2010-2011

Kai Suikkanen went to KHL in the summer and the new coach was Heikki Leime.

But if the 2010 season was a success that can´t be described in words, it was the straight opposite this season. I often predict "pessimistic but realistic" but I was certain that they would reach the playoffs and end as 7th-10th or something like that.

But the season was very, very nasty and awful. Terrible. Frantic. Horrible. You can´t describe it with words.
After 14 rounds TPS had 3 points and the team that were 13th was next until 15 points over them. First at that moment they fired their coach Heikki Leime.
Riku-Petteri Lehtonen was their new coach and in the first match with him they won 6-5 in OT against Tappara (but Tappara led 1-4)...And in the national team pause they had 13 points, the team that were 13th and second-last had 21. I thought that TPS had chances now to reach the 13th place! It was around 40 rounds left...
And they won 7-0 against Ilves and 3-2 and 3-2 OT against another bottom-team, SaiPa. After the SaiPa games TPS had 21 points and SaiPa 22!!! YEEEEEEEEEEEEES! TPS will stay in the league, I shouted. They left the jumbo position at the end of November thanks to a 3-2 OT victory against HPK. I finally went to the hall for the first time of the season the 10th December, they played against Ässät which won 4-1....And they were last again at the Christmas holiday...
They played horrible again in January, almost similarly as in the autumn, and Lehtonen was fired...Jukka Koivu, the father of Saku and Mikko, was the new coach and he had only one assignment: lead TPS to stay in the league!
And they played quite good in February! We were on a journey on the silent Canary Island Graciosa 19-26th February, it was one of the best moments in 2011, even better than the Finnish Gold Medal in hockey 2011 because I loved the place so much...A little island with 700 inhabitants, destiny beached, Spanish food...almost without tourists. We went to a internet-café twice and even if they theoretically didn´t had a chance to reach the playoffs anymore I shouted when they got a point from Kärpät and Pelicans losed...They was 5-6 points before Pelicans now :)
But Pelicans was in a big form at the end.
I watched the last regular season game, TPS vs Blues. TPS had 58 points and Pelicans 57 points. Three points win for TPS: 13th place. Two points: Reach if Pelicans don´t get three points.  Loss: Reach if even Pelicans loss.  1 point loss: Reach if Pelicans don´t get over 1 point.
Blues led 1-0 and 2-1. The situation was 1-2 with 1.30 left, and even Pelicans led its game over Lukko with 1-0. Lukko scored 1-1 at the ending and it was ironic when every single fan in the hall shouted, when Lukko is the enemy for many TPS fans (but Jokerit is mine)...
Lukko-Pelicans final score was 1-1.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHDv9ELEI-k  The club, that has been loved and represent for decades, is now 1.30 from qualification games..Vittasmäki plays to Suominen..Suominen ROTATES.... :)  TUOMAS SUOMINEN, it doesn´t exist more important goals! Suominen´s 10th goal, 1.24 before the end of the third period! Now it is decided. IT IS GOAL!!!  And Engren SAVES, TPS stays in the league directly!!!   Jukka Koivu throws his tie at the same point and cheer very highly! Atte Engren makes a huge save :) :) :)


And I stayed in the hall for 10 minutes...WHAT A RELIEF! WHAT A RELIEF! TPS were 13th, second last, not last :)  It was like a championship this season :)   (Pelicans won the qualification games 4-0 against Sport from Vaasa, but it would be awful to be so nervous for them for weeks)...
Kärpät was also a flop, they were the big favourite but were only 10th!!!

It was a very exciting quarter-final serie: HIFK-Jokerit, the moralic final...HIFK won 4-3 in matches and took the championship, Blues took silver, Lukko bronze.
But Jokerit led 2-0 and 3-2 in matches and were 10 cm from scoring the deciding goal in the sixth game...But HIFK won it 2-1 OT and took the seventh 5-1 :)   I will never forget that I was texting about the situation to the girl I loved between 2007-2010, partly between 2005-2011, because she is a HIFK fan...The day when Jokerit are out is always the 10th best day in the year to me and it was EXTRA nice to celebrate it with her...(We were never together because she didn´t loved me but she was a very big help to me for many years)...