The invitation to the office surprised the SM league icon – “It came like a flash”

– It came like a flash.

Thus Kristian Kuusela describes his moods when Tappara-pamput Mika Aro and Mikko Leinonen had announced the honor ahead, the November shirt freeze.

– Mika and Mikki asked to visit the office and said that something like this was planned. So what’s up, Kuusela times.

– I was completely confused.

Seiskaykkönen will climb to the roof of the Nokia Arena on Saturday before the meeting between Tappara and Pelicans.

– This is the greatest honor a player can receive from the club.

Are you excited for the big night?

– Little by little, I’m getting nervous.

A big step

Kuusela played in the SM league for 21 seasons. When the playoffs are included, the number of matches is high, exactly 1,300.

The amount is huge, especially for a hockey player who came from Seinäjoki, a wrestling and baseball town.

– When I got the chance to go to the tryout in Tappara, I thought that of course I would go. It also had to be planned with the parents, how to make travel possible.

Kuusela was a first-year boy with a burning desire to play hockey and create a successful career.

– I knew I had to leave Seinäjoki, he recalls.

– That step had to be taken so that I could stay in the national team circles. In Tappara, I was able to play in the SM series and be in a bigger club.

At first, Kuusela lived and trained for weeks in Seinäjoki. On Fridays, he went straight from school to the station, jumped on the train to Tampere and spent the weekends as a “foster boy in a few families”.

Practices awaited on Friday evening, matches on the weekend.

– I can imagine that it has been a tough place for my parents.

Look elsewhere

Kuusela was good, but not so good that the door would have opened to the national team’s dressing room after the junior years. The small size certainly did not make it easier to enter the league world at that time.

– Big men were in at the time, but it wasn’t necessarily the reason, Kuusela estimates.

– There were such high-quality teams in Tappara.

It was the beginning of the millennium, when Jukka Rautakorvin coached by and Janne Ojanen skipper Tappara pushed through two silver springs towards the 2003 championship.

– When I was in the A-juniors for the third year and it seemed that there was no seam [edustusjoukkueeseen]I thought it was time to look elsewhere.

Ässät, which has lived through financially weak times, has joined Kuusela’s ranks with a three-year contract.

– I got a seam and took hold of it, he summarizes.

– The first year was learning. Even in the second year, the role was small. In the third season I was already a regular league player.

Coach during the 2005–06 season Mika Toivola built a chain that charmed the red Iroquois in the spring and finally flew the Aces to the finals: Marko Kivenmäki–Aki Uusikartano– Kuusela.

– Kivenmäki was a very good playmaker and Uusikartano a defensive center. It needed a player who can score goals.

In his first three league seasons, Kuusela had scored a total of 17 goals, but the net started to swing when Kivenmäki was feeding.

– I realized that I have to make the most of this seam and press more gas.

Kuusela had a 26-hit season – and became a league star.

A sharpshooter

After the Aces, Kuusela played a bit in Modo and a total of six league seasons in Kärpi and Blues before Tappara called.

– I had been away from Tampere for more than ten years. Somewhere in the back of my head it had been that it would be nice to come back, but for quite a long time I let it wait.

In Kärpi, Kuusela shined, especially at first, but he would also be in a hole the size of a couple of seasons. Lauri Marjamäki At the blues school, self-confidence was restored and playing became more diverse.

– Age brings that you learn to understand the game and roles, Kuusela formulates.

– The years in Oulu and Espoo taught a comprehensive game. With Tappara’s culture and level of requirements, the whole package was further refined.

Finally, in Tappara, Kuusela, a former master painter, hatched a genius playmaker and a precise scorer who dismantled underpowered squares.

– It’s nice to score goals, but pretty quickly I started appreciating passing and the fact that I was able to be a player who makes his teammates better.

Overalls

Kuusela, 42, played ten seasons in Tappara. He was a core piece in creating and supporting a dynasty of five championships.

When Kuusela returned, Tappara had lost the final series to Äss.

– Even though we had just lost the final, we were immediately wearing overalls to build a new one.

Despite the hard work and quality teams, the following springs brought more silver pain. Kuusela was able to see from a close distance when Juhamatti Aaltonen and Sebastian Aho served big overtime experiences to the people of Oulu every year.

– The second loss was pretty brutal. We were so far away, even though we were one goal away, Kuusela describes.

– Still, that process started again right after the final loss. Finally, a way was found to get over the last steppe.

Kuusela won four league championships in Tappara and once also the CHL.

– In Tappara, things are not swept under the rug, Kuusela emphasizes.

– Not a single weak performance or day is allowed to slip through the fingers. If it’s a bad day in training or a game, you try to learn from it.

“Pretty hard trick”

Kuusela became a World Cup player right at the end of his career, at the age of 36.

– I had already thought about the idea of ​​the World Cup a little, but when we dropped in the semifinals that year and I got to play a few practice games, I noticed that now there might be a hole for me in the team.

Kuusela claimed the last place in the team and started the tournament outside the playing lineup.

– When Eetu of the monastery got injured, I got a place in the assembly, he says.

– A few regular season games were a bit of a sight to watch, but my performance was on the upswing. The role was to be a reliable team player and show a culture of winning.

Marko Anttilan The skippered team returned from Bratislava to everyone’s surprise with the championship trophy.

– It was a pretty tough trick – especially when you look back at what kind of teams were dropped.

To be a coach

Kuusela finished in the spring of 2023, with a double championship.

– I decided after the CHL championship that what happened happened, my career will end in the spring, he says.

– The transition was painless. I got so much from hockey that it wasn’t hard to stop.

Is anyone surprised that Kuusela, an analytical and calm understanding of the game, has become a coach?

– It took about a month for me to get excited about coaching, he laughs.

– My teammates have always said that I will definitely coach. I myself have been of the opinion, even in the last season, that I will not become a coach.

Kuusela first ended up coaching his son’s team. This season, he is already professionally involved in Tappara’s U20 team as an assistant coach.

– I’m trying to improve and sometimes I dream of being a coach in a league team. I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t dream about something.

“I’m a tapper”

Tappara’s announcement about the shirt freeze was not only met with ecstasy in hockey circles. For example, an ex-league player Ilmari Pitkänen told In Viltmiehet podcast having experienced a “what the hell” moment. Another ex-league player, Sanoma’s expert Top Nättinen talked about “injustice”.

– Kuusela was away for too long [Tapparasta], Nättinen reasoned.

– This does not fit the line.

Tappara has frozen before Kalevi Numminen, Pekka Marjamäki, Timo Jutilan, Janne Ojanen, Timo Suden, Erkki Lehtonen and Jukka Peltolan numbers.

Kuusela wasn’t really bothered by the August mini-shock. He reminds that everyone has the right to their opinion.

– What is the mark and legacy that I have left in Tappara and how much is it valued? Kuusela asks.

– In Tappara, it was felt to be so big that I get such an honor.

Do you feel that you are clearly from Tappara, even though your puck roots are in Ostrobothnia and you played for years in the league elsewhere?

– Yes, I feel. I have played in the junior pipe from C to A in Tappara and also in the league for ten seasons. I’m a strong tapper guy.