentruy, but people also come to the games from elsewhere. The native of Turku has enjoyed himself in a small village.

– Nice, small and likeable guy. Here you can find everything you need during the summer season. And you only have to drive an hour or two to get to the big city.

Before Turkulainen signed his name to the contract offered by Ajoie, he asked the club’s assistant coach, former JYP skipper From Juha-Pekka Hytönen background information.

– It was easy to talk to him and I got a clear picture of this matter.

In addition to the representative team, Hytönen also coaches the club’s A-junnu, and because of this, he does not participate in Ajoie’s away games.

In addition to Switzerland, the native of Turku also had the opportunity to move to Sweden.

High wages are paid in Switzerland. Would you have gotten the same money anywhere else?

– Let’s leave it as a riddle, Turkulainen laughs.

“Top framework”

The native of Turku lives in a brand new apartment owned by the club, which has three bedrooms. So there is enough space for a girlfriend who visits Switzerland from time to time.

– It’s a top-notch setting here. The other Finns in the team live in these same houses. It takes five minutes to drive to the ice rink and a couple of minutes to the city center.

In his free time, the ice hockey star has visited the beautiful mountains a couple of times, but mainly he just tries to rest and recover from the games. It is best done on the couch with movies and series. The native of Turku also follows the SM league closely.

– Especially Hongan Anttonin together we have watched almost every JYP game.

Nättinen and Honka have played in JYP, like Turkulainen. So the men knew each other from before.

– We get along very well. We’ve had a great time here. And it’s nice to be able to grind a little Finnish and talk about Finnish affairs.

Homesickness has at least not managed to surprise the people of Turku yet.

– I do miss coffee, but nothing else really. However, he knows that when the games here are over, he can go back to Finland.

Lean the chicken!

Some of the people in the small village already recognize Turkulainen when he walks the streets.

– People are really nice here. Not everyone here speaks English, and I don’t speak French very well, but if you need help, everyone still tries to help.

People from Turku haven’t experienced a big culture shock in Switzerland. The most significant differences in everyday life are store opening hours and price level.

– On Sundays, almost all other places are closed except restaurants. And there is a considerable difference in the price of meat. For example, 300 grams of chicken strips costs about ten francs (10.76 euros), Turkulainen says.

The price of food has become familiar, because people from Turku like to cook themselves.

– This is such a small place that there is no Wolt, but that’s a good thing too, so your cooking skills will develop – at least hopefully, the man grins.

The bravura of Turku is crab pasta.

World Cup dream

After first dominating the SM league and then the Swiss league, the next step could even be in the NHL. However, the Turku resident is not currently dreaming of buck bowls.

– I haven’t put any thought into it. The thoughts are in the present moment, and there have been no contacts from the NHL, Turkulainen says.

The skilled winger has appeared in the national team before, but the Turku native has yet to make a real breakthrough in Leijon. With the current condition, it wouldn’t be a big surprise if the result would now also be at the EHT level, but even that is still not enough for Turkulainen.

– The World Cup would be a great honor and the fulfillment of one dream. It would be a tough thing, but let’s see where the man goes at the moment when those decisions are made.