Jussi Jokinen Is Taking Another Shot

Coming out of the 2004 lockout, it was no secret that the Stars were entering a time of transition. With Jere Lehtinen, Mike Modano, and Sergei Zubov all solidly in their thirties, it was only a matter of time before the next generation would be called upon to take up the torch.

The Stars would have three more playoff runs in the era of that trio, including the famous 2008 Western Conference Final run that ended (Valtteri Filppula still remembered so well when I talked with him last week), with a Kris Draper goal off his face. But going into the 2005-06 season, it was already clear that the days of the Stars core that lifted the Stanley Cup were numbered.

So, as the 2005-06 season began, there was a lot to watch out for. The rules had changed, and the NHL re-branded to MY NHL in a league desperate to appease the fans it had so willingly burned in order to institute a hard salary cap. Among those modifications to the rules were two particularly critical changes: the institution of the shootout to decide games that remained tied after overtime, and the abolition of the two-line pass restriction. And both of those rules were about to be capitalized on by a young phenom from Finland named Jussi Jokinen.

Even today, most NHL fans remember Jokinen for his otherworldly shootout performance in the competition’s first year in the NHL, including the elite forehand shot over the pad, under the blocker. Jokinen scored on his first nine attempts, although Sergei Zubov was no slouch shooting in front of him, either.

It’s still remarkable (and a testament to the wisdom of Dave Tippett) that when the league brought in the shootout, Tippett was perfectly willing to throw out a veteran defenseman and a rookie forward as his first two players, rather than going with his star forwards first, as so many coaches did. But Jokinen’s understanding of the game and ability to back it up on the ice was readily apparent for those with eyes to see, and ears to hear.

That partnership with Sergei Zubov wasn’t only in the shootout, however. Zubov also assisted on all four of Jokinen’s tallies on his famous four-goal against Colorado in November of 2007, as you can see here:

Last Saturday morning, the Dallas Stars held a fan appreciation event for some 200 of their Victory Club Members at a hotel near Nokia Arena, where the NHL Global Series games were played in Finland. Jokinen was at that event (along with former teammates Jere Lehtinen and Niko Kapanen), and I had a chance to chat with him for a few minutes before he went on stage.

During that event, Jokinen mentioned that he was fortunate, because SM-liiga had been using the shootout before the NHL, so he had gotten more time to develop expertise than most NHL veterans ever had. And that meant it didn’t take long for the Stars to realize they had a secret weapon on their hands. Jokinen jokingly said that goalies back then were “lazy” and didn’t watch much film, so that he was able to befuddle so many goalies at the start of his career who hadn’t really scouted him sufficiently to stop his very excellent repertoire of…two shootout moves.

At the end of his career in 2018, Jokinen returned to Karpat, where he played three final season before retiring. After taking some time off, he has now gotten into the media world, using his understanding of the modern game as one of the key analysts for ViaPlay, a Finnish broadcaster. (If you can find a clip of his analysis about the Stars’ first period against Florida on Friday, I’m told he did not mince words about their performance).

“I’ve been liking it,” said Jokinen about his pivot to television. “I kind of took a year off trying to explore the world. What would interest me, would I have a path? Is there something else I would like to do?”

But for Jokinen, even after spending time with his family (he has two kids, ages 11 and 13), he realized hockey was where we wanted to be, in some capacity.

“Hockey is something I’ve lived and breathed my whole life,” he said. “I’ve tried different things, a little bit coaching. a little bit of media and stuff like that. And I think right now, my kids are 11 and 13 and, and if I would go do some coaching, I know how hard it is. It’s even longer days than playing, and long traveling, especially where I live up north in in all-“

(at this point, we were interrupted by a loud “DALLAS! STARS” chant from the fans in the other area of the room, which Jokinen laughed about.)

“Doing the media, obviously, I still know, I still played against lots of players who are playing in today’s NHL, so it’s kind of easy for me. I understand the game, I understand the concepts. I played for like ten different teams, so I know so many people. It’s been fun. We have a great group of people who are working there, so I’ve enjoyed that.”

Jokinen’s understanding of the concepts isn’t just average, even for a veteran NHLer. In Jokinen’s first power play goal up in the four-goal highlights above, you’ll notice that he gets in all alone thanks to the Finnish Breakout: a power play strategy that Jokinen brought over from his time with Karpat in SM-liiga (where Jokerit are trying to return to) that Zubov immediately saw the brilliance of.

That breakout took the league by storm, banking on the popular “hold the blue line” strategy by the penalty killers with a route more akin to an NFL receiver than a power play forward. And Jokinen was still capitalizing on this strategy in later years with teams like Pittsburgh, so you can imagine that the gratitude for his stops in different organizations went in both directions on whatever team he found himself playing for.

Jokinen also won silver medals for Finland in both the Olympics and the IIHF World Championships, and his being left off the 2010 team for the Vancouver Olympics was considered a massive oversight by many in his home country. But when Jokinen looks back on his career, he has a very sanguine perspective on all of the opportunities he had, even when it meant being traded.

“I played like 13 years, and I had some ups, I had some downs, but looking back, I think I had that kind of mental strength, that it was able to give me enough strength, enough power to find a way to keep taking that next step always, in the new organization. Obviously looking back now, Jere Lehtinen played all his career in Dallas, I played in nine different teams in 13 years. So, looking back, it was kind of a great experience. I was able to explore lots of different states, lots of different teams, lots of different coaches, management and stuff,” said Jokinen.

In fact, Jokinen went from signing a four-year, $16 million deal with Florida in the 2014 offseason, only for Dale Tallon’s management team to ship away Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith to Vegas before the infamous expansion draft, after which Jokinen would also be bought out of the final year of his contract in a questionable roster makeover, to put it kindly.

That meant Jokinen would get picked up by another NHL team before the 2017-18 season began: the Edmonton Oilers. For 14 games, at least, until the Oilers sent him to the Kings in November for Mike Cammalleri. Two months after that, the Kings would put Jokinen on waivers, where he would be claimed by the Columbus Blue Jackets…who would trade him and Tyler Motte just one month after that for Thomas Vanek. Four teams in one season, and Jokinen played at least 14 games with every single one of them.

“I learned a lot, and obviously when I started to have a family and kids, and you have to change your team, it gets hard. But but looking back, I kind of see see the good things and, and I’m appreciative that I had a chance to play on different teams.”

But all of those teams, Dallas may be atop Jokinen’s list, and not least because he got to play with Jere Lehtinen. At least, until Dallas traded him in 2008 (along with Jeff Halpern and Mike Smith for Brad Richards)—a move which caught him by surprise.

“I really enjoyed my time in Dallas. I think we had a great team, and it was a great organization,” Jokinen said (at a Dallas event, showing that ever-present hockey sense he’s known for). “I think they were second or third in the league, and then getting traded when you don’t expect it. And you have kind of put all your work and your heart into that organization, and then you get traded away…it was really really hard going to [Tampa Bay], who was kind of last in the league…so that first trade was really hard.”

Jokinen’s delight to see some old teammates (and to hear the cheers from so many Dallas fans in his home country) was plain to see last Saturday. But for Jokinen, time has brought perspective, and that may be one of the best gifts his career has given him. And whether in Dallas or Florida, he can’t help but be happy to see how far they’ve come.

“It’s always hard to leave,” said Jokinen. “Places where I played a long time, like Dallas, then I played four years in Carolina, and my daughter was born there. We really enjoyed it there, my family, so it was hard to leave. Then the same thing in Floirda, I got bought out after my third year, so I [would have liked] to play more there and see the growth, obviously, what they’ve done the last five, six years. I hoped it would have happened a little bit sooner, and that I’d been part of that, but yeah.”

As for Dallas, Jokinen’s other regret might have been the first-round exit against Colorado, which he says understandably caused management to re-think the roster, leading to a couple of his Finnish teammates like Niko Kapanen and Janne Niinimaa being traded away.

“We had a really good team, and we had a chance to go all the way. So I still have a little disappointment that we couldn’t do it, and I that after that, the organization starts to look and say, ‘Okay, we have six Finns, and we lost in the first round, so there are gonna be changes then.’ “

But Jokinen won’t ever forget those first few years in Dallas. And when asked about some of those moments from his rookie season, when he was rooming with Jere Lehtinen, Jokinen’s most vivid memory was a moment right before the puck even dropped. After the preseason, Jokinen wasn’t even sure he was going to make the team, and then suddenly, he found himself in the starting lineup in the NHL.

“After training camp, you’re hearing the national anthem on the blue line, and your linemates are Mike Modano and Jere Lehtinen,” recalled Jokinen, still with a bit of awe. “I think we had a great chemistry on that line. Obviously, Jere was so good as a two-way forward, so I was able to make mistakes with Jere there to back me up,” joked Jokinen. “I think we all had different strengths. I really enjoyed playing on that line.”

Jokinen put up 45 goals and 131 points in 215 games in Dallas, where he played not only with Lehtinen, but also with other Finns like Niklas Hagman and Antti Miettinen. And while he may not have gotten a Lehtinen-like career with the Stars, if you’re judging by the roars of the crowd there on Saturday, that enjoyment Jokinen talks about still very much goes both directions. And that’s something to be very proud of.