APRIL 10, 2010 -- I was originally going to start this by saying “The joke’s on Olli.”  But the more I thought about it I realized that the joke IS Olli.  The guy is just a straight up choke-artist.  I have no idea how he does it, but Olli Jokinen somehow manages to play hockey with one hand clutching his throat!

Olli Jokinen

Olli Joke (as I’ve started calling him) has been more or less a disappointment his whole career. 

Joke was drafted third overall by the Kings in 1997 (behind Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau) and never blossomed into the player that people thought he would be.  For all the joking and sarcasm that I plan on laying out here, Joke is currently in the NHL record book and being able to say that you hold an NHL record is generally an impressive thing. 

Going back to the 2009 playoffs, Olli had appeared in more NHL games than any other player (799) without getting a sniff of the playoffs.  Congrats Olli.  You’ve certainly earned it!

Joke had a less than stellar entrance into the NHL with the Kings—he played eight games in LA during the 1998 season, going an impressive 0-0-0.  After the eighth game, dude put his tail between his legs and jetted on back to Finland to play.

Playing in Finland (a BIG step below the NHL) seemed to suit Olli just fine because he tallied 39 points in just 30 games and did well in the playoffs.  With this newfound confidence he returned to the Kings the following season.

Joke choked in his return to the big league amassing a whopping 21 points in 66 games!  Welcome back to the NHL!  Apparently the Kings were done with the Olli Project and they shipped him off the perennially awful New York Islanders.

The Islanders were just a year out of their failed “Gorton’s Fisherman Jersey” project, and they apparently were looking for another way to make their franchise awful, so why not pick up a player with Olli’s impressive numbers?  Joke was traded for Ziggy Palffy. 

Palffy was averaging a point a game or better the previous three seasons on the Island, so why trade a guy that can score for a guy that’s a bore?  That may remain one of hockey’s great mysteries.

After stinking it up on Long Island for a year (10-11-21), Olli eventually made his way to the Florida Panthers where he managed to string together three decent seasons from 2005-2008, though he was never able to get the Panthers into the playoffs.  On draft night 2008, Olli was traded to the Phoenix Coyotes where he was expected to be their savior and get them back into the post-season. 

Why the hell would anyone think that Olli was going to get them into the playoffs?  Here is a dude who came into the NHL with lofty expectations and has been (with the exception of three decent seasons) a complete bust!  He had never been in the playoffs, so why would 2008-9 be any different?  Apparently it wasn’t.

Olli once again worked his magic and put together a less-than-impressive 21-21-42 in 57 games for the ‘Yotes before being dealt to the Calgary Flames at the trade deadline.  For some reason the Flames were all hot and bothered for a guy that didn’t know anything about playing in the playoffs and they traded Matthew Lombardi, Brandon Prust AND a conditional first round pick in 2009 or 2010 for Jokinen. 

Lombardi has been a key contributor on a Phoenix team that has surged back into the playoffs for the first time since 2002.  His 18 goals tops Joke’s 15, he’s three years younger, and anyone in the League would take Prust and a 1^st rounder with their helping of Lombardi.  Don Maloney, executive of the year with apologies to Hockeytalk’s Editor – must be laughing his balls off knowing that he rescued his club from a failed experiment with the Joke.

What was Calgary GM Darryl Sutter smoking when he decided to give up two players AND a first round pick for a guy with Jokinen’s poor credentials? 

I mean, what team wouldn’t want a player who had been in the league for almost 800 games and the only playoff games he saw were on NHL Center Ice?  In giving up a first round pick, the Flames will be feeling the repercussions of this trade for a few more years.  Surely the mishap with Joke will be part of the reason the Flames dump everyone named Sutter during the offseason.

Flames coach Mike Keenan immediately paired Joke with Jarome Iginla and the plan failed miserably.  Jokinen was scoreless in his last 13 games of the season, with a -6 while Iginla scored 4 goals in the same 13 game span and was a -5.  Olli did finally make the playoffs, but the reality is that he had zero to do with them getting there.

Jokinen started 2009-10 strong, scoring 3 goals in his first 23 games and that apparently made him attractive to yet another team. 

More crack was being smoked, this time in the Big Apple where the New York Rangers decided that Olli was the “piece of the puzzle” that they needed to get into the playoffs and finally have some post-season success.    Jokinen has been a “piece” all right.  In 24 games in New York he is 4-11-15 and the Rangers are now 2 points out of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. 

The Rangers trail the Flyers by a game and have a home-and-home series with Philly this weekend to wrap up the regular season.  How much you want to bet that Joke is gonna choke (again) and cost New York a playoff berth? 

After 11 NHL seasons and a grand total of six playoff games, you would think that teams would be hip to this guys deal, but I guarantee you that some GM out there will be looking over players and will think to himself, “If we could just get Olli…”

EMAIL JASON: jr@wesandjr.com

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