Will the Lions win after Jukka Jalonen?

Jukka Jalosen the agreement continues for the spring 2023 world championships and includes an option for the 2023–24 season. How’s the Lions going after him?

The next head coach will inherit at least the high expectations. The front row candidates are the head coach of the Young Lions Antti Pennanen43, and his successors Kari Jalonen62.

According to Ilta-Sanomat, Pennanen is becoming the head coach of the Jokers. The KHL wash would marinate Pennanen, who is one of the hot, rising names, in line with Jukka Jalonen’s contract at the end of the contract.

Kari Jalonen’s U20 contract, which trained the Lions for the World Championship silver 2016, covers the World Championships for young people until 2024. The timing could hit him too if there was interest in returning.

However, there are still many variables in the equation, such as the success of the candidates in their future trials, new names to be considered, and Jukka Jalonen’s plans.

He is rightly Finland’s head coach in practice for as long as he wants. If no NHL spot is found, the wash could continue beyond spring 2024.

The system works

As Jalonen has shown, the role of head coach is even crucial. However, speculation on the future name is so far rather fruitless.

There are many other elements behind Finland’s success, which has become the number one ranking in the International Hockey Federation IIHF.

– The system works, Rauli Urama notes.

He now looks at it from the perspective of TPS’s sports executive. He was the top sports director of the Finnish Hockey Association in 2012–2020.

Urama lists the stone legs on which Finnish hockey stands. These include getting children into the sport, coaching skills, and a club-backed player path.

– It has the basic elements that still keep the course good. The sport will certainly maintain its position in Finnish ball culture, Urama believes.

– If we look at the success behind the team now, then the Finns have been in the top races in many value competitions, he refers to the medal catch of the junior national teams.

Finland last won the World Championships for under-20s in 2019, and of the previous fully played competitions in 2021, the World Championship bronze was a gift under Pennanen’s leadership. The latest World Cup gold in the U18 age group is from 2018.

– There is know-how and the direction of development is good. I don’t see any threats, Urama line.

If he still worked in his alliance’s leadership, a bold comment would even mirror the threat image, for satisfaction kills progress. Now he is evaluating the matter more from the outside.

The job title of the top sports director is divided after him by Pennanen, Jukka Jalonen and the GM of the young national teams. Kimmo Oikarinen in progress.

Information passes

National team medals, such as those won by men and women in Beijing, create a positive spiral in the sport.

– When there are top players, it is possible to secure the number of enthusiasts, falling in love with the sport and teaching basic skills. The Hockey Association invests a lot in this level. There are also support schemes that can support entry into the sport.

Career also mentions a sports academy program that has helped hockey lecturers combine players ’sports and study.

– There are opportunities to practice during school, and coaching skills for different sports are also gained around the players.

The systematic sharing of coaching know-how is one of the strengths of the Suomi puck.

– Now that I have been in a purely social environment for a couple of years, I can say that it is visible in social activities, Urama confirms.

For his own time in the Hockey Association, he praises the fact that the head coaches of all age groups in the national team were full-time.

– It was possible to utilize them as messengers and bring the level of international gaming closer to the field for both training and games. The daily lives of the players were also accessed, which has been one element in taking the tops forward.

– The skill coach project is also important. There are skill coaches made possible by the association in the clubs, and the message from there is also unified. It brings us homogeneity and a culture of operation.

Our game

Especially at the youth national team level, Finland will benefit from the fact that promising players will find it even easier to get a place in the professional league, the Finnish Championship League.

“It’s a solid element,” says Urama.

According to him, the horns of the Finland puck are sensitive to where the international game is going.

– They know how to take those skills and ways of playing under a magnifying glass right away and develop them.

For more than a decade, Finland has gained a competitive advantage from a unified way of understanding the laws of the sport, ie Our Game.

– I see it clearly. The identity that the Finnish player represents is quite strong, Urama says.

Our game is based on collaborative hockey and doing winning things through commitment.

– It ‘s like a quality standard game, and highlightit on top of that are then in the hands of the players.

NHL lion

Final hero Hannes Björninen, 26, was the youngest player on the Olympic team. Much of the lineup is slowly moving to the veteran department, but new lions are growing on the farm, as Urama says.

A whole different perspective opens up when you take a look at NHL players. Beijing missed them, and the next tournament of the world’s best players is scheduled for two years from now.

The World Cup 2024 would coincide with the option period of Jalonen’s current contract. NHL players are also likely to star in the next 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy.

– I think the situation is good there too. Finnish players are in the big screens in the NHL.

The majority of Finnish NHL players have risen to the top through the Finnish player path.

– The same competitive advantage in Finland will remain there, Urama is looking towards 2024 and 2026.