Somewhere in his life, he forgot the a detail when he made his deal with the Devil to get NHL skills. He had size, skill, and seemed like a decent enough guy. But seemingly every team he played for ended up playing poorly. When he did get hooked up with a good team, they traded him before the deadline.
He never seemed like a guy who should be the source of that type of problem, but his teams just played awful at times.
Hopefully retirement treats him a bit better.
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I also don't think it's necessarily fair to say he wasn't a big game player either considering he didn't get to play in many due to being on a lot of not great teams. 54 game winners over his career, scored the tying and winner in the Olympic bronze medal game in 2010.
I think all things considered he was actually quite clutch.
In his last 2 seasons here, of his 40 goals:
13 were in the 3rd period
13 tied the game
9 were go-ahead goals
I think a lot of the negative backlash he got was because he was ultimately the lightning rod for fans during a frustrating stretch of seasons for the Flames.
Plus he was really good in the shootout, if that counts as clutch.
I think the problem is that most top players in that era of Florida Panthers were highly overrated due to playing a lot of bad hockey in a bad division where their stats got inflated. Whether it be Jokinen, Bouwmeester, Weiss, Booth, Ballard, etc their stats nosedived post-Miami. Due to that expectations for Ollie were always higher than what he was able to produce on a better team facing better opponents on a regular basis. That said he adapted his game and despite being snake bitten on the scoreboard at times played some solid 2-way hockey in the back half of his career.
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I always liked Jokinen. I think he had a well above average career in the NHL and I am pretty sure that he did alright for himself financially (Capfriendly shows he made of $45MM in his career).
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Did he not cost the New York Rangers a playoff spot one year?
He didn't score on a "do or die" last shootout attempt in their final game of the season, yes.
But he used the exact move he was very successful with before and after that attempt. Regardless, silly to put the blame on him solely. There's only been a couple shootout specialists that were more likely to score than not.
He didn't score on a "do or die" last shootout attempt in their final game of the season, yes.
But he used the exact move he was very successful with before and after that attempt. Regardless, silly to put the blame on him solely. There's only been a couple shootout specialists that were more likely to score than not.
I'm not blaming him because I'm not a Rangers fan. He needed to score. He didnt.
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Yes, that is correct. The Rangers could have also used a better shootout from Lundqvist, but he got beaten twice on 3 attempts.
Honestly, if it comes down to a coin-toss on the last game of the season, Overtime solves nothing and its a shootout then theres lots and lots of blame to go around.
But thats sports. You jump as high as you have to when you have to. Or you dont.
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Yep, easiest way to avoid a coin-toss shootout to make the playoffs or not would be to win in regulation or OT. The whole Rangers team had 65 minutes to score a 2nd goal.
Instead it comes down to 1 player on the last play who was 40% in the shootout at that point in his career. Tough situation, and he got blamed almost exclusively for the loss.
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Yep, easiest way to avoid a coin-toss shootout to make the playoffs or not would be to win in regulation or OT. The whole Rangers team had 65 minutes to score a 2nd goal.
Instead it comes down to 1 player on the last play who was 40% in the shootout at that point in his career. Tough situation, and he got blamed almost exclusively for the loss.
even if he scored it would have only tied it up...ridiculous to blame one shootout attempt for an entire season
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Just heard the Kerr interview with Conroy about Jokinen.
Described him as a great teammate and player, and mentioned Jokinen had a personal trainer / assistant named Pizza(?!) that went everywhere with Olli. Kerr and Steinberg described him as the best forward for the Flames in his one playoff appearance vs Chicago.
Steinberg summed Jokinen up well I think. Said he was a controversial and good Calgary Flame, but at the wrong time.
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I liked Olli as a Flame. I didn't know much about him until he arrived but I still vividly recall the excitement after the initial trade. Finally, a high profile centerman as the team preps for a run in the playoffs, and a two-goal debut to boot. Alas, we choked the huge division lead and stumbled arse backwards in to the playoffs with an injury ravaged team. He played solidly in that round though (I still remember the Hawk player gifting the puck to Jokinen in his own zone and Joker scoring off the giveaway). Always a unique character, and hopefully he'll enjoy his retirement in Florida.
Came here on deadline '09 when the team was running away with the division and one of the hottest in the league. "Flames are the deadline day winners!!"
Injury bug hit and the team collapsed down the stretch and sputtered out in the 1st round.
Then no more playoffs for 5 years due to the wrong coaching hire, some terrible trades and an aging core with no help coming down the pipeline as a result of years of awful drafting and development.
I remember when Mike Cammalleri went on his huge playoff run in Montreal and thinking "we gave up that to keep Olli Jokinen?!".
Olli did pretty good. I liked his quirky ways.
The Flames were always going to keep Olli after giving up Lombardi and a first for him. I thought Cammy was let go in order to bring in Bouwmeester? Still frustrating however.
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