Juha Kaunismäki, who has been influential in Norwegian ice hockey for a long time, could not believe his ears when he heard about the relegation of the Norwegian national team.
Norway has played since 2006 in the main series of the World Cup. PDO
– Really blinding news. I am absolutely amazed that something like this can happen at this level.
20 years after working with Norwegian ice hockey Juha Kaunismäki the words exude disbelief when he learned of the Norwegian Hockey Association’s decision to suspend the men’s and women’s national team for the rest of the year as a cost-saving measure.
What is surprising in this case is the fact that Norway is a very traditional and strong winter sports country, where sports have typically been financed with significant investments.
– That’s the sugar here, when it’s a winter sport, and the country is one of the richest in the world, Kaunismäki, 44, wonders.
Kaunismäki, who played in the Norwegian national team in four World Cups and one Olympics, criticizes that not enough work has been done to improve the status of ice hockey in Norway.
– The sport has not reached the pedestal in the Norwegian market that it is sporting here.
– It was already quite a tickle when I was in the national team myself, Kaunismäki remembers.
Olympic status left
Kaunismäki became known at the World Cup in Norway’s jersey. PDO
The Joker’s grown-up played for the first time in Norway’s shirt at the World Cup in 2008, when they made it to the quarterfinals for the first time ever. Two years later, Norway played in the Olympics after a 16-year hiatus.
– Then money came from the state when there was Olympic status. There was a little bit of thrashing, but the sport was not moved forward in any way.
The Norwegian men’s national team lost its Olympic status in the fall of 2021 when it missed the Beijing Games.
– In Norway, Olympic status brings certain types of income if the sport is under the Olympic system.
Norwegian ice hockey experienced an upswing more than ten years ago, when Kaunismäki himself played in the national team’s defense.
– When we made it to the quarter-finals for the first time in the World Cup, then there was excitement and the matches came from NRK, so everyone could see them.
– At that point as well Mats Zuccarello rose to the NHL and there were other star players, but the sport was not imprinted on everyone’s consciousness. There would have been a place to take the sport forward, as has been done in Finland for a long time, Kaunismäki reflects.
Club hockey means
Today, Kaunismäki is the head coach of Stavanger Oilers. He moved to Stavanger as a player in the middle of the 2003–04 season from Mesti’s Kiekko-Vantaa, and he received Norwegian citizenship in February 2008.
The sport itself is doing relatively well in Norway, and according to Kaunismäki, there are good things going on in the junior side. But national team hockey doesn’t light up.
– Norwegians are crazy about football, and then winter sports come next. Handball is really popular at the national team level, but on the club side, ice hockey passes it by.
– Ice hockey comes on TV and a lot has been invested in the broadcasts. For example, we have a “lätkäbubla” in Stavanger, because ice hockey is a really big deal here, Kaunismäki knows.
Club hockey is much more important in Norway than national team activities.
– In Stavanger, we are Norway’s biggest hockey club, and here it is the Oilers who sell. The players here do not primarily want to join the national team, but the Oilers.