Jari Kurri, Esa Tikkanen and Valtteri Filppula are in their own caste. This iconic trio of Finnish ice hockey has a bewildering number of championships, as well as important matches and match series, even championship-deciding goals.
Filppula is the only member of the triple gold club in domestic ice hockey history – there is a Stanley Cup as well as Olympic and World Cup gold in the closet.
When talking about the cult players of the playoff world, Pohjola wigs have no rush for the association’s annual meeting.
However, one name can soon be added to the member list: Artturi Lehkonen.
A few years ago in Montreal, the Turku native, who was in a somewhat difficult situation, has risen in recent years in an incredible way among the toughest playoff players in the NHL. We are talking about a player whose reputation as an exceptional player in tough matches is far ahead of him. Lehkonen is not one of the first-class individuals in the star cult series, but sports people from Alaska to Texas know what kind of winner they are talking about when it comes to the TPS breeder.
Even though the playoff spring in the NHL is only a few days old, Lehkonen’s actions have already made the sports fans enjoy the flow familiar from previous springs: When the stakes are at their highest and the continuation of the season is on the line, Lehkonen rises to the front row.
The latest proof of Lehkonen’s unimaginable tenacity and consistency of execution came early Wednesday morning in Winnipeg.
Little things
The most beautiful things in Lehkonen’s game are the little things. For example, in the second part of the Winnipeg series, it was seen how he doesn’t take no for an answer when trying to get in front of the goal. No amount of interference or cross sticks will make Lehkonen’s legs move or his efforts to get in front of the goalkeeper end. Fighting and not giving in even takes on amusing features from time to time.
After a couple of minutes, Huili and Lehkonen are again going to the end under almost any tackle to make a play.
The winger’s work ethic is unmatched in any context. The whole is crowned by the ability to forget the events of the previous exchange in a second. Even if the walls of the arena fall all around and there is a quagmire, in the next change, Lehkonen’s exploitation and exploitation will be world class again.
Lehkonen is a true credit player in coaching. For example, right now Colorado has a small problem with the second chain. Acquired from Buffalo Casey Mittelstadt unable to play at the level required to win a championship. It is for this reason that Lehkonen has been placed next to the Yankee center, whose task, together with the Russian winger, is to bring the flame and reliability of the chain’s play.
And how has Lehkonen responded to the challenge? By being the best player on the rink on Wednesday.
And Lehkonen is still not just a workman, even if the statistics of the regular season suggest that.
The harder the stakes, the more likely Artturi Lehkonen will become the decider. In this respect too, we are talking about a completely exceptional type of winner. Twice in the NHL, Lehkonen has taken his team from the conference final to the Stanley Cup final with a goal. In the summer of 2022, the hit that decided the Stanley Cup was recorded in his name.
In Finnish NHL history, only Kurri, Tikkanen and Teemu Selänne have scored more winning goals from Lehko.
If Lehkonen played the 200 playoff games played by Kurri, this would reach 22 winning goals at the current rate. That would be eight more than Kurrilla.
In the previous three years, Lehkonen has scored the fifth most game-winning goals in the NHL playoffs.
It’s also admirable how Lehkonen has almost doubled his average point per game in the regular season (0.47) in the playoffs (0.83). And the man from Turku hasn’t needed a superior game for this. Of the 24 power points of the three previous springs, 19 have come in even fives. That’s as much as by Jack Eichel and one more than, say, a superstar Nikita Kucherov.
From spring to spring
This is how Lehkonen has always acted.
Let’s take a short review.
For Finland, the Golden Juvenile Games 2014 in Gothenburg: the winning goal in the semi-final against Canada, an assist in the final.
In the spring of 2016 in Sweden in the quarter-finals against Djurgården, the winning goals for matches five and six. Two hits in the final match that decided the championship. Lehkonen scored 11 hits in 16 matches in Sweden during the championship spring, which is still Frölunda’s club record.
In the NHL, while representing Montreal, Lehkonen scored a goal in the playoff series against Pittsburgh in the spring of 2020. This was followed by the previously mentioned overtime hits in the semifinals in Colorado’s shirt. The championship goal was celebrated two summers ago.
This is Artturi Lehkonen. A rock-hard winning type, who has won not only the youth World Cup gold, but also the Swedish championship and the European championship for club teams. In the NHL, he has the Stanley Cup under his belt and a bunch of winning goals in decisive moments.
This spring there will be a stone on the road to Colorado, but nothing will be caught in Lehkone’s bomb for sure. The tighter Colorado gets, the more often Lehkonen slides onto the ice. If a chain leaks, a “glue-Lehkonen” is thrown there. There isn’t a situation, offensively or defensively, where we don’t see this man.
And remember to look at the smallest things. Punches on the goal, going under tackles, getting up after falling, rear hairs and general work ethic. Lehkonen repeats them at a level that very few in the NHL can reach.
It also makes it possible to get to the right places when the matches are settled.