In the Stanley Cup finals, Artturi Lehkonen is on the verge of another great achievement, and not by chance. Lehkonen also profiles himself at the NHL level as a soul player, for whom every change is like the last.
All Stanley Cup finals will be broadcast live on ‘s channels. The first final on Thursday morning at 03.05 on TV2 and Areena. See the schedule of the finals here.
The NHL lives a star cult. The largest hockey league in North America and the world is, above all, the entertainment industry.
The people are thirsty for goals and scorers. Ultimately, only solvers are remembered.
Artturi Lehkonen got his own fifteen-second last week.
The thug-based winger rose to the headlines by hitting an overtime goal that took Colorado to the Stanley Cup Finals. However, Lehkonen was not involved for the first time.
Watch Artturi Lehkonen’s paint in the video below. The story continues after the video.
He took it to the same stage a year ago with an overtime hit in the Montreal finals.
Performance is incomprehensible by any measure. The last time the same player was successful at the same pace was in 1938-39, when Gordie Drillon decided the final spot for Toronto.
Lehkonen took two more clubs to the finals with his goals.
It is clear that in moments like these, the waves hit high. Lehkonen’s name flashed everywhere and the rise of the Turku player to the forefront was amazed here and there.
The other side of the star cult coin appears in moments like this.
This spring, Lehkonen has not made a special breakthrough in the NHL for more than a year since. Sure, hockey is ultimately a goal-scoring game, but Lehkonen’s greatness as a player has long been understood, especially in Montreal.
Before delving into how Artturi Lehkonen has performed in hard places throughout his career purely through a number result, a broader picture of his soul landscape as a player must be formed. Especially in the NHL, Lehkonen’s great prestige is built around non-solution goals.
Lehkonen profiles himself as a hard-working and extremely reliable player. Especially in Montreal, Lehko was highly valued for its responsibility. Therefore, he was used a lot as a glue player to make up for the shortcomings of others in the defensive direction.
While appreciation came, conscientiousness could eat up the power of the offensive game. Lehko was criticized during the Canadian years for the inefficiency of goal scoring and the deficit in the score column.
These things make Artturi Lehkonen an exceptionally good player
Lehkonen’s uncle Timo Lehkonen knows his nephew naturally well. Timo Lehkonen is a former top scorer who was chosen as the best goalkeeper in the Finnish Championship in the 1992–93 season. Since then, Lehkonen has been the assistant coach in winning Jukka Jalosen with the Finnish championship (2006) and the Olympic prose.
Lehkonen is now the coaching manager for the Bear Cats.
– “Arsi” is so damn Conscientious. If you’re always the first attacker on your own, it’s a little out of attack. Sometimes Arttur could have had more selfishness, Lehkonen says.
However, selfishness does not fit into a player’s pirate. Lehkonen’s trademark is to leave everything on ice in every change. It’s a hockey cliché that few can implement.
Lehkonen has made this a strength for himself. The workload is constantly high in both bitter and defensive play.
One of Lehkonen’s strengths is playing without a puck. One example of this was obtained in the second match of the conference final series. The fantastic bitter play of the pier together with the chain mates led to two hits in 15 seconds.
Watch Lehkonen play in the first goal of the fourth conference final in the video below. The story continues after the video.
Watch Lehkonen play in the first goal of the fourth conference final in the video below. The story continues after the video.
Lehkonen tackles, wins loose discs and drives to the finish line in a way that every disc jockey could take a model from.
– He plays the game as if each exchange is special. He doesn’t want to have to watch the video after the game to see how he was lynched in the back pressure, Timo Lehkonen describes.
– That’s hardly going to happen to him. He would not forgive himself. He hugs so damn and that’s where the appreciation comes from.
Lehkonen is also an incredibly tenacious player who is not afraid of pain. The 181-centimeter and 81-pound TPS breeder isn’t the bigger player in the bowl, but the ability to fight and tolerate grunting is tough. He has never been afraid to go to the finish line.
In the fourth match of the final series of the conference, Lehko was broken in front of the goal, but he dug two loose discs for himself in the middle of the crowd, leading to two goals.
See an example of Lehkonen’s goal-scoring game in the video below. The story continues after the video.
Uncle-Lehkonen laughs that competitiveness and perseverance come partly as a legacy.
– If we play anything with a broid (Ismo), it will be a fight, Lehkonen laughs.
– There have been five children in the family and they have not had easy access. Laziness or not wanting to be the best goes under the skin at Ismo. It is in our family in DNA.
From everything Lehkonen does, he sees that nothing is expected to come easily.
An example of this was obtained in the fourth game of the conference finals. At first, Lehkonen was smashing in front of his opponent’s goal, but when the game turned to his own head, he was the first striker in the defense area.
Watch the video below to see how fast Lehkonen got to his head. The story continues after the video.
However, the unloading disc escaped for a long time, after which Colorado had to spin in its own territory.
At the end of a long exchange, few were surprised when Lehkonen won the 50-50 puck near the edge and got the puck out of the area. Colorado escaped the situation even into a 2-1 superiority attack.
These little things don’t always show up in the statistics, but they are the root reason why Lehkonen enjoys high esteem in the NHL.
Watch Artturi Lehkonen’s long defensive battle in the video below. The story continues after the video.
The result comes especially at important moments
Although Lehkonen’s identity is built on the side of the raksaduunar, he has been able to make a cold profit, especially in hard places.
For example, in the NHL and Elitserien, where Lehkonen played for two years, he has a tougher points average in the playoffs than in the regular season.
When Lehkonen won the Swedish championship with Frölunda in the spring of 2016, he scored four goals in five final games, two in the decisive match.
Lehkonen won the playoffs and points exchange. When Young Lions won World Championship gold in Sweden in 2014, Lehkonen hit the Canada semi-finals and made one hit in the final.
At the World Championships for under-18s, Lehkonen once won the paint market.
Now that Lehkonen has reached the top team, where you can find field balance and excellence, who will be even surprised by 11 (5 + 6) points in 16 matches? A player who has only one gear in his gearbox has not succeeded by chance.
– It doesn’t surprise me that he’s played so well in Colorado. It was sometimes annoying on behalf of Ars in Montreal that he was sacrificed as a glue player because he is so conscientious to defend, says Timo Lehkonen.
– I’ve always known that he can make a profit as long as he gets a license to play offensive games and even with good players.
But what is Artturi Lehkonen like as a human being? In Finland, too, Lehkonen has been overshadowed by the more expensive stars as a person, because he does not like noise.
– Arsi is always a happy dude who brings good energy to the booth. Never pick or squeak and always everything will fit. At home he can squat sometimes, but never in the hall. He knows the value of the team game, Timo Lehkonen opens.
– And best of all, nothing will change, even if he wins now. Arsi is always Arsi. A happy child of nature.