He played the last match for Luleå on 28 November. He was indeed in the squad on December 9, but then he and the club pulled the handbrake.
Joel Lassinantti struggled to shake off the effects of stubborn glandular fever.
Against Växjö, he was back in the box.
41 zeros
And then he became historic.
He kept a clean sheet for the 41st time and is thus the best of all time.
– It is really big. There are big names up there. It was when I was little and started playing that there were those names up there, Fredrik Norrena and Stefan Liv. It feels surreal to be mentioned among them, he tells TV4 Play.
Despite the clean sheet, the 31-year-old was not particularly satisfied with his match.
– It’s been a while since I played and maybe didn’t train at full level. It has been leaps and bounds forward.
– It was bad timing, bad vision, bad technique, but I’m incredibly happy that the pucks went right.
“An honor”
For Växjö, the 0–2 match was anything but what they had hoped for.
The club started by paying tribute to Liam Reddox by hoisting his jersey up to the roof of the Vida arena.
Fans chanted Reddox’s name and when his parents’ greeting was played on the jumbotron, tears rolled down the 38-year-old’s cheeks.
– I am so incredibly grateful to have this moment with you all, he said in TV4 Play’s broadcast.
– It has been an honor to wear the jersey.
Reddox, who was team captain during four of his eight years at the club, was part of and won two SM golds, in 2015 and 2018, during his years in the Småland team.
He is the first Canadian to have his jersey hoisted in the SHL.