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The Jussi Jokinen Canes blog |
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As long as the Carolina Hurricanes franchise has been in North Carolina, Jim Rutherford has had a knack for taking players off the scrap heap, giving them a chance and helping revive careers. The earliest example was Gary Roberts. After he played 8 games in 94-95, 35 games in 95-96 and then sat out the 96-97 season and announced his retirement, Jim Rutherford took a flyer on him. He went on to have 3 very productive seasons as a Cane in the 50-point range but more importantly brought a sandpaper edge and mentored young players most notably Jeff O'Neill. Since then, we have seen Jim Rutherford take a calculated risk leading to success for a number of players including Tuomo Ruutu, Sergei Samsonov, Joe Corvo and Ray Whitney (maybe to a lesser degree but he did get bought out by Detroit and was far enough down to sign for $1.5M) to name a few. Jussi Jokinen fit this model perfectly. After a decent start to his career and some promise in Dallas, he signed with Tampa. Due to trouble meshing in a new system, he found himself in the coach's dog house and a regular healthy scratch. When he flew across the waiver wire in early 2009, Jim Rutherford took another of his calculated risks and it turned out to be one of his best.
During the remainder of the regular season of 2008-09 Jokinen did not tear it up, but he slotted very nicely as a depth forward due to his complementary game. He was decent defensively but also brought offensive skill. He provided a solid shootout option for garnering an extra point here and there. And he just simply played pretty good hockey. His stats that season were actually pretty modest with only 1 goal and 10 assists in 25 games. But what he did in the 2008-09 playoffs helped him carve out a very nice place in Carolina Hurricanes history.
The Canes entered the post-season as a ho-hum #6 seed and while the team was not a huge underdog most people had the Canes falling to New Jersey in the 1st round. But true to Carolina Hurricanes playoff form, we don't go often but when we do we get our money's worth. And Jussi Jokinen played a huge role in that great playoff run. In those playoffs, Jokinen ranked 2nd on the Canes in goals with 7 (to only Eric Staal), tied for 2nd with 11 points and 1st in game-winning goals with 3 of the team's 8 game-winners. But the playoffs and fun playoff runs are not about stats and numbers. They are about moments in time when passionate fans could think of no other place on Earth that they would rather be at that moment in time -
--Like when Josef Vasicek scored the overtime game-winner in game 5 of the 1st round series of the 2002 playoffs versus New Jersey following Kevin Weekes tremendous save to give the Canes a chance to win its first playoff series versus mighty New Jersey.
--Like when Niclas Wallin scored the overtime game-winner to pull off the impossible in the "Miracle at Molson" cracking the armor of the impenetrable Jose Theodore and setting the stage for a series win.
--Like when Ron Francis scored in overtime of game 2 in the 2002 Stanley Cup Finals to get the Canes into the series. (I still say if Canes won the game 3 marathon, they would have also won game 4 and then needed only 1 more to pull off the improbable upset.)
--Like when the Canes won a long, hard-fought game 7 against Buffalo in the 2006 Eastern Conference Finals to set the stage for another Stanley Cup Final appearance.
--Like when Justin Williams potted the empty-netter in game 7 of the 2006 finals, and it set in that we were only minutes away from hoisting the Stanley Cup in our building.
--And of course like when Rod Brind'Amour received and lifted the Stanley Cup minutes later.
While the 2009 playoff run was cut a bit shorter with an Eastern Conference finals drubbing at the hands of the Pittsburgh Penguins, that run too was filled with magical and special moments. I note 5 of them as top shelf with 2 directly credited to Jussi Jokinen.
Jussi Jokinen Moment #1: First was his game-winning goal in game 4 of the 1st round series against New Jersey. The Devils were up 2-1 in the series and the game was headed to overtime. With an overtime win, the Devils could return home up 3-1 and likely on their way to a series win. In a bizarre fit of utter chaos that all changed. Right as time was expiring a blur of Jussi Jokinen arrived at the crease perfectly timed with an otherwise harmless looking point shot from Dennis Seidenberg. The result was a Jokinen goal with 1 second left in regulation, a booth review to make sure the puck went in before time expired, an ever-increasing Brodeur fit while the play was under review and ultimately an ending with a goal signal. Following in a massive rush was a Canes win, a huge eruption from the crowd and a finale with Brodeur destroying his stick on the side boards before leaving Raleigh suddenly knotted in a 2-2 tie.
It was absolutely surreal. I still remember waking up about 4 hours later and being unsure enough that it all actually happened to check the internet to make sure I wasn't dreaming.
That play turned the series into a dog fight that presented arguably the greatest series of Eric Staal, Cam Ward and Joni Pitkanen's career. All 3 played huge in a very tight series with no margin for error. It also set the stage for moment #2.
Jussi Jokinen Moment #2: The Canes fought and clawed to split the next 2 games setting up a game 7 showdown in New Jersey. The Canes put forward a solid effort but entered the 3rd period down 3-2. As the period wore on it just looked like it wasn't going to be. It was easily going to be the kind of series loss you could live with but a loss nonetheless. Enter Jussi Jokinen assisted by a couple other phenomenal plays. In full desperation mode with only about 90 seconds left the Canes managed to set up in the offensive zone. But then things went awry and the puck was headed toward to neutral zone where it would force another regroup and burn precious time. Then in a tic-tac-toe 2 1/2 seconds from beginning to end fashion it happened. Tim Gleason went sprawling on the ice barely keeping the puck in and playing it miraculously to Joni Pitkanen in the same swoop. Seemingly without even looking Pitkanen sent a laser through some tiny seam right into Jokinen's wheelhouse. Jokinen made no mistake burying it with 1:20 left and no doubt sending the game to overtime. That is until miracle number 2 arrived only 48 seconds later when Eric Staal flat beat Brodeur off the rush to stun absolutely everyone and send the Canes into the 2nd round of the playoffs and on the way to more drama against Boston.
Jokinen contributed significantly to the Boston series win including another game-winner. And he went on to play 3 more full seasons as a Cane including a 65-point career best in 2009-10. I could recap "while a Cane" stats, but who really cares. His mark was made by his contributions under the brightest of lights during the 2009 playoffs.
His struggles in 2013 are well-documented as are the teams. I and all Canes fans pay a small price for this every time we head to PNC Arena lately and mostly leave frustrated. The team and staff pay a price because they do care and they do want better and the current situation just isn't much fun because of that. And Jussi Jokinen arguably paid the biggest price first going back and forth across waivers and then being discarded as part of trying to shuffle things up a bit and retool the team. I wish him nothing but the best going forward except when he plays the Canes of course. And I thank him for his part etching some top shelf Canes playoff memories in the Spring of 2009. Those memories are combined with the true sense of a Carolina Hurricanes community are the 2 richest things for me as a Canes fan. Those memories are also what will carry me through the rest of the 2013 season and hopefully not too much farther until the Carolina Hurricanes can get back to making new memories.
For a quick heads up when I post a blog and to join the occasional conversation follow me on Twitter at CarolinaMatt63.
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