The team’s season was a total fiasco, writes Vesa Parviainen.
Lauri Marjamäki’s blank stare says it all. He found out that he had fallen out of the SM league as a coach. Jaakko Stenroos / AOP
When KooKoon’s Charle-Edouard D’Astous hits the top of Kärppie’s net with superior power, The home crowd is starting to leave Raksila’s hall, even though it’s only the second round.
The Canadian team’s second hit of the night changed the numbers to 0-5, so the shock of the Oulu audience, accustomed to the best league success of the 2000s, is palpable.
The regular season was already tainted by contradictions from within the team that spilled over into the public eye.
Head coach Lauri Marjamäki’s “nonsense” response to star striker Ville Leskinen’s wish for a more free style of play said a lot about the team’s mood.
Kärpät ended its Via Dolorosa-like regular season with a streak of four losses, which dropped it out of the direct quarter-final spot to seventh.
Still, it started as a clear pre-favorite in the pity playoff series only in the final round of the regular season against KooKoo, who secured the last playoff spot.
No matter how it happened.
Julius Junttila scored a hat trick in the opening game and led the Oulu team to victory, but KooKoo deservedly leveled the series at home.
And immediately in the opening set of the decisive three-way game, KooKoo put the puck in the Kärppie’s net three times.
The first hit was rejected as a kick after a long video investigation, but D’Astous’ and Juho Rautanen’s hits gave the visitors a 2–0 set win.
Both goals were created after the defenders went to support the stylish frontal attack: a solid proof of the strength of the style of play taught by head coach Olli Salo.
You could guess Marjamäki’s thoughts when Salo, who is only in his second full season as head coach in the SM league, wiped the floor for him, so to speak.
KooKoo started the season with the league’s second smallest player budget of 1.85 million euros, which was lower than only Jukurit.
The Kärppi’s player budget of three million euros was already the biggest in the series, and even that was not enough for a “team of four million”.
In Kaukalo, the salary bags of the players did not weigh much – or they weighed too heavily in the pockets of the people of Ouluif that’s what you want to think.
Spirit overcame matter, which is the beauty of sport.
However, from the point of view of the flies, the situation is anything but great.
In addition to the athletic stomach-churning, it started to lose the trust of even its supporters towards the spring.
The harshest proof of that was the wretched attendance of the first KooKoo match of 2,767. On Thursday, the number barely exceeded 4,000, but was still clearly below the regular season average (4,737).
It is clear that this cannot continue.
Last April, Kärpät signed a two-year contract extension with Marjamäki. So there would still be a year left.
Marjamäki is a meritorious coach thanks to his KHL and national team experience and the two Finnish championships he won in Kärpi, but his skills have now been seen in Oulu.
Marjamäki’s passive style of play is no longer in the SM league today.
The head coach bears the responsibility for the sporting disaster, so Marjamäki has to leave because of the club’s credibility.
The net sales of the Oulun Kärpät group in the last financial period rose to 16.2 million euros, and the company made an operating profit of 3.1 million euros.
Despite the continuation of the Marjamäki contract Kärpi can afford to change the head coach.