“It’s already gone so far”

– It has been a bit painful. Not even a lot of goals have been scored, Kristian Vesalainen sighed in the booth corridor of the Gatorade Center, when HIFK’s trip to Turku had left a bone in the hand.

He referred to a longer period. The loss was the team’s third in a row and fifth in the last six matches.

– Now is the time to tighten up and improve the game. There aren’t too many games for players here.

The words also fit Vesalainen’s own situation. The tap of the star attacker, who worked hard to stretch the nets in the fall, is badly blocked.

– If you knew that, it wouldn’t be there, he answered the question about the reasons for his mysterious landing.

In terms of health, the frame striker said he was completely fine, and he didn’t explain anything anyway.

Handsome effects

Vesalainen is a 2017 first-round draft pick of the Winnipeg Jets. He spent four seasons in the Jets organization. However, only 74 NHL games were accumulated in total.

Last season, Vesalainen returned to Finland through the SHL club Malmö Redhawks and played the first matches of his career in the representative team of his parent club HIFK.

The entry was convincing: 40 matches, 16+21=37.

The current season started even stronger, when after 18 matches the balance was already tied at 10+10=20 and HIFK’s golden helmet glittered on his head.

Almost a record pace

As a well-deserved reward, the 24-year-old power forward received his first career call-up to the A national team in November.

However, the Karelia tournament became a watershed for Vesalainen’s season. Since then, he has played 24 league matches and scored only one goal.

However, the pass points have been accumulated comfortably, and despite his finishing difficulties, the man is still almost at his record pace. Thanks to a handsome start to the season, the average per game is still waiting for more than 40 points.

Vesalainen’s record in the SM league is from the 2017–18 season, when he represented HPK and Kärppi and collected 22+21=43 hits.

“You have to get over it”

– My game wasn’t completely bad, but the efficiency is completely lacking, Vesalainen regretted his performance yesterday.

– I don’t know where to find it, but it’s starting to be found somewhere. It must be found.

– There will be episodes like this and the sooner you get out of them, the better. It’s been a little longer now. You just have to get over this.

Even if there are no results, you can help the team by taking care of the so-called basics as well as possible.

For example, Vesalainen gained HIFK the upper hand after depriving TPS of the puck in the middle area From Aidan Dudaswho had to resort to a hook.

– Every time I go to the box, I try to put a body in the body for the gang. I have to do my best and not ski, so to speak.

Self-criticism

However, Vesalainen knows that he is in the team’s role as a scorer.

– My duty is to help the team, and now what I wanted has not happened.

Of course, Vesalainen also knows that he has not suddenly become a worse player. He has the same skills with which he has previously put the puck in throughout his career.

– It doesn’t help if you start putting in from places or giving better passes. Keep your head up and move on, it doesn’t help to worry.

Vesalainen has previously spoken publicly about his self-criticism.

Does the finish line weigh you down mentally?

– Of course – or maybe not anymore, Vesalainen smiled.

– It has already gone so far that it has been quite quiet for twenty games. Maybe that beginning was quite critical for me, he pointed to the first few meters of his waste pipe.

– Now I’ve started thinking about something else. It doesn’t help to beat yourself up.

Goal-scoring is known to be a sport of self-confidence, and when self-confidence disappears, the relaxation required in situations disappears. The ketchup bottle gets clogged.

At Vesala, it may pop open at any time. Then his season would have a new watershed.

– Yes, it will open, that’s how much I trust myself. I know it comes from there. It may be that he comes already in the next game and joins the union again. It doesn’t help but just let it burn.

The same with Pakari

Strangely enough, also the second winger of HIFK’s second chain Iiro Pakarinen he too has run into scoring problems after representing the national team.

Of Pakarinen’s ten goals in the season, only one has come after the Swiss EHT played before Christmas, i.e. in the last 16 matches.

To attack Tappara

HIFK will next face Tappara on Saturday in Helsinki.

– It would be great to be able to try, if you could turn this sled around and still want to. I’m looking forward to it, and probably all the guys are hungry, Vesalainen anticipates.

– Now it has been weak. It was just said that we need to change our actions a bit and start winning games.

Tappara, who have won only two of their last ten games, will arrive at Nordenskiöldinkatu in a mess similar to HIFK’s slump – unless they correct their course today in the Tampere derby against Ilves.