The Current Batch of Finns In Raleigh Have Proven “Finns Get Wins”
By Chris Baker
If an author reads their book for the recording of an audiobook, I will listen 10 out of 10 times. Since I have a much shorter commute than I used to, I do not go through audiobooks as fast as I used to, but I still love them. Something to get me thinking on my way into work. Ideas get generated or notions get thought through. In the closing chapters of her (audio)book Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, Angela Duckworth mentioned a term I had never heard before. I had to keep repeating it all the way into work and immediately look it up. The term was “Sisu” and though I had never heard it before, I immediately thought “that’s why The Storm Cellar always says Finns get wins.”
Sisu is, according to Ann S. Masten, “a Finnish concept described as stoic determination, tenacity of purpose, grit, bravery, resilience.”
As a Carolina Hurricanes fan, who could I possibly think of when I heard a term like Sisu? If you said Sebastian Aho, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Teuvo Teräväinen, Antti Raanta, and Carolina’s newest Finn, Jesse Puljujärvi, then you are my kind of people.
With this new understanding of Finnish grit, and my fandom of the Finns with the Hurricanes here in Raleigh, I decided to dive deeper into the whole “Fins get wins” mystic that the Carolina Hurricanes have built and just see how Sisu plays itself out when it comes to hockey.
History
Carolina has had a plethora of Finnish players suit up in Raleigh, the Charlotte Checkers (when they were affiliated with the Canes) or the Chicago Wolves (when they were the AHL affiliate).
Sami Kapanen, who came from Hartford in 1997, opened the Finnish floodgates and there has been a steady stream since. Keith Primeau led the Hurricanes in scoring back in the Greensboro days.
A second Finnish invasion was captained by Tuomo Ruutu, Jussi Jokinen, and defenseman Joni Pitkanen who all developed cult followings in Charlotte and with the Hurricanes. Janne Kuokkanen and Aleksi Saarela also have spent time in the Hurricanes. Try as we might to forget, there is also Erik Haula who was with Carolina for a cup of coffee and has faced the Canes in three straight playoff series, with three different teams.
Of course there is the current Finnish contention of Aho, Kothaniemi, Teräväinen, Raanta, and Puljujärvi. Rookie Ville Koivunen played well with the Wolves after coming over from Finland, and saw time with the Hurricanes during the playoffs.
In all, 3 of the current top 10 Finnish goal scorers and 5 of the top 15 have played for, or are currently playing for the Carolina Hurricanes. Carolina has hosted 3 of the top 10 all time Finnish scorers too.3
Current Batch Of Finns Getting Wins.
In order to see just how Sisu works for Finns and the Hurricanes, I took a hard look at the current group of Finnish skaters. Looking at both regular season (excluding Puljujärvi) and postseason (including Puljujärvi) scoring stats (goals, assists, and points), I ran the numbers every way I could looking for the impact these players had with the Carolina Hurricanes.
Regular Season Goals
The Finns (66) represent 25% of the 262 goals the Carolina Hurricanes scored this regular season. Sebastian Aho alone represented 14% of those 262 with 18. When it came to scoring in wins, the Finns were even better. Carolina scored 207 goals in their 52 regular season wins. Of that 207, a Finn lit the lamp 52 times. Aho had 27, Teräväinen had 11, and Kothaniemi had 14.
But how often did Finns get the wins? Well pretty frequently actually. 56% of the time,if a Finn scored, the Carolina Hurricanes were Storm Surging after the final horn. Individually, the numbers run 72% and 75% for Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Teuvo Teräväinen respectively. Sebastian Aho’s goals were a little more evenly dispersed so his total was only 44%.
You might be asking, “what about if TWO Finns scored in a game?” Well if two Finns scored, the likelihood of the Carolina Hurricanes jumped from 56% to a full 88%.
On the subject of multi goal games, the winning Finns had 7 of Carolina’s 26. Sebastian Aho led the team with 5, but every single time one of the Finns scored more than one, the Carolina Hurricanes won. Impactful? Yes, very!
But, as good as the Finnish Hurricanes were in the regular season, they were even better in the Stanley Cup Playoff run.
Play Off Goals
Regular Season Assists
Teuvo Teräväinen is 16th on the All-Time Finnish assists list. He is 4th on the currently active list. Any guesses as to who is 5th on that list? I’ll give you a hint. It is not Brent Burns.
Actually it is Sebastian Aho.
But as I have mentioned before, Aho is morphing into a passer so subtly that it might not even be noticed. This year, Aho leads the Finnish delegation with 31 assists. Teräväinen is surprisingly at 3rd with 21. Jesperi Kothaniemi is 2nd with 25 regular season assists. Intotal the Finns represent 19% of the 425 assists record by the Carolina Hurricanes.
I will spare the full breakdown but suffice it to say, with the Finns help, the Canes reap the rewards. Especially when it is Kothaniemi……90% of the time if he records an assist, the Canes win, but don’t tell anyone.
Regular Season Assists
Points
If there is a stat epitomizing Sisu, and the Finnish players with the Carolina Hurricanes has to be the consistency of points from all three in the regular season and all four in the postseason. Only four times, in the 52 victories the Hurricanes massed over the regular season, was the Finnish delegation completely shut out of a Canes win.
Maybe the most telling stat, after 9 postseason games, a Finnish Carolina Hurricane had a point in every single one. Aho and KK had the bulk, but the one game of those nine they did not, Jesse Puljujärvi did. Nothing sums up that “next guy up” mentality the Carolina Hurricanes kept for the season that that!
Playoff Points And +/-
Including the frustrating Eastern Conference Finals, a Finnish Carolina Hurricane was contributing to the effort. Period.
In all but one game of the 2023 post season, at least one Finn had a point and there was not a single that all the Finns were in the negative on the +/- column.
Teuvo Teräväinen was perfect at 0 in the +/- which is telling in that he was at the very less not making mistakes to cost the Hurricanes games. Aho was impressive as well. He had only 3 games in the red and finished the post season at +6.
Only Seth Jarvis and Jaccob Slavin were any better than that
The play of Carolina’s Finns during the regular season and postseason was critical to the Carolina Hurricanes. One exception, proving the rule, was the Eastern Conference Finals when Carolina was almost completely shut down by Florida’s Russian goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. In that series the Finns were nearly non existent on the ice for the Canes, and as we all know, the Hurricanes were quailed in four straight.
Had there been a bigger impact from the Finnish troop, or Bobrovsky been just a little less stellar, the series could have gone differently. But it is in the history books and all we can do is discuss it over a cold one.
Whomever coined the term “Finns get wins” probably hadn’t read Angela Duckworth’s book on “Grit” and likely hadn’t read about the term “Sisu”, but they were right. Finnish players, Sebastian Aho, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Teuvo Teräväinen, and Jesse Puljujärvi have had a tremendous impact on the Carolina Hurricanes showing that grit and determination. They have not only put up individual numbers that are elite, but helped the Hurricanes reach the highest levels in the game.