Team Talk

Team Talk

Photo Credit: IceHockeyMedia - Colin Lawson

After winning the NIHL North Moralee Conference title with Solway Sharks this season, Finnish import Kim Miettinen provides an interesting insight into the world of ice hockey, sharing his thoughts on the huge transformation at former club Blackburn Hawks and revealing some of his teammates’ unusual superstitions…    

What has been your highlight of the season and are there any moments you would change if you could?

The highlight for me has probably been our success overall in all competitions. I can’t name a single moment from this season because we have been mostly winning all the time. I would change our defeats against Blackburn. Both games were really poor from our part and they got the wins way too easy.

If you could replay any of the games you have played this season, which would you choose and why?

I would replay probably our first game in Whitley Bay at the start of the season. Warriors were second in the league last year and we knew it was going to be a hard one. We went there with big confidence. We played skilful hockey, didn’t care about their style of play and absolutely destroyed them.

Though a defenceman, you are currently one of Solway’s top points scorers at present, having achieved over thirty points in the Moralee Conference this season. How great an achievement is this for you and does this meet or exceed the expectations you had at the start of the season?

I think that I have been scoring points close to the same PPG (points per game) ratio that I had last year. I was personally expecting around one point per game and I think I’m a little bit over that so that’s always a good ratio for a defenceman. I don’t really care if I score twenty or thirty points. We have been successful with our team and that’s what really matters at the end.

This is your first season with Solway Sharks. What have you learned about your new team mates, are there any funny facts you can reveal about them and who would you say is the most competitive player within Solway’s setup?

The most competitive player is definitely Ross Murray. I know he loves to get a mention in these interviews so here we go! Hutchy [James Hutchinson] keeps the young boys in order so there is not too much mayhem going on. We have a great team spirit overall in the locker room so it has been an easy year for me to fit in. Funny facts is a hard one. [Juraj] Senko has weird food rituals on weekends and game days. Every Friday we are eating pizza after practice because he thinks that that’s the reason we are winning. I always buy three bananas for a game to get a little energy. He tried it one game and, I don’t know why, but now he always buys bananas on Saturday and just carries them around the whole weekend and doesn’t eat them!

The NIHL has been highly competitive this season, with little separating each team below second place. What do you think the reason is for this and what have you made of the league this season?

This year we have seen several players dropping down from EPL, making the league better. Also, teams like Billingham now have two imports. We have also seen some juniors stepping up and fitting in well. The big thing, as well, is that Senators went down and The Dragons came up. They have been a way better fit for this league, making it more balanced.

Based on the other imports you have faced in the Moralee Conference this season, who do you feel has been the most impressive and why?

It is a really hard task to name only one of all the imports this year. I like the style of Finnish and Swedish hockey so I would say all the Nordic imports have been impressive. Also, Juraj Senko has been really good again. I feel that imports overall in the NIHL are smart on the ice with and without the puck. I think that you can see that they have spent most of their childhood playing pond hockey and just grown up with hockey all over the place.

It is looking increasingly likely that your former club Blackburn Hawks will earn themselves a top four finish. What are your thoughts on their campaign as a whole? 

Hawks started really slow but I feel that they have been progressing slowly during the season. It’s always hard to gel in if basically the whole team is new and guys don’t know each other. It definitely has been a hard season for Hawks but right now, it is looking like they will make the playoffs and anything can happen there.

Many players left Blackburn Hawks over the summer months after accomplishing the league and playoff title with the club last season. In your personal opinion, what do you think the reason for this was and why was there greater appeal for players to join other clubs than return to play another season at Blackburn?

It was kind of weird actually. I have never seen the whole team just leaving and going somewhere else but I guess it has lots to do with people's personal lives. Lots of our players were travelling long distances and that is something which is definitely a big difference now for some players. Maybe there were some politics behind some people’s decisions as well but I don’t really know a lot about that. Maybe after two years dominating the league some players thought that it was time to try something else. There are so many reasons to change a team and just everything happened at the same time.

Starting out in your career, you played for several junior teams in Finland, including SM-Liiga’s Sport U20s team. What is junior ice hockey like in Finland and how does Finnish ice hockey compare to how the sport is played in Great Britain?  

Yeah, I have definitely been going all over the place, playing puck in different cities and countries. Junior hockey is literally the best thing in life. There is no need to worry about anything; just play hockey and enjoy life. In Finland, junior hockey is a really high level. Players get drafted to the NHL from our U20s league. It’s like pro hockey, except only players with Liiga contracts get paid. My junior team was on ice like eight times a week. With that, comes always off-ice training, before and after ice practice. Then you play two to three games a week. It was pretty much like a full time job and all your time you spent at the ice rink. Maybe you have time to take a nap at your home between morning and afternoon practice! I played in a city called Vaasa and their fans are crazy. They are called the Red Army and my team was the first one to ever make it in playoffs in U20s from Sport organisation. Our home games in playoffs were packed and there was three thousand crazy fans dancing and singing in the crowd. Hockey in Great Britain is so different than back home. Finnish hockey is really fast and skilful. British hockey is more like North American style. Sometimes, I feel that fans from certain teams don’t even care if their team wins or loses. They are happy if their players are fighting and playing dirty. Also, junior hockey here is such a big difference compared to Finland. Like I said, back home it’s almost like a full time job. Here, juniors may train once a week and players might not even show up for that one session. There is no off-ice or nothing like that. You come to the rink whenever you want and you go on the ice for an hour or so to skate around and then you go home. That doesn’t really give much room to improve. This all comes down to hockey culture and funding for the sport. I guess other major sports here take most of the money.

You also played for Massachusetts in the USA’s NSHL in 2013-14. What was your reason for travelling overseas to play ice hockey, what was this experience like and how did this influence your decision to experience other leagues such as Russia’s MHL, Sweden’s Division Two and Great Britain’s NIHL?

After my first year in U20s, I moved back home and close to me was a Mestis team called HCK. I was training with them that summer but decided to move to USA to play one more year in juniors. I wanted a new experience and I love travelling so it was an interesting place to go. My year there was amazing. I got to experience a new style of hockey and I got to see a lot of places. After the season, I was selected for an All-Star tournament which was played in Las Vegas! It was an epic week there to play in front of many college scouts and we had our fair share of partying there as well. After playing in the USA, I had a couple NCAA offers but I decided to go to Russia and play MHL. That was my first pro year. I was really unlucky though because I started playing in a Slovakian team called Kosice Jackals. We were supposed to play in the MHL but our team went into bankruptcy like two days before our home opener. I stayed in Slovakia for a couple of weeks and then an agent contacted me and told me that there was another MHL team who needed a defenceman. So I flew to Moldova to play for Platina Chisinau then in December, that team went into bankruptcy and in January I found myself without a team for the second time in that year! (Russia, right?) I was chilling in Finland for a month and a team from Sweden called me to say that they needed an import defenceman to play relegation games. So I flew there and literally played like three regular season games and two relegation games which we won and flew back home in less than one month. Then in the summer, one agent knew Budz [then Blackburn Hawks’ player-coach Daniel MacKriel] so I ended up playing for Blackburn. I guess I like to experience new countries and cultures and hockey is a great way to go around.

How do these leagues and the experiences that went with playing ice hockey in these countries differ, which did you prefer and which leagues would you like to experience in the future? 

Every country and league is a little bit different. The MHL has definitely been the fastest hockey I’ve played. Sweden and Finland are kind of similar; skilful style except I don’t think I’ve ever seen a hit in Swedish hockey. Then North American and British hockey are way more physical. Every league has been a really good experience. If I would have to choose one, I would like to play in Russia again. Travelling is crazy there because of distances but the MHL was a really good level and I improved a lot there. In the future, I would like to play in France at some point. I like to do mountaineering so the Alps would be pretty close there!

Across the many countries you have played in, which players have been the best you have worked with?

I’ve played with so many players in juniors so there is way too many. Probably, the best ones are Teuvo Teräväinen and Joonas Korpisalo who both play now in the NHL and Teuvo even lifted the cup a couple years back!

Which ice hockey player inspired you as a junior and if there is one coach in the world that you would like to work with, who would it be?

This is a hard question! I never really had one player who I was inspired by. I guess all our NHL stars were there. Teemu Selänne and Jari Kurri were probably the biggest stars out there. Evgeni Malkin has been my favourite since he came to the NHL. If I could choose one coach I would want to play for it would be Lauri Marjamäki who is now coaching Finland’s national team. He is a young coach ahead of his time and he is excellent in developing young players.

Was ice hockey always the main sport that you were interested in as a child and what was life like growing up with the sport in Finland?

Kids in Finland grow up with hockey so it was always there as my first choice. I used to play football too but I had to stop it when I was around thirteen because I just didn’t have time for both practices. I used to go play pond hockey straight from school when I was a kid and we would play the whole day until our parents would have to come and take us home for food or hockey practices.

If you could change one thing about ice hockey in Great Britain, what would it be and why?

I would change the whole junior system. More ice time and a more serious attitude towards junior hockey.

There are likely to be changes to the structure of British Ice Hockey over the summer months. What impact do you think this will have on the NIHL?

I’ve heard a lot of rumours flying around but I can’t really say anything about the NIHL before we know what is going to happen. I think the EPL is going in the right direction with three imports and I hope that some NIHL teams make a jump up.

With playoff weekend just around the corner, what are you most looking forward to about this competition?

Playoff weekend is a really intense happening and I am looking forward to seeing some other games and playing in front of all fans.

Finally, do you hope to stay with the Sharks next season and what normally influences you to make a decision to remain at or leave a particular club? How do you see Solway’s next season in the Moralee Conference progressing and where do you see yourself in five years’ time?

My time with the Sharks has been really good so Solway is definitely a good place to be. I usually try to make some research of teams I’m speaking with but mostly it matters if I just have a good feeling about the club, talking with coaches and players etc. I don’t really know what is going to happen with league structure but if everything stays the same, I can see the Sharks winning the league next year because we have by far the youngest team in the league. That means we are only getting better. I see myself still playing hockey, enjoying life and travelling the world.

Thank you to Kim Miettinen for taking the time to be interviewed by NIHL Northern Trio.

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