Ice hockey | The idea of ​​returning to the Jokers fascinates Valtteri Filppula: “It would be great in theory”

Rauma

Ice hockey player Valtteri Filppula has won almost everything possible in his career. There is a wild combo in the trophy cabinet, i.e. a Stanley cup ring, Olympic gold and a world championship. He has also won the championship in Switzerland.

However, the CHL championship is still missing from the 39-year-old Filppula's achievements.

On Tuesday, he personally made sure that the pursuit of the championship is still possible this season. Filppula scored two goals in Luko's net. With their help, Genève-Servette advanced to the CHL final.

The game in Rauma ended 2–3 and the Swiss club won the final with a total of 5–4.

“When you play for something, you always want to win it. The CHL championship wouldn't be the number one thing in my career, but everything is now being done to ensure that we get the trophy”, Filppula stated.

The CHL semifinal game was officially almost sold out in Rauma and the audience was 4,322. Still, there were many empty chairs in the stands. In the early season games, there have been even more of them in CHL matches of Finnish teams.

How has the CHL attracted audiences in Switzerland?

“Not there in the same way as series games either. Now it was nice to play when there were people in the hall and the match was even. The result could have gone the other way, and it wouldn't have been a mistake,” Filppula said.

Although Filppula is a Finnish player, he has not played much outside of the national team in Finland in recent years. During the 2012-2013 NHL lockout season, he played for the Jokers for the first season.

Since then he has played in the NHL and now in his third season in Switzerland in Genève-Servette.

In autumn, the team already visited Rauma once. These games against Lukko are the only games in the club jersey in Finland in about ten years.

“It's a bit different to play against a Finnish club team. Suddenly, you still get used to it on the ice.”

“In the fall, we spent the night in Helsinki during our visit to Rauma, but now we arrived in Finland already on Sunday and spent the night in Rauma. On Monday, we went to the sauna and open swimming with the team. It was really nice to show that side to non-Finnish teammates. All of them did quite well in the slush”, Filppula laughed.

In general, he doesn't get to Finland very often during the busy season.

“It was really nice to be able to visit Finland in the middle of the season. There were no such opportunities in the NHL. I was in Finland for four days at Christmas, but besides that, the visits have been few and far between. That's why this trip was very nice personally.”

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On Monday, we went to the sauna and open swimming with the team.

Flippula are primarily associated with Jokers among Finnish clubs. He has welcomed the team's return to Mesti on the domestic puck map with joy.

“Hopefully the Jokerit will get back to the league at some point. I've been following their results and it's been going quite well there.”

“In theory, it would be great to still play in the Jokers in the main series, but there aren't terribly many years left in the game, so it's hard to predict. However, Jokerit is a big and important club in my own career.”

How about the national team patterns? Can Filppula still be seen taking part in, for example, the World Cup?

“I haven't really thought about those things. Maybe it's time for younger guys to take my place,” Filppula said.