Hannu Jortikka's icecapades all too soon over

It's a shame that Jokerit were eliminated from the playoffs - their coach was worth the price of admission

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By Ilkka Ahtiainen
     
      I have never been able to stomach Helsinki Jokerit.
      This does not mean, however, that I was anything but slightly annoyed to see that the hockey team's season ended in the very first round of the playoffs, when they were eliminated by Tappara from Tampere.
      The reason for my mild irritation at Jokerit's speedy exit was that I had been looking forward to watching more of the excellent sports entertainment provided by the team coach Hannu Jortikka behind the players' benches.
     
No other coach in the current SM-Liiga cast can put on such a splendid show during a match - at least if one goes by the images seen on the TV screen.
      Jortikka is like a raging bull; he is hotter than a peppered sprout.
      He gives the players feedback on their performance up-close and very personal - and fortissimo: you can see the blow-dryer effect as the shoulders of even the toughest hockey jock slump at the sheer force of the critical assault.
     
Does a coach have to scream and shout?
      Is it a contractual thing?
      Do the players not understand by themselves that they have screwed up on the ice and lost the puck or missed a tackle?
      "Well, I always liked to get told what for straightaway and no messing. Just a sidelong glance from the coach is not enough for all players" , says former Team Finland and Jokerit forward Petri Varis.
      Varis played under Jortikka in the Jokerit side during the 2004-2005 league season, the last time the coach was in charge of the Helsinki team.
     
Hannu Jortikka is an archetypal coach in the slave-driver mode: extremely demanding, loud of voice, authoritarian, and sometimes even downright mean'n'ornery.
      If you know where to look on YouTube, you can find a clip from a few years ago of Jortikka ripping defenseman Arto Tukio a new one as the TV cameras roll.
      Tukio had broken a skate and couldn't find a spare pair, and Jortikka apparently delighted in airing the player's dirty washing in public.
     
Those who follow ice hockey at close quarters say that it is typical for Jortikka to divide players into favourites and those whom he loathes.
      "He doesn't make any bones about it if he doesn't trust a particular player", says Petri Varis.
      But at the same time Varis says that pro sportsmen really ought to be able to cope with this sort of thing, and in most cases, they can.
      "For some it just makes them work and try even harder."
     
The absolute opposite to Jortikka is Hannu Aravirta, who was given the boot by the Jokerit management midway through the season and who was replaced by Jortikka.
      Aravirta, who also coached the national squad from 1997 to 2003, is known as a diplomat, and is not often heard cussing and shouting.
      In terms of decibels, he doesn't even get on the same page as Jortikka, but for all that he has enjoyed a good deal of success at both club and national level.
     
Another quiet coach with an impressive record is Erkka Westerlund, who was for instance in charge of the Finnish Olympic side when they came within a whisker of the gold medals in Torino four years ago.
      "There are so many ways to coach a team. Erkka's authority in the locker-room and on the ice comes from the fact that he knows so much", says former Finland defenseman Hannu Virta, who has also had experience of coaching, for example in Switzerland and with TPS of Turku in the Finnish league.
      "Jortikka's style has always been the same. He knows how to keep the guys on their toes. He manages to ramp up the demands on his players the whole time."
      Hannu Virta has a good many positive memories of Jortikka from the time when they were together in Turku in Virta's playing days.
      As the TPS captain, Virta collected three Finnish Championship winners' medals under Jortikka's leadership, and he has even coached alongside him.
      "Hannu is a pretty laidback guy these days. I'm sure it is easier being in one of his teams nowadays than it was a few decades back", says Virta.
     
Within the SM-Liiga, Jortikka's abrasive style of man-management has definitely paid dividends.
      He is the most successful coach in the league's history, with six titles won for TPS, in two separate stints between 1988 and 1991 and 1998 and 2001.
      Taking three titles on the bounce once is enough of a coaching merit, but doing it all over again ten years later...
     
And Hannu Jortikka's story is certainly not over yet, even if Jokerit did make a pretty dismal fist of it this season - they barely scraped into the playoffs and went out meekly in the first round.
      There is nevertheless still a call in the sports world for bosses with a good pair of lungs on them.
      At least that is what the Jokerit owner Hjallis Harkimo thought when he hired Jortikka in late November to try to salvage something from the 2009-2010 season.
      Harkimo says it was not down to Jortikka's failings that the team did not succeed any better than they did.
      "It was my fault. I'm the one who put the squad together."
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 28.3.2010


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Summer comes early for Blues and Jokerit (29.3.2010)

Links:
  Helsinki Jokerit (Wikipedia)
  Hannu Jortikka (Wikipedia)

ILKKA AHTIAINEN / Helsingin Sanomat
ilkka.ahtiainen@hs.fi