Blues Espoo

Espoo Blues
City:	Espoo, Finland
League:	SM-Liiga
Founded:	1984
Home Arena:	Barona Areena (7,036 places)
Colors:	Dark blue, white and yellow
General Manager:	[[Mika Rautio]
Head Coach:	Jyrki Aho
Captain:	Kim Hirschovits
Media:	Länsiväylä
Affiliates:	Kiekko-Vantaa (Mestis)
Franchise history
1984 - 1999:	Kiekko-Espoo
1999 - 2016:	Blues
Championships
Playoff Championships:	2008

Espoo Blues (founded as Kiekko-Espoo in February 1984 in Espoo, Finland) was a professional ice hockey of the SM-liiga. They played their home games at the Barona Areena. The club also had a women's team.

History

The club began playing in the II.Divisioona in 1984-85. They achieved promotion to the I.Divisioona in 1988; they reached the SM-Liiga four years later, in 1992, after defeating Joensuun Kiekkopojat 3 wins against 2 in a best-of-five series. They have never been relegated ever since. Espoo finished 11th out of 12 in its first two seasons in the SM-Liiga. They waited until 1994-95 to reach the playoffs, losing to Lukko Rauma in the quarter-finals.

In 1997-98, Espoo created a big surprise by upsetting regular season winners TPS Turku in the playoffs. For all of that time known as Kiekko-Espoo, the team was renamed "Blues" in the summer of 1998 after the colour of their jersey.

In 1998-99, with a new name and a new home (the LänsiAuto Areena), the Blues' roster featured many new names, and big ones at that; the team nevertheless had a hard time in their first few seasons at the LänsiAuto Areena.

2003-04 was the Blues' best season to date, with a fourth-place regular season finish in the league. The team however fell in the playoffs to the eventual champions, Tappara Tampere, in overtime in the seventh quarter-finals game.

Things began looking increasingly brighter for Espoo in 2006-07 when the team reached its first semi-finals for the first time in nine years. Kärpät Oulu however swept them in three games; HPK Hämeenlinna beat them in the bronze medal match. In 2007-08, the Blues established a new team record by winning 12 games in a row. They went on to finish second in the league and defeated HIFK in the quarter-finals and Jokerit in the semi-finals, reaching for the first time the SM-Liiga finals and clinching their first medal in the league of their history. They, however, had to settle for silver as Kärpät once again was in their way.

Achievements

Men

• SM-silver: (2) 2008, 2011
• Aaro Kivilinna Memorial Trophy: (6) 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014

Women

• SM-championship: (11) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2013
• Sm-silver (1) 2010.
• SM-bronze: (1) 2006.
• European Women Champions Cup second place: (3) 2005-06, 2007-08 and 2009-10

Season by season record

ALL-TIME STANDINGS
Season	League	GP	W	L	T	OTW	OTL	PTS	GF	GA	+/-	Finish
1984-85	II.Divisioona
1985-86	II.Divisioona
1986-87	II.Divisioona
1987-88	II.Divisioona
1988-89	I.Divisioona
1989-90	I.Divisioona
1990-91	I.Divisioona
1991-92	I.Divisioona
1992-93	SM-Liiga	48	12	29	7	-	-	31	122	194	-72	11th
1993-94	SM-Liiga	48	13	30	5	-	-	31	138	197	-59	11th
1994-95	SM-Liiga	50	20	26	4	-	-	44	154	169	-15	7th
1995-96	SM-Liiga	50	18	26	6	-	-	42	131	164	-33	9th
1996-97	SM-Liiga	50	21	20	9	-	-	51	154	163	-9	6th
1997-98	SM-Liiga	48	20	22	6	-	-	46	153	139	+14	8th
1998-99	SM-Liiga	54	21	26	7	-	-	4	146	183	-37	7th
1999-00	SM-Liiga	54	19	25	10	-	-	48	163	165	-2	7th
2000-01	SM-Liiga	56	22	26	8	-	-	52	154	152	+2	9th
2001-02	SM-Liiga	56	25	24	7	1	1	58	156	171	-15	8th
2002-03	SM-Liiga	56	27	19	10	2	4	68	166	145	+21	4th
2003-04	SM-Liiga	56	23	26	7	5	3	56	134	139	-5	9th
2004-05	SM-Liiga	56	15	30	0	5	6	61	139	159	-20	11th
2005-06	SM-Liiga	56	23	22	0	4	7	84	152	135	+17	8th
2006-07	SM-Liiga	56	24	17	0	5	10	92	156	135	+21	5th
2007-08	SM-Liiga	56	33	12	0	5	6	115	165	114	+51	2nd
2008-09	SM-Liiga	58	28	12	18			159	135	100	+35	2nd

Captains

• Jan Långbacka 1992-94
• Hannu Järvenpää 1994
• Peter Ahola 1994-95
• Jarmo Muukkonen 1995-96
• Teemu Sillanpää 1996-97
• Juha Ikonen 1997-99
• Peter Ahola 1999-2001
• Valeri Krykov 2001-02
• Juha Ylönen 2002-03
• Rami Alanko 2003-05
• Timo Hirvonen 2005-2005, resigned in November 2005.
• Markku Hurme 2005-2006 , replaced Timo Hirvonen following his resignation.
• Joakim Eriksson (2006)
• Markku Hurme, Ville Viitaluoma, Erkki Rajamäki, Kent Manderville (2006-07, rotating captaincy)
• Rami Alanko (2007-2009)
• Toni Kähkönen (2009-2012)
• Arto Laatikainen (2012-13)
• Kim Hirschovits (2013-2016)

Blues Greats

Active players

Ryan Keller in the Blues uniform

Frank Banham Bernd Brückler Jan Čaloun Mariusz Czerkawski Johan Davidsson Ben Eaves Nils Ekman Kari Haakana Niklas Hagman Hannes Hyvönen Martin Kariya

Steve Kariya Ryan Keller Ladislav Kohn Krystofer Kolanos Jarno Kultanen Jere Lehtinen Mikko Lehtonen Arto Laatikainen Donald MacLean Ryan Malone Dale McTavish

Bryan Muir Cory Murphy Oskar Osala Antti Pihlström Esa Pirnes Mike Ribeiro Petr Ton Lauri Tukonen Marko Tuomainen Jiří Vykoukal Landon Wilson

Retired legends

Peter Ahola Timo Blomqvist Scott Brower Tom Draper Miika Elomo Timo Hirvonen Juha Ikonen Otakar Janecký Hannu Järvenpää

Joonas Jääskeläinen Tomáš Kapusta Petro Koivunen Arto Kuki Ismo Kuoppala Valeri Krykov Tero Lehterä Jan Långbacka Kent Manderville

Shawn McEachern Jarmo Muukkonen Jarmo Myllys Sami Nuutinen Marko Palo Sergei Pryakhin Christian Ruuttu Robert Salo Ari-Pekka Siekkinen

Ilkka Sinisalo Petri Skriko Pasi Sormunen Mike Stapleton Keijo Säilynoja Antti Törmänen Juha Ylönen

Head coaches

• Martti Merra (1992-94, replaced in January)
• Hannu Saintula (1994, mid-season replacement)
• Harri Rindell (1994-96)
• Håkan Nygren (1996-98, replaced in February)
• Hannu Saintula (1998, mid-season replacement)
• Pekka Rautakallio (1998, replaced in November)
• Hannu Saintula (1998-99, mid-season replacement)
• Jukka Holtari (1999-2000, replaced in January)
• Jari Härkälä (2000, mid-season replacement)
• Timo Tuomi (2000-01, replaced in September of second season)
• Hannu Kapanen (2001-03, mid-season replacement, continued in the next season)
• Ted Sator (2003, replaced in October)
• Hannu Virta (2003-04, mid-season replacement, replaced in the October of second season)
• Pekka Rautakallio (2004-05)
• Kari Heikkilä (2005-07)
• Petri Matikainen (2007-11)
• Lauri Marjamäki (2011-13, replaced in February of second season)
• Mikko Saarinen (February 2013-March 2013)
• Jyrki Aho (2013-Present)

Blues women

The Espoo Blues club also had a women's team. They finished third at the 2008-09 European Women Champions Cup after having won the Women's SM-Liiga the previous season. The team was actually one of the dominating force of Finnish women's hockey, having won every championship since 1999, except 2006, which went to Ilves Tampere. That one season, the Blues earned the league bronze medal.

External links

• Official Blues website (in Finnish)

This article is part of the Finnish hockey portal