Kai Miettinen remembers the day the Canberra Brave came to be and has been Brave ever since. Growing up around the team, alongside some of his best mates, Kai is known for his big hits and fierce passion for his team.  Becoming Captain in 2021, Kai has successfully led the team to another AIHL Finals appearance in two weeks, despite the slow start to the season.

In his third year as Captain, Kai feels he has continued to grow and evolve as a leader to meet the team’s needs. “I like to think that my first two years involved a bit of trial and error. I feel like every year I am taking things away and adding things that I think work.  It’s hard sometimes trying to find the line between being as professional as possible, but also then keeping in mind that we all work full-time jobs and that this is something we all love to do and not something we get paid a salary to do.  It’s hard to find that fine line there sometimes, but I think I’m getting more comfortable within the role, and I’d like to hope I’m doing a good enough job to continue to improve on in years to come.”

Following the opening weekend, Alternate Captains Bayley and Casey Kubara headed to Serbia for World Championships, leaving Kai as the sole representative of the leadership group, during the toughest start to a season the team had ever had.  “It was challenging for sure. I may have been the only leader when you look at the captain and the alternates, but we’ve got other leaders in the locker room too. The senior players and guys that have been here a long time, like Tets really stepped up for us during that time. It was more or less just about remaining positive under the worst circumstances. When you get on a nine-game losing streak, everyone starts to point fingers and I feel like it wasn’t happening in our team, or in the locker room. It was hard to block out the external noise, but we managed to stop it impacting the way we were playing and that kept things from getting worse.”

Reflecting on his game this season, Kai believes he has put his best performance forward. “I think it has probably been one of my better seasons in this league. I think I’ve had more consistency this year, but I also put in more effort during the off season, and pre-season than I probably had in years gone by.  I got very motivated this year to play well and to succeed and lead the best I can. I think it sort of hit me that I don’t know how long I’ll be playing for anymore.”

“I can be pretty hard on myself, it’s not a great feeling when you finish a game and all that goes through your head is all the things you wish you did or could have done better. There’s only so much you can do about that sometimes, but you can put more effort into training on and off the ice. I knew I had more to give, and I just needed to find a way to get to that point and to get the best out of myself for the team.’

“My general passion for the game is probably at an all-time high for me and I’m just loving every second of playing and being part of this team with all these guys –  all my best mates . One day it will be my retirement and I won’t get another chance at it so I just want to make the most of the years I’ve got left.”

Ending the season on a high, Kai reflects on the highlight of the regular season as preparation for finals begins.  “It’s not a specific moment. So far, I think the highlight across this season is just what a great team we have. We have a great group of guys, the culture we have in our locker room is better than it’s ever been on a team that I’ve been part of at least.”

“All the new boys have come in and fit in really well, everyone gets along really well, there’s no infighting or little cliques, we are just one whole team. It’s never completely perfect but it’s as close to as we’ve ever had and I think for me that’s probably the best part of playing for this team.  The majority of us are best friends and we hang out outside of hockey regardless and that’s exciting to see how far we can go with that. I think we’ve got such a positive team culture and that’s when you can get the job done. When we stick together and we go to war together, I wouldn’t want to play against us.”

“I think there’s a couple other teams that just don’t have what we’ve got in that locker room. I think that goes a long way in finals when the pressure’s on and you can stick together.”