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TAMPERE – All-time records can be double-edged swords. On one hand, they are the true testament to the player’s impact to the sport, and a proof of excellence over a long period of time. On the other, they also often get dismissed because the player in question, the one breaking the record, is almost without exception not the same player as he was in his prime. (Martin Brodeur may be an exception.)
Janne Ojanen is not the same force he was in the 1980s, 1990s, or early 2000s. At 41, he’s one of those elderly statesmen in hockey, a player who’s been there, done that, then gone there again, and done it again.
“That” being winning.
He’s the last dinosaur, the last player in the SM-liiga to have been born in the 1960s. In 1968, to be exact. Ojanen is a member of Tappara Tampere’s golden generation. Together with Teppo Numminen, Ojanen won the Finnish championship in all age groups, starting when they were 12.
He was named best player at the first junior evaluation camp in 1983.
In 1987, he won the World U20 Championship with Finland – when a bench-clearing brawl in a game between Canada and the Soviet Union disqualified those two teams. The same spring he played in the men’s World Championship, and in the fall, in the Canada Cup.
The following year, he was – naturally – a member of the 1988 Olympic team that won Finland’s first medal in a big tournament.
In 1991, Janne Ojanen’s scored two goals when Finland pushed Canada to a 2-2 tie in the Canada Cup, and went on to finish third, according to many, the best accomplishment in Finnish hockey up to that point.
And in 1995 he became the first Finnish player to win both junior and men’s World Championship.
Just that would be a great career. But Ojanen went on to play a couple of seasons in Sweden, then returned to Tappara, the club he’s always represented in Finland. In 2002, he won the scoring title, and was voted best player in the SM-liiga. He’s got three Finnish titles, two silver medals, and yet, somehow, he seems to have avoided the limelight.
He’s even been underrated, if that’s possible. A modest and low-key person who’s not after the limelight, who’s not making the news outside the rink, Ojanen has always been there, but just not in the centre of attention.
He’s made the SM-liiga All-Star Team just once, in 2002, when it was impossible to bypass him. He’s never been elected best player in Finland – a title that Jari Kurri and Teemu Selänne have subscribed to most of Ojanen’s career. He’s been the player of the months just twice, in December 1993, and February 1995.
When Ojanen went down with a thigh injury last winter, he was tied with Arto Javanainen as first in SM-liiga all-time scoring.
He underwent surgery, contemplated his future as a hockey player, and then announced his return late in the summer. Eleven months after his injury, Ojanen was back in action, chasing that one point that would make him the all-time scoring leader in Finland.
“I haven’t thought about the point too much,” Ojanen told Finnish Aamulehti on the eve of his first game against Ässät Pori, the alma mater of Javanainen, and the team Ojanen played his first SM-liiga game against.
“It’ll come when I play as well as I know I can. What’s important is that the team starts collecting wins,” he said.
He went six games without a point, then picked up an assist to Kim Strömberg’s goal against Lukko Rauma. It was his 865th game in the SM-liiga, and the assist was his 511th, giving him a total of 793 points. Ojanen has most assists, while Javanainen still holds the all-time goal scoring record.
“Janne’s record will last forever,” Javanainen said.
Maybe, maybe not, but right now, Ojanen has a safe lead in the race. Vesa Viitakoski, the first active player behind him on the all-time list, has 529 points, or 266 fewer points than Tappara’s Number Eight.
So, for once - and surely, if not forever, at least a long time into the future – Ojanen will be the one all other SM-liiga players will be looking up to.
