Hockey|Juhamatti Aaltonen tells what made him even more excited. Risto Dufva has put together quite a chain in training.
Yet at the end of September Juhamatti Aaltonen39, wondered, Is he interested in playing hockey anymore. Already at that time, there were rumors about his return to the Jokers, but the 39-year-old puck expert just dismissed them by laughing that the game trips “to some Kajaani” don’t really catch on.
A month and a half later, Aaltonen is, as it were, the Joker’s man again. The debut in Mestis comes on Wednesday at Nordenskiödinkatu against Iisalmi’s Peli-Karhu – and Aaltonen will also go to Kajaani by bus next week.
“That’s not it, let’s go to Kajaani,” Aaltonen laughs now.
“Yes, there has been a receipt for that comment. But that’s part of the job. And that was the feeling of the moment. I’ve never had anything against jokers,” Aaltonen continues.
As autumn darkened, Aaltonen’s desire to play woke up. He himself talks about the awakening of a “hockey romantic” inside him.
Joker’s league promotion project fascinated me.
“I have seen and experienced everything. It was already close that this would have been here, and I couldn’t really get excited anymore. I had to find a place that really motivated me. Otherwise, nothing would come of it. I have learned that from myself.”
“There is such a big boom around the Jokers here now that even I got the feeling that after all, this is it. I have never had such a project myself. Everything is new and I can still live at home. I wouldn’t have been able to go on trips anymore,” says Aaltonen, who lives in Espoo with his family.
Aaltonen wants to experience with the Jokers the same thing he once experienced as a 14-year-old teenager as a fan of the Kärppie: promotion to the SM league by playing, which has not happened since the Kärppie and spring 2000.
“When I was a kid, when there was a kärpäjunnu, I watched when Kärpät tried to get up. A few times there were terrible losses in the playoffs. I was in the stands when they finally beat Pelsu and got promoted to the league,” Aaltonen, who made his debut in the Kärppie league team in the 2002-03 season, expressed his mood.
Aaltonen played in Jokerien’s shirt in the club’s first two KHL seasons in 2014–16. There is nothing left of that team. Except the defender Ossi Väänänen today as a club owner.
“Undoubtedly, everything has changed here. Different dudes and different halls. But this is the new coming. And Hartsuk is already owned by the Finns, so how do you know that,” says Aaltonen, referring to the former Hartwall arena.
Aaltonen is already familiar with the joker shirt. He played in the KHL in Helsinki for two seasons in 2014–16.
Even though completely new winds are blowing in Jokers, there is also a good amount of old stuff. Valtteri Filppula returned to his home club already in the summer, and now another world champion steps into the dressing room along with Aaltonen, Antti Pihlström.
Behind the bench, discipline keeps everything and a little over the top Risto Dufvawho is a man Aaltonen has known for years.
Dufva never chose a young person I’m a magician to the under-20 World Cup team he coached. At that time, Dufva characterized Aalto as a player as a “Porsche without brakes”.
Now, however, the brakes have been found – or the power of the old Porsche has slightly lowered Dufva to a pleasant level in twenty years.
In rehearsals Dufva has now beaten Aaltonen, Filppula and Pihlström all in the same chain. 39-year-old Aaltonen feels young next to his chain friends who are in their fifties.
“It’s been talked about here that the chain is 119 years old, and I’m the youngest! Totally crazy. I collect the pucks of our chain”, Aaltonen laughs.
“It’s been nice to do a few training sessions with the guys now. Now let’s see if that Risto will put us in the game together. But yes, these guys played a role in the fact that I still wanted to join the Jokers.”
Aaltonen joined the Pelicans in the last spring season, in whose ranks he was leading the people of Lahti all the way to the SM silver.
Aaltonen says that he kept in shape throughout the fall and went on the ice “here and there”.
As recently as last spring, Aaltonen played in the SC finals for the Pelicans. At that time, the former power catcher of the top chains had already turned into a brakeman of the lower chains. But what kind of Aaltonen is seen in Mesti?
“Oh well, I don’t really know myself! I’ve been participating in the four trainings here. Sometimes it feels like for a moment, what the heck has this sport gone. But you have to get something done here and have some kind of confirmation. Not quite a talisman,” Aaltonen reflects.
Juhamatti Aaltonen and Antti Pihlström will return to the Joker’s shirt on Wednesday at 18:30 in Mesti’s home match against IPK.