NHL

EKI: “I feel like this loss will make me twice the player I am now.”

One month ago, Erik ‘’EKI’’ Tammenpää traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada with the hope of defending his title. After making it through the qualifications unbeaten, the Finnish player was viewed as the main favorite to win in Sin City. Sadly for the defending champion, he ended up coming short this year and left Las Vegas without a medal.

After an intense semi-final, it was ‘’EKI’’ who looked to advance to his second consecutive grand final in NHL GWC. But with under one minute left on the game clock, the Finnish player saw his dream of defending the title slip away.  

• “It’s been one month since the finals and I still feel horrible. That kind of loss is going to take some time to forget. I’m just not happy at all how I played. I played my worst games ever on LAN, but still was in a position of being in the World Championship final with under a minute left in the semi-final series, which went away in 10 seconds.” 

The player who knocked out ‘’EKI’’ was the American ‘’Johnwaynee’’

• “But all credit to John Wayne. The guy had clearly scouted me and did a great job of taking away my strengths. I’m just so disappointed in myself I couldn’t figure out in the series what I did wrong and why I played so badly.”

Being so close to advancing, does that make the defeat harder?

• “Of course, it’s hard. Knowing it was so damn close. I feel like I would have matched up with Cookie very well as well, but it’s stupid to speculate now. But I feel like this loss will make me twice the player I’m now. I learned so many things. I will come way more prepared for future tournaments. Sometimes losses can be a good thing and I really feel like this is going to make me a better player going forward.”

You have worked one year to defend your title. You stated on Twitter that you will now take a short break before NHL20 will be tried out. How long do you expect this break to be, and would work as hard for next years GWC?

• “I think brake is a wrong word I will always play NHL. But I will not play as much in the summer, I will just have fun with my fiance, friends and overall just enjoy the summer and gather my thoughts. Then in NHL 20, I will work harder than ever to make that my best year to date. Even though I thought I had an amazing NHL 19 overall, even better than NHL 18 but I just couldn’t get the icing on the cake with the World Championship. This loss really made me have a shitty feeling and I will do everything I can to back in Las Vegas next year to have my redemption.”