Pekka Kangasalusta tells how Miro Heiskanen developed in HIFK next to the AHL roller. Antti-Jussi Niemi already saw the young Esa Lindell in Jokeri that the qualities to become a top player existed.
20.5. 06:40 • Updated May 20th. 08:32
Finland will meet at the British Hockey World Championships on Friday at 4.20 pm. Urheil follows the matches of the Lions, the news of the competition and the competition humor of Tampere and Helsinki in this article.
The Finnish World Cup team was supplemented by two top NHL defenders, Miro Heiskasella and With Esa Lindellwho are likely to be involved in Friday’s UK match.
The 22-year-old Heiskanen receives confirmation of the level of his back line that has never been seen in the Finnish shirt at the World Championships many times, if ever. So expectations are right for a reason.
With his soft skating and confident puck skills, Heiskanen is able to turn the flow of the game in an irresistible direction of attack, and he has no problems defending his own area either. It is possible that Heiskane will become the first Finn in history to be awarded the NHL’s best defender Norris Trophyl.
– He will win the Norris Trophy in the future. I don’t think there is any ambiguity about it, said an expert from the NHL Network, a three-time Stanley Cup winner Ken Daneyko already in the fall of 2020.
– There is no smoother skater. He moves silky smooth and sees the ice well. He is calm under pressure. Nothing makes him panic, New Jersey Devils defender legend Daneyko continued with the video.
“Swap one from the team’s best”
Last summer, Heiskanen signed a contract with Dallas for the period 2028–2029, earning $ 8.45 million a season. In the fall, he became the youngest breaker of the 100-power point limit in Stars club history.
Although only six years have passed, a long way has come since Heiskanen unexpectedly broke into the HIFK league crew in the 2016–2017 season at the age of 17. He worked as an assistant coach at HIFK at the time Pekka Kangasalusta, which says that the talent was certainly visible through Heiskanen ‘s junior tube. But there is a lot of luck and coincidence involved in how Heiskanen ended up in the league crew that season.
HIFK participated in the Tampere Cup during the league season. The cloth recalls that Swedish kit Daniel Grillfors was injured and confirmed by the Yankees Joe Finley something confusing with flights.
– We needed one defender. Sure, we had talked about Miro, but it was a little shy to dare take such a young dude. Miro came to Tampere and was one of the best players on the team since the exchange. After that, there was no need to question whether he would be put back in the A-Juniors or whether he would stay on the league team, Kangasalu recalls.
Kangasalusta thinks that Heiskanen was playing in his first match in the Finnish Championship with the strengths he excels in the NHL today – although experience and strength have become more.
In the next season, 2017–18, Heiskanen was already involved in the Olympic and World Championships in Leijon, when Kangasalu was the assistant coach of the national team.
In the NHL, Heiskanen’s minutes of play have been wild. In the regular season this season, he was once again the king of playing time in Dallas and the 15th most player in the entire NHL, including those who played in at least 30 regular season games. Heiskanen played an average of 24.53 matches per game. In the playoffs against Calgary, the playing time was 25.35.
– He is able to recover well thanks to his energy-saving skating skills and hard physics. I am talking specifically about the physics of the respiratory and circulatory system, says Kangasalu and says that the endurance properties were already visible in HIFK.
The star promise and the AHL roller were broken into a pack pair
The fascinating story is also related to how Heiska, who started playing hockey in the Espoo Blues, was played in his first league season. He was struck in the same pair of packs as Joe Finley, who was 30-centimeter and 110-pound, who turned 30 during the season.
Finley eventually played for HIFK for three seasons, but the last two were ravaged by injuries. The general public remembers Finley’s hard grips, such as the bad star JYP’s Czech star Michel Miklikiin. The tackle was found to be clean and no penalties were awarded for it, but in total Finley collected 178 ice minutes and 8 power points in 74 matches in the SM League regular season.
Kangasalusta says that in retrospect, putting the most promising but delicate defender and the experienced AHL-Pak into a pack was a great solution, at least for Heiskanen’s development.
– Finley was a big dude who, if necessary, went to remind his opponent if something happened. Finley handled defensive responsibilities and fights in front of the goal. It allowed Miro to immediately play with his own strengths.
– I think that was the big reason why Miro came up so quickly and was immediately ready for the NHL. Often, when a young dude is brought into the league, he is beaten into a seven-or-a-half pack with a few minutes of responsibility. It may take many years for him not to dare to bring his own identity to the ice, Kangasalusta explains.
If something is needed from Heiskanen even thinking about the title of the best defender in the NHL, it is the power points. While it would be the defender’s job to defend, even the most prominent statistics are well known in North American sports.
This season, Heiskanen was 42nd in the regular season (5 + 31 = 36) in the regular season, but of course he lost the matches due to illness. In the previous season, he was 29th on the Defenders Stock Exchange and 28th on the previous one.
AJ Niemi is not surprised why Esa Lindell rose to the top of the world
Esa Lindell, 27, moved to the Dallas organization from Ace after the 2014-15 season. Lindell has played 440 NHL regular season games, 275 Heiskanen.
Lindell is a comprehensive basic defender who doesn’t charm in the direction of attack like Heiskanen, but assures with certainty. Lindell began his career at Tikkurila’s Ice-Veiko, from where he moved to Kiekeri via Kiekko-Vantaa. Lindell had time to play in the Finnish Championship League in Helsinki in 2012–2014. His pack of bones, among other things Antti-Jussi Niemiwho won the 2006 Olympic silver in Lions and five World Championship medals.
– When Esa came along in June, he saw that he was a quality player and a quality guy. It was played as a pair of packs and sat side by side. We started every game with the theme that paint a man. Of course, it happened less often, Niemi jokes.
In 19 matches in the first league season, Lindell’s points account has not yet opened and in the second league season, five power points were generated in 44 matches.
However, before his league debut, Lindell had lost 51 power points in 48 matches in the under-20 league. And in the final season before leaving for the NHL, Lindell scored 35 points for Ace in 57 matches. In the NHL, however, the role has been more defensive when Lindell has profiled himself as a specialist in the undercurrent, for example.
– Yes, he saw that there were blocks and attitudes in the game. He is a really good general defender, trustworthy. Of the memories I have left, I am not surprised that he has made his way to the top of the world, says Niemi.
Ismo Lehkonen: “Every NHL coach would take on his team”
By nature, Niemi describes Lindell as calm, yet quite brotherly.
– Not terribly hot. In a good way brother, always blink an eye and understand humor. A really humble guy with a smile on his face. Taking the game and life seriously, the mud was not too serious even at a young age. Saakel is a good guy, which I have time to play in the same gang then, Niemi decides.
‘s expert Ismo Lehkonen said an audio series at the World Cup meeting that Lindell is bringing a fighter’s heart to the Lion.
– There is not a single coach in the NHL who would not take Esa Lindell into his own team, Lehkonen uploaded.
In the NHL, Lindell is used to obscuring opponents ’stars. Lehkonen believes that Lindell is a player who puts the first pass with confidence and can be trusted at the time of the decision.
– You can’t pass Lindell. It still grabs out its play equipment and then puts it in the wallet for its own group – it’s a pickpocket, “Ika” Lehkonen boasted.
Finland will meet Britain on Friday at 16.20. Urheil follows the Lions’ matches, the race news and the competition races of Tampere and Helsinki in this article.
In addition, matches Germany-Italy, Kazakhstan-Slovakia and Latvia-Austria will take place on Friday. The full match program can be found here.