In Finland, the way to the top of the nation’s hockey cabinet or even to the front row usually goes through the Lions. Even a good NHL career might end up in the Härmä pearls for pigs section, if the fame in the national team is missed.
On the other hand, when gold is washed away on the ice of the World Cup, the cult players of the Lions rise to a fame and status that many NHL players never reach – and there is nothing wrong with that. Examples can be found in both categories.
As far as the NHL is concerned, I don’t think the large (hockey) audience in Finland has just realized that the Pori-based Erik Haula33, will play his 700th career NHL game this week in Detroit.
The number of matches alone can be considered a hard achievement. During the current season, Haula will be among the twenty Finnish players who have played the most NHL games.
Haula, who represents the New Jersey Devils, is currently playing at such a high level and with a sharp foot that he can easily have a career of 900, even a thousand NHL games, if he is healthy enough.
The Porila striker has built a wonderful NHL career, clichédly expressed, in all silence. At least if the attention value is measured by those who previously reached the ton club: Teemu Selänne, Jari Kurri, Prank Numminen, Birch tree brothers, Olli Jokinen, Kimmo Timonen and Valtteri Filppula are puck heroes known to all people.
Haula has become a top-ranked domestic NHL player through the well-known Shattuck St. Marys development program in the United States, the USHL junior league and the NCAA university league. No SM league, no World Cup, no big headlines in Finland before the NHL breakthrough in Minnesota and Las Vegas about ten years ago.
Reliability at the heart of everything
However, Haula should not be forgotten when talking about the Finnish players at the forefront of the NHL season that has started in North America. Ässäkasvatti doesn’t profile as a first-team scorer, but otherwise, he is one of the key players of New Jersey, which is fiercely aiming for the top spot in the Eastern Conference.
Operating as the center of the triple chain, Haula undoubtedly belongs to the absolute elite of the Eastern Conference in its own role. This is a fact that gets buried under the cult of stardom even in North American discourse.
Haula forms by Stefan Noesen with, in a word, an excellent triple lineup for the Devils. It has been seen as the third link in the chain Ondrej Palatred-hot and then promoted to the top chain Paul Cotter than Tomas Tatar too.
With everyone, the game flowed like water.
If in past decades the term top6 was used in NHL talk, nowadays it is about top9. It is impossible to succeed in the NHL, unless the team has three balanced, intact chains capable of producing results. From this point of view, the third line led by Haula is a really important competitive advantage for New Jersey.
Haula has everything that is required of a high-quality three-point center: movement, a sharp head, good work ethic and the ability to produce results. The Devils’ first season two years ago produced 41 (14+27) power points, last season 35 (16+19).
Now after seven matches, Haula’s performances are recorded as 1+5. Such readings are good for a three-point center who enjoys a lot of responsibility – especially when the majority of points are generated in 5-5 play.
At the center of everything for Haula is reliability. This is also evidenced by the fact that he was even part of the Devils’ captaincy last season. Haula is a 55 percent starter, who for two seasons in New Jersey has been nabbing about 55 percent of the goals expected and the number one goal spots in the first sector.
This is expected from the center forward of the middle pack.
And it hasn’t gone bad in the playoffs either. Last spring, the net swung four times, and the 25 previous playoff matches included 6+7=13.
Through difficulties back up
The difficulties between 2018 and 2021 bring their own color to Haula’s story. The season in the shirt of Vegas ended briefly in the fall of 2018 as a result of a serious knee injury.
A year later, the knee problems continued in Carolina, and even in Nashville, Haula played only 51 games in the 2020–2021 season. At the time, many people wondered if Haula’s NHL career was coming to an end.
What else.
Having represented no less than seven different NHL clubs, Erik Haula has experienced a lot, collected battle scars, learned and matured. As a result of all that, we see a smart 33-year-old player on the ice, to whom the head coach Sheldon Keefe trusts in all possible situations: even fives, with over and under powers and in important starts.
The work done by Aina Haula and the small things performed with high quality from shift to shift do not catch the eyes of the general public or make headlines in the media, but without Haula, New Jersey wouldn’t be able to do it either.
That says a lot. And how many clubs and coaches have wanted Erik Haulan for this role – 700 NHL games are not played by chance.