The general manager of the Czech national hockey team, Petr Nedvěd, said last week that he would like to see Finn Kari Jalonen with his aides Miloslav Hořava and Pavel Gross as the successor of Filip Pešán as the national team coach. Jiří Novotný, a long-time representative and world champion, got to know Jalonen very well when working together at the KHL.
During the 2013/14 season, Kari Jalonen came to the Prague Lion, where Jiří Novotný was captain, as a man who had already won four Finnish league titles as head coach. And an international team of lion-headed players under his leadership fought for the Gagarin Cup in a few months.
Lev dominated his conference, knocking out Medveščak, Donbass and Yaroslavl in the playoffs and then defeating Magnitogorsk in the decisive seventh match in the thrilling KHL final. He fell at the very end.
Jalonen later got a two-year chance at the Finnish national team and also brought silver from the 2016 World Cup in Russia. He won the Swiss league twice with Bern.
He is now a hot candidate for the position of coach of the Czech national team, which experienced a historic embarrassment at the Beijing Olympics in February and which he would be the first foreigner to lead.
He has already negotiated with Nedvěd in Prague and exchanged a few words over the phone with Novotný, currently a hockey agent and forward, who resumed his career in České Budějovice at the age of 38. The owner of the last three Czech medals from the 2010 and 2012 World Championships would not resist the model with Finn.
How would you like it if the national team was taken over by Kari Jalonen with assistants Miloslav Hořava and Pavel Gross?
Miloš Hořava and Pavel Gross never trained me, Kari did, so I can comment on him. For me, he is an excellent coach who has done an excellent result with us in Leo. It would be interesting, for the first time in history, the national team would be led by a foreign coach. I wonder how it will turn out.
Many people oppose the Czech team being led by a foreigner. Jaromír Jágr and Jiří Šlégr allegedly disagree on this in the union’s executive committee, and coach Luděk Bukač Jr. rejected this trip in an Aktuálně.cz interview.
I’m not competent to say yes or no. That is decided by the executive committee. But I had a chance to talk to Kari on the phone, we talked about it. And again, he is a coach with great qualities. He also led the Finnish national team, he won the Swiss title twice with Bern, he still has the results. He is a strict coach, takes care of details and is successful with it. So why not give it a try. I don’t know who other Czech coaches could do that. Pepa Jandač and Jirka Kalous, Alois Hadamczik, Vláďa Růžička were already there. I can’t think of other names. And if Kari has Czech assistants with him, I don’t see a problem with that at all.
Jalonen looks stern from the point of view, saves smiles. As for the team work itself, is he a great detailist?
It’s strict, we experienced it in Leo firsthand. Otherwise, he pays a lot of attention to video, to the observance of details in the game system. In today’s hockey, it’s definitely good, trying to eliminate mistakes to a minimum.
Does it focus mainly on the defense? When he came to Leo during the 2013/14 season, he ordained fierce hockey, which bothered your opponents.
We had an excellent team then and we understood how he wanted to lead us. We believed in his vision of hockey and it led us to the seventh final against excellent Magnitogorsk. I have only the best memories of it.
The national team and the club are completely different in the way they work, but could Jalonen, with his emphasis on defense, be a suitable type of coach who will lead the Czech team to the desired success in a short-term tournament?
We saw how the Finns played at the Olympics. More like defensive hockey, someone objected that it was impossible to watch, but they won their first gold and no one asks more. They carry medals from the World Cup, they probably don’t do it wrong. Kari would be supplemented by Czech assistants, they would put a Czech idea there. It can fit and work.
You once said that Jalonen reminds you of Vladimír Růžička in certain respects. Under his leadership, you also rolled out the last Czech gold so far at the 2010 World Cup with a very defensive game.
I honestly don’t remember comparing them. Růža put a lot into his instinct, often changing lines. However, it can be said that both are quite explosive and strict, but at the same time fair. This is always a good combination.
Kari Jalonen
Photo: Lev Praha
Finnish coach and former striker, 62 years old.
As a player, he won the Finnish league four times with TPS Turku (1989, 1990, 1991, 1993) and triumphed with Rouen in France at the end of his career (1995). You played on sixth MS and the 1981 Canadian Cup, played 42 NHL games in the 1980s.
As a coach, he won the Finnish league again with TPS three times as assistant (1999, 2000, 2001) and with other teams four times as head coach (Flies Oulu 2005, 2007, 2008, IFK Helsinki 2011). He also has two Swiss titles with Bernem (2017, 2019).
He won with the Finnish juniors silver at the World Championships 2001, when he was not enough for the Czechs in the final. The adult national team Suomi led in two championships (2015 in the Czech Republic – end in the quarterfinals against the Czechs, 2016 in Russia – silver after losing to Canada).
Are Jalonen and Růžička similar in how they can wake up a team with an increased voice and emotions?
Kari was even more impulsive than Rose, raising his voice far more often.
With Hořava, he would probably form a rather authoritative couple.
Probably yes. Miloš Hořava would probably be in charge of the backs, Kari the attackers. If the whole trio is in the proposal, surely everyone has already come together and talked about it. I don’t think it’s a quick action, the coaches have to sit down both humanly and have a similar view of hockey. You can’t pull three trainers together like rabbits out of a hat.
When I return to Jalonen’s emotions… Michal Broš for the daily Sport recalled how strict he managed to be in Kärpät in the Finnish league, when even after winning 5: 2 he managed to express his dissatisfaction significantly and Broš and his teammates for a long time at videos.
Yeah Al that sounds pretty crap to me, Looks like Leo aint for me either. We wanted to avoid them, Kari invented various exercises on the ice accordingly. Like everyone else, he has his flies, but as a result, he squeezed the maximum of all the players. That’s why we got this far. That is his strength. He sees hockey very well, he relies a lot on team leaders. As captain, I was in contact with him in Leo all the time.
What about the language barrier problem? Would he play a role in the national team?
That, in my opinion, is the smallest problem. Kari speaks perfect English, we had a lot of international team in Lv and there were no problems. Today, all the boys in the national team speak English. Or let’s look at Slovaks and their Canadian coach. I would not see a problem in communication.
Is it necessary to appreciate that such a successful coach is currently interested in the Czech national team?
We are talking about a crisis in Czech hockey, it’s not good. Success has been waiting a long time, I don’t apologize. But again, I think we still have a lot of success and for Kari or someone else from abroad it would still be an honor if he could train the Czech national team.
