Risto Pakarinen is a Finnish pro hockey journalist writing articles for IIHF.com and nhl.com,
amongst many other places. He also has his own blog – ristopakarinen.com.

Can you describe hockey juniors´ training system in Finnland ?

The junior hockey system is always a hot topic, in all countries, in all sports. There are always people who want the system to produce more top talent, and there are always people worried about pushing the kids too much. In Finland, they try to combine these two, and get as may kids as possible to play the game, and then identify the prospects who enter the “lion path” – the nickname of the national team is “Lions” – through development camps and national teams.

The biggest change compared to when I was a minor hockey player – a few decades ago – is the number of registered players. In 1981, I was one of 27 000 registered players. Today, there are almost 70 000 registered players in the country. Of course, the increase is not only junior hockey, a lot of it is recreational hockey, but it shows how big a sport hockey is, and what the growth has been.

Hockey is the most popular sport in the country, so recruiting kids is not a problem. Up to 12 years old, there are guarantees that everybody will get equal ice time in games.

And how it is with ice time after being 12 years old ?

Then, after, and it may be 13, actually, then there are different levels, and the coaches can start playing their players as they see fit. Under 12, there’s a whistle that marks the shift lengths in equal rotation.

Who/what controls whether the ice-time is given in a fair way ? (I mean for example parent paying a hockey coach some money to “buy” his son more ice-time)

I’ve never heard of a parent paying the coach to get his son more ice time. Hockey is an expensive sport, so I am sure other parents make sure their son gets to play.

Does your hockey federation provide some sort of scholarship to buy hockey stuff for young hockey players coming from poor families ?

The federation, its districts, and the clubs all have programs to help kids from underprivileged families.

Hockey in Finnland saw “a mass retirement” of good players after the Olympics. Do you think
you have enough talented players to preserve the success of Finnish hockey ?

As a (cynical) Finnish coach said after his team had won the national title and somebody said the league wasn’t any good anymore: “You don’t have to be good, as long as you’re the best.” Everything is relative to what the other nations do. I was ready to say the Czechs weren’t a top nation anymore, and they win the World Championship. The Swedes haven’t won a World junior title since 1981, and before the two silvers and a bronze in the last three years hadn’t won a medal since 1996, or in twelve years That includes teams with players like Henrik Zetterberg, Daniel and Henrik Sedin, Henrik Lundqvist, Nicklas Bäckström, Loui Eriksson, Tobias Enström, Niclas Bergfors, Linus Omark, Niklas Kronwall, and so on. It would be easy to build a pretty solid Team Sweden roster out of players who played in World Juniors between 1997 and 2007, never winning a medal.

What I mean by that is that, Finland probably produces enough top talent to stay in the competition. There’s a Finnish goalie in the Stanley Cup final, and Ville Leino, a late bloomer on the other side. Finland has most medals in all national teams – together with Canada between 1997 and 2009.

Does the government invest enough money into hockey ?

The government gives aid to all sports federations, and the Finnish hockey federation covers about ten percent of its expenses by government aid. The rest comes from the players, and corporate sponsors.

Can you tell any funny/interesting/exciting experience you had at this World Championship in Germany at the zone where only journalist are allowed to enter (I believe it´s called mix zone) ?

I can just say that it’s a jungle out there. Everybody wants to talk to the same players, whether it’s Ovechkin or Peter Budaj, or Miroslav Satan. Or Jaromir Jagr. He has an interesting habit of only doing a few interviews when he gets off the ice, but then returning to the mixed zone much, much later. For example, after the final, he didn’t show up until about an hour and 15 minutes after the game, and most journalists were already busy writing their stories.

Of course, there are games when there aren’t that many journalists. After the game between the US and Kazakhstan, the coaches’ press conference was a conversation between the coaches and me, as the only reporter there.

What´s general public opinion on hockey officials in Finnland ? Are they doing much for improving hockey there ?

Well, I don’t know many countries where the people would be happy with the federation but all in all, I think the federation is trusted and people think they’re trying to develop hockey in Finland. It’s a powerful organization in Finland.

Foto: polarfox