“You could still see a Finnish style when I went to Mikkeli and started to do things differently, almost the opposite of what the other teams were doing, and bucked the trend,” he said. “Then last year, Tappara played a similar style of hockey.”
What has he observed in Sweden?
“In Sweden, many teams play in a similar, organized and slightly passive way, but certain basic principles apply everywhere. A player has to be able to skate, give a pass, and receive a pass, and when you add the ability to battle for pucks, you’ve got the building blocks for success. The team that does all those things better than the other team will often be on the right side of the coin. Let’s not forget that hockey belongs to the players. We focus too much on systems.”
With Jokinen, it’s go, go, go.
“As soon as we get the puck, we make a move, whether it’s a forward, backward or a lateral pass, so that the other team doesn’t have time to react,” he explained. “And if we lose the puck, we’ll try to get it back right away, and not retreat to the neutral zone.”
Jokinen is a connoisseur of the global game. He owns a World Junior gold medal, an Olympic silver and two bronzes, and three silver medals and as many bronze medals from the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships. Accordingly, Jokinen is pleased to see the NHLers returning to the Winter Games in Milan in 2026.
“First of all, it’ll be great to get the Worlds here [in Stockholm in 2025],” said Jokinen, gesturing around him. “But it’s fantastic to get the best-on-best tournaments again. It’s good for the game. I played in four Olympic tournaments, with NHLers, and to me as a player, playing for your country against the best players in the world was a fantastic experience.”
One of the most unforgettable moments in Jokinen’s career is from the Olympics. Even if it didn’t go his way, he smiles as he talks about his chance to tie the 2006 Olympic final against Sweden, with 25 seconds to go.
“Somehow [Swedish netminder] Henrik Lundqvist managed to make the save. I’ll never forget it. And neither will he,” Jokinen said.
How about 2026?
“It’ll be great to see the [Sebastian] Ahos and [Aleksander] Barkovs play for Finland since they’ve never had the chance to play in a best-on-best tournament. For my generation, that was a dream come true.”
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