Kärpät Oulu will be playing in a tough group in the CHL, but CEO Juha Junno wouldn't have it any other way. "When you play German or Czech teams, it makes you better every time and we hope that this experience will help us win our Finnish league," he says.

by Lukáš Kratochvil

Are you satisfied with the Draw and the opponents in your group?

Yeah, we have very tough opponents, great teams, and we are happy with that. I think it will be very difficult to play these teams. (Kölner Haie, Bílí Tygři Liberec, HC Košice)

Your club has had pretty good spell over the past few years in Finland, but this is something new. Which will be more important to you?

Of course it's very important to play well in the Liiga (Finnish league) and we would like to be champions, but of course we would like to win European championship as well. It is very important for us.

Are you going to use the CHL as a chance to try out younger players?

No, not at all. We're going to play always with the best players. Of course we have a lot of young talented players, but we also have a strong team.

What about your approach towards your fans regarding this new competition?

I have talked to our fans and they are very enthusiastic and happy that Kärpät is going to participate in the Champions Hockey League and I am 100 percent sure that they will travel to Cologne and Liberec.

Are you preparing anything special for your fans who might want to watch your away games in the CHL?

I think we have to talk about that soon and we would like to discuss it with our fans and prepare together, maybe even organize trips to the Czech Republic and Germany.

You are going to play two tough competitions at the same time. How difficult could that be for the whole club?

Of course its going to be hard, but we, I mean Kärpät, have to travel a lot in our domestic league as well and if you want to play in the CHL, you have to be prepared to travel. We might even think about some charter flights for this occasion.

Do you think that playing international hockey will be a great performance boost for your players?

Yes, definitely, it's very important for our players. When you play German or Czech teams, it makes you better every time and we hope that this experience will help us win our Finnish league. We played three times at a tournament in St. Petersburg and it was really good experience. We reached the finals twice and we met two Russian teams there, which are really tough competitors.