09-05-2025
HIFK creates remake of classic Florida Panthers player intro after hiring Olli Jokinen as head coach
Get ready for a blast from the past, Florida Panthers fans.
First, we'll start with the news portion of the story.
Former Panthers Captain Olli Jokinen was recently named the next head coach for longtime Finnish hockey powerhouse HIFK.
Jokinen has been working as a professional head coach for the past several seasons, finding success in the top league in Sweden before moving back home to Helsinki to join HIFK.
Before moving to the NHL as a player, Jokinen played for HIFK as a teenager.
Now, his Helsinki hockey path comes full circle.
But that's only part of the reason for this story.
Longtime Panthers fans will remember a player intro that Jokinen starred in nearly 20 years ago.
Playing ahead of the 2006-07 season, the spot featured several prominent Florida players of that era, including Nathan Horton, Todd Bertuzzi and Ed Belfour.
It showed Jokinen going to different local spots, nodding at his teammates as if to say, 'Let's go boys, it's game time.'
The video was spectacularly corny in all the best ways, and the players appeared to have a lot of fun with it.
Here's the video:
Fast forward to present date.
With Jokinen now on the HIFK staff, the team's media team thought it was be fun to recreate the classic video.
Panthers fans looking closely will find someone other than Jokinen in the video who is very close with a current Florida player.
You can check out the new version in the social media clip below:
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