Järvi: The Lumberjack

Mikael Järvi is the most successful player ever in Finnish Salibandyliiga. Of his 19 seasons on the highest level, not more than just two of them have not ended with a medal.

With his 10 Finnish championship titles, 17 medals, 484 games in the regular season (350 goals, 360 assiste) and 177 play-off games (141 goals, 119 assists), Järvi tops more statistic tables than he or anyone else can remember. Not bad for a player whose defining skill is not his soft hands but his feisty attitude. For his playing style, Mikael Järvi is known as The Lumberjack.

Mikael Järvi’s roots are in the Martinlaakso which is an area in Western Vantaa, 20 kilometers from Helsinki centre. Martinlaakso is best known for its electric power plant, its grey blocks of flats and the Formula 1 drivers Mika Häkkinen and Mika Salo who both have lived in the area. ”I was of an active sort of child, always running around looking for something to do. My father used to say if I had been thrown up on the wall I would have stuck there,” Mikael Järvi laughs.

”Luckily there was a lot to do outside and around the year there were always games going on between the kids from the yards from different houses in the area. We played football, ice hockey, pesäpallo - the Finnish version of baseball…” Most of it was unofficial and the only organized sport for young Mikael Järvi was football. ”I tried ice hockey, too, but it was simply too expensive for a kid from a big family.”

_{Mikael Järvi has collected an enormous number of trophies
(Photo Mika Hilska)}

Legendary VFT attitude school
When Järvi was 14, it was time for something big to start. He found floorball. ”A guy named Tauno Tähtitanner started a junior team named Martinpääskyt in the area and that was me in.” The club would later unite with a club Meikku to form M-Team which is today one of the largest floorball clubs in Finland and has teams in both men´s and women’s Salibandyliiga. But Mikael Järvi was not to be an M-Team elite player. The young talent was spotted by Vantaan Floorball Team and that was where he became known throughout the country. ”There were several of us including guys like Hannu Korhonen and Timo Toivonen who moved to VFT and that’s where we played our first Salibandyliiga games in 1997.”

Of Järvi’s three VFT years in Salibandyliiga, the first ended with a gold medal and the third with silver after a breathtaking five-game final series against Oilers that many still see as the most dramatic in Finnish floorball history. But the more important was the VFT attitude. It was a tough team from a tough neighborhood and a nightmare for an opponent, never giving in an inch. Even their fans were tough, loud and rude. In every VFT home game, the visiting team would receive their share of insults and VFT’s golden 1997 season ended with a fan throwing a garbage can from the stands hitting Viikingit coach`s head and resulting in a substantial fine by the Federation. Tough senior players like Petri Huttunen, Pasi Vänttinen and Tero Soinoja really made the new guys earn their spot in the lineup. ”The rookie rituals were tough and we trained really hard”, Mikael Järvi now smiles, looking back. ”But we got the point. Working hard and doing your best in the rink every time were what counted.”

Succesful but turbulent HIFK season
In Salibandyliiga, 1999 was the year of club fusions. SSV and Viikingit formed Salibandyseura Viikingit and VFT moved their floorball operations to neighboring Helsinki and mighty HIFK best known for their hockey team.  HIFK topped their VFT players with names like Janne Tähkä, JP Lehtonen and a certain Swedish pro star Jan-Erik Vaara - but only to underachieve the first part of the season. 

”It took time for the players to weld into a team but finally it worked and we won the finals against Oilers.” But it was to be Mikael Järvi’s only HIFK season. The club refused to agree to his transfer to SSV but Järvi won his case in an sports arbitrary organ and was declared free to go.”Too bad the organization never functioned properly. Players like JP Lehtonen, Timo Toivonen, and Mika Heinonen later joined me in SSV. ” It is no coincidence Mikael Järvi is now playing his 16th straight SSV season.

Their pop singer-manager Kurt Westerlund is known to treat his players well. ” "Kurre” takes care of his part and keeps his promises. Also, so many years in the club have built long-time friendships and the team feels like a family in many ways. Health matters and civil life situations have forced some players to retire but guys like Tero Tiitu and Harri Forsten choosing to make their comebacks here shows it is a good place to be.”

_{Mikael Järvi works hard to keep up with the younger players
(Photo zVg)}

Good genes, healthy diet and enough sleep
Not every player are able to pull a 20+ year career in the highest level. ”The genes I inherited from my parents obviously are the base of it, but I also lead a healthy life balancing training, a healthy diet and enough sleep. Running to keep fit, stretching and other muscle maintenance are all important daily routine for me.”

During his career, Järvi has missed few games. He’s had his share of health matters, though. ”I know what it’s like to have to take painkillers to train hard as my knees are more or less worn out and both my ankles have been operated due to two ligaments out of three being torn. But they are better now and I have also been able to balance my work and family life with training to attend most team practices.” What is most important, is the will to play further. ”I have always said I will play as long as the hunger for more is there and it still feels good to tie the shoelaces and get out there running.”

Duel with Kohonen
Mikko Kohonen recently passed Mikael Järvi as Salibandyliiga’s all time top scorer. With this being written, Kohonen has 713 points against Järvi’s 710 and obviously the race is quite a treat for floorball’s marketing staff. ”Mikko is a great opponent but even how cliche this may sound, I don’t stare at numbers like that. Floorball is a team game and what matters to me is to help my team win games. Winning second balls, blocking shots, giving second assists, checking your man and encouraging your teammates to do their best are all key components of success.”

One day, Finnish floorball might even see Mikael Järvi as a coach. ”At the moment’ I’m the co-coach of my son’s team who practice three nights a week so there’s not too much spare time. For five years now, I’ve worked at Mikael Järvi Floorball Camp at the Vierumäki Sports Institute and coaching certainly is an interesting option. I have often noticed myself thinking and working out better solutions for our unit out in the rink playing.”

_{Mikael Järvi´s jersey from the golden WFC 2008 was installed in the museum (Photo Mika Hilska)}

From Champion to challenger
From 2004 to 2011, SSV won seven Finnish titles in eight years and topped their success with two Champions Cup trophies. Their first line with Mikael Järvi, Harri Forsten, Juho Järvinen, Timo Toivonen and Saku Lehti was able to get out there when needed and decide a game after another. But the situation has changed. SSV has a 12-year medal streak starting in 2004 but the latest three are a silver and two bronzes. Also, this season with SSV now known as Viikingit they have tried new lines with Mikael Järvi in the second line and even starting a game on the bench.

With their golden days appearing to be past, certain fans and anonymous commentators have been quick to insist the great Järvi no longer has it. Also, the popular party line says Järvi has his own rules and goes unpenalized from situations where anyone else would head for the penalty bench. ”It always fun to hear crisp comments and especially in Seinäjoki the local fans have good ones”, Järvi laughs at the matter. ”I quite disagree on the penalties part. I’ve certainly served my share and the guys in the team say: ”ok, there’s Järvi’s usual two minutes again”. But actually, playing feels better now than it has for several years when injuries have forced me down to half speed. This summer I was finally able to train at my best and in the games, I’ve felt good, too.”

_{Järvi lead his team to a golden success at the WFC 2008 in Prague (Photo Erwin Keller)}

The way you practice, that’s the way you play
As a team, Viikingit should do better, Järvi admits. ”We have lost a little bit of our winning culture in the last few years and we’ll need to learn to work hard to find it back. We have several young players who have the skill but still need to learn to take the final step to winning. That needs some hard work.”

In a recent video interview, Viikingit defenseman Mikael Lax revealed Mikael Järvi is a pain in the ass to play against in practice. ”You’ll have to play hard and even provoke the guys a bit in practice”, Järvi smiles. ”The way you practice leads to the way you play, there’s just no way around it.” With Harri Forsten and Tero Tiitu back, Viikingit was the national betting company’s number one choice for the title this year.

”We’ve got potential. With new players for key spots we now have a broader lineup raising the level of practice and giving us to chance to play a more active kind of floorball. In the past years with only two good lines we’ve had to be more passive. Our goal is to play in the Superfinale in April and win it,” the Lumberjack states.