Hockey|The league qualifiers return to the match map after a long time.
Ice hockey The SM league starts its 50th season on Tuesday with seven matches. A record number of 16 teams play in the league during the holiday season.
The SM league expanded by one club from last season, when Kiekko-Espoo was promoted from the second tier of the league from Mesti to the main league. It finished third in last season’s Mestis.
In the league, Tappara has won the previous three Finnish championships in a row. It will face TPS in its opening match in Tampere.
In the first season of the SM league, 1975–76, ten teams played in the series. After that, the number varied from 12 to 14 teams. The League expanded to a 15-team main series in the 2015–16 season.
This season, the already familiar 60-round regular season will be played in the League’s regular season. The 12 best teams make it to the playoffs.
The four best teams in the regular season continue directly to the quarterfinals. The four match pairs of the first round of the playoffs are made up of regular season positions 5–12, 6–11, 7–10 and 8–9.
In the regular season the last two teams ranked 15–16 play matches for qualifying for the league. The loser of the match series will be eliminated from the league against the champion of Mestis.
The league qualifiers return to the match map after a break of more than a decade. The SM League was a closed series in 2001–08 and 2013–24.
According to the league’s new rule interpretations, in the 50th anniversary season, even more attention will be paid to eradicating blocking and holding.
In addition to Tappara–TPS, the six other match pairs in the first league round are HIFK–Kiekko-Espoo, Jukurit–HPK, JYP–Pelicans, KalPa–SaiPa, Lukko–KooKoo and Sport–Kärpät. Ilves and Ässät start their series later.
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