The winger rose to the top of Finland’s statistics in the number of playoffs.
Tampere
Canada bowl stood prophetically in the central circle when Mikko Alatalo sang the song Maamme before the third puck final at Nokia-Arena.
There was no party, though Kristian Kuusela, 39, they would have deserved it. He rose to 190 playoffs on Monday and shared the top spot with the now defunct defender Ilkka Mikkolan with.
No one in Finland has played more in the playoffs than Kuusela and Mikkola.
Tappara made a bad etiquette mistake by not handing out a big flower bush to Kuusela. There are also clubs in Finland where the flowers would have come.
Monday’s reading will hopefully be a stopover for Kuusela, who will take the top of the statistic alone in the fourth final. There is also a risk that Kuusela will no longer play in the spring, when the party in front of more than 12,000 spectators was not held.
It was a meager consolation that in the middle of the round, a picture of Kuusela flashed on a large scoreboard and the number of matches reached.
The reading of Kuusela and Mikkola is insane in Finnish league hockey. In numbers, it means more than three full season-only playoffs from night to night.
What calls for nearly 200 playoffs? Must be an excellent player, but not too good. Otherwise, the NHL will correct the player in his own arms.
Kuusela would comfortably have more than 200 playoffs if the coronavirus had not wiped out the spring matches of 2020. Last spring went injured and behind the Tappara exchange bench as a consultant, but not every bump can be avoided.
One big condition for the 190 game is to stay fit every spring and play in such good clubs that matches continue after the regular season. It also helps that it is so hard to raise the level of the whole club with its own game.
In his long career, Kuusela has stacked a whopping 12 points over 40 points and completed his statistics in the playoffs: six points over ten points.
Motivation must also remain in the pin from season to season. The long regular season is a must to endure that gets enjoyed in the spring.
That’s what Kuusela has done.
You should stay fit first in the regular season and then in the playoffs. The trick is not the easiest in a sport like hockey. And Kuusela is nothing but 175-centimeters.
Uranus in the early years, Kuusela ran like a devil and dug into every small slit, fearlessly. He loaded more goals than he scored, and only at a later age did the balance in points score toward the passes.
Mikkola won as many as eight Finnish Championship golds in his career. Kuusela will not have time for that this spring and probably never will. Of the three championships, the distance is too long for eight.
Still, Kuusela has something that very few Finnish hockey players have. He won the world championship, and in a very special way.
Kuusela never qualified for the World Cup team until the invitation came at the age of 36 in 2019. The lions took over the sensational World Cup gold and Kuusela was one part of the team, and well filled her place.
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