One thing was forged in the head and heart of the Jokerit legend: “This can sound amazing”

– Now that you talk about those times, the skin gets goosebumps, Walter Immonen says at the beginning of the interview as the memories come back to mind.

People who follow Finnish hockey know the story of the Jokerit phenomenon that went wild in the capital in the 1990s.

The league season 1991–92 is remembered for the boom ignited by the young team’s sexy speed puck and breaking the dams of the supporters. When JyP HT fell in the finals, the excitement culminated in an unprecedented golden celebration. In the parade, Mannerheimintie was filled with thousands of Joker supporters, who had been fighting in the shadow of HIFK for almost two decades.

In the years 1992–98, Jokerit won a total of four championships and one silver and one bronze. Immonen, 56, was about to achieve all of them as the team’s captain.

– Those were great times, said “Wade”.

– You can fondly remember that you were able to participate.

A tough quartet

Immonen spent his childhood in the eastern Helsinki suburb of Kontula. It was a strong area of ​​the Canadian series organized by the Jokers for juniors.

– My first jersey was a Buffalo Sabers jersey that I got from Kontula’s Jokers, he remembers and praises the founder of the series and the Jokers as a whole From Aimo Mäki.

– The city series was a great idea from him.

Immonen played in the A-youths of Jokerien for the third year already, when Teemu Selänne, Keijo Säilynoja and Mika Strömberg boarded directly from C trains to A.

– When I was three years older, I took them along, and we did a lot of things together, Immonen’s times.

Jokerit won the A-youth Finnish championship in 1988, but the financial condition of the club, which sank to the first division, was difficult and even the continuation of the entire operation was at stake.

– After that A championship, we probably all went to the IFK office in Mäntytie Frank Moberg meeting, Immonen says.

– They tried to get us on that side, but I was adamant that not: there is a good thing going on in the Jokers and Kari Mäkinen becoming a coach. A new ownership base was also coming, where, among other things, Kalervo Kummola was behind. It’s good that the guys also decided to stay in the Jokers.

A group of friends

Next season in divar culminated in defeating the Kärppie in the qualifiers and returning to the SM league with the top-talented generation that came to represent the Jokers.

At first Jokerit played in the League mainly to avoid the qualifiers, but during the 1990–91 season significant changes took place in terms of the club’s future: Hjallis Harkimo bought the majority of shares in Jokeri and Boris Majorov became the new head coach.

The seeds for the sensational championship of spring 1992 had been sown, but more was needed. Immonen is the first to mention community.

– We were a strong group of friends, and Hjallis was able to recruit good players for us. Otakar Janecky was a big factor, and Tepsi came back with three championships Markus Ketterer, who then won with us for the fourth time in a row. Yes, veskar has a rough meaning, Immonen underlines.

Effective field

The first court of the golden season, where Selänne and Säilynoja played on the flanks of Janecky and Immonen and Strömberg formed the pack pair, is one of the most memorable combinations in league history.

– We had good group dynamics, and that field worked, Immonen opens the game of the power chain.

– “Otto” was an absolutely exceptional center. As a strong player, he was able to stay on the puck and found free players with his passes. Teemu With his speed, he broke a lot and got through the runs. “Keke” was also a good scorer, although he had more responsibility in the defensive direction, while Teemu had quite a lot of freedom in the offensive direction.

– Also with my kit partner “Ströba” we had a clear division of labor. Yes, he was allowed to go, and I even had a limiting factor in my career, that protecting my own head was everything. I was terribly hard on myself and didn’t allow any mistakes.

Instead of limitation, we can also talk about strength. Thanks to his reliable and conscientious defensive play, Immonen played 68 A national matches and won two World Cup silver medals (1992 and -94), the first of which was also the Lions’ first ever World Cup medal.

HIFK motivates

In the Jokers, the rain of medals continued when it shared all the championships of the decade equally with TPS. In addition to the spring 1992 championship, the Jokerit also won the brightest medals during Immonen’s playing career in 1994, -96 and -97.

– The first one was, of course, tough, he answers the question about which of the championships was the sweetest.

– This may sound strange, but what drove me in everything I did was that it was always a big thing in my head and heart that one day we want to be better than IFK. When we won the championship, I couldn’t think about it at the Finnish level, but that we were able to show IFK.

Immonen’s words sum up the meaning of the competitive setting very well.

– I had lived it all my childhood and also at school – after all, Kontula also had a lot of IFK supporters – and was always the one “hit on the head”, he says and lightens his message with a laugh.

The screw tightened

Immonen gives great value to all his championships.

– 1993–94 Hannu Aravirta became the head coach in the middle of the season and we started playing wild final series against Tepsi. That -94 was memorable when we won with an overtime goal scored by Oto from the air. It felt like the roof of the hall was flying into the air.

At that time, Jokerit still played like HIFK in the Helsinki ice hall on Nordenskiöldinkatu, as also in 1996 and -97. The latter title went to the Swedish head coach by Curt Lundmark under.

– It’s its own thing to win two championships in a row. We had no doubts, but the work continued. We knew nothing was going to happen automatically and we could still tighten the screw.

In the 1990s, the SM League was talked about as the second toughest hockey league in the world, and not completely without a cover: TPS won the European Cup, the predecessor of the current CHL, in the 1993–94 season, and the Jokerit right after in the following two seasons.

Return of the Jokers

Jokerit has frozen Immonen’s game number 24. However, after the KHL years, the club lacks an actual home hall.

– Now it’s easy to think in hindsight that you shouldn’t have gone there, but if we’re talking purely about hockey, it was still the second hardest league in the world after the NHL. It also raised the level of the Finnish national team, says Immonen about the Joker’s KHL years 2014–22.

Now the club is making a return to the Finnish leagues by participating in Mestis next season. The goal is to be league-eligible for the 2025–26 season.

Immonen trusts the new arrival of the Jokers. According to him, the club’s strong junior work also deserves it.

– The return of the Jokers helps everyone. When it now goes to the province to play for Mest, I believe that it will arouse emotions there as well.

– Things have really been thought out there now, and operations must be completely transparent. The club is now managed professionally, which is where I am, among other things Väänänen Ossin talked a lot with, Immonen refers to the former NHL defenseman who is one of the owners of the background company of the Jokers.

Immo has also been asked to join in the background.

– One of my big values ​​is loyalty. When I’m working for a European rival club, I can’t join the Jokers too strongly, the line of Immonen, who coaches HC Davos.

Game mode in search

Immonen has built an exceptional coaching career by Finnish standards, as next season will already be his 15th in the Swiss league, which is considered the most attractive hockey league in Europe. In addition, he has worked for one season, 2018–19, at EHC Kloten in the country’s second league.

Immonen started coaching right after his playing career ended in 1999 in the Jokers.

– Erkka Westerlund and Raimo Summanen they asked me for it third. With hard and meritorious coaches, I was able to learn well right away, and we are on that path.

The beginning of eight years in the coaching of the Jokers brought Immonen one championship (2002) and three silver medals as the head coach of Tulikasti in the fall of 2005.

– To put it bluntly, it went to the thigh, Immonen admits.

– I should have said that I’m not ready yet. However, as an experience, it was important, and I learned about what should have been done differently, he sums up his head coaching tenure in the SM League, which ended in November.

As examples, he mentions both the coaching group and the composition of the team, which in hindsight should have been tried to influence more.

– However, the biggest thing was the style of play, i.e. what kind of hockey my team plays. Even then, I didn’t have a clear vision of my own.

Moving to Switzerland

Immonen was not fired from the Jokers, but continued as an assistant coach for the next two seasons, when Doug Shedden served as head coach.

With the Canadian, he also moved to Switzerland, where they piloted EV Zug from 2008 to 2014. After Shedden left, Immonen continued in Zug for another four years, when the current German national team pilot was the head coach Harold Kreis.

After one season at Kloten, Immonen moved to HC Davos in 2019, and last January by Christian Wohlwend after the dismissals, he became the head coach of the club that had won the most Swiss championships (31).

Also familiar from Jokers Glen Metropolis was named as a co-coach alongside him, but the main responsibility was with Immos.

– I had a clear template with which to move it forward, and it was nice to see that the players bought it and answered the call.

Immonen describes his coaching style as close to people.

– Both athletes and coaches serve the game, the team and common values. Everyone is welcome to come to the hall, and everyone can be themselves.

Extension agreement

Led by Immonen, Davos made an effort from seventh place to fifth in the regular season, but the road was broken in the quarterfinals against ZSC Lions with a 1–4 win.

– The statistics and game analysis showed that we were on top of the game, but the Zürich goalkeeper Simon Hrubec stood on his head and the result is the only thing that matters.

Next season, a player who represented HPK in his playing career will start as Davos’ head coach Josh Holden.

– That’s fine for me finesays the departing Immonen, who with his new two-year contract will continue as the second coach in charge of defenders.

Metropolit will also continue in Davos, and Ketterer will be the goalkeeper coach.

– I am now starting my 25th consecutive season as a coach, and I still like it best when I can be at the lathe in my daily work, says Immonen.

– Largest the kicks I get it when I get to develop players on an individual level.