TURKU. The parking space can be found on an August day in the yard of Turkuhalli, in the back row, a little before half past twelve.
– What’s going on here, a shout is heard.
The shouter is a TPS legend and current guardian Ville Vahalahtiwho is on duty in the yard of the hall.
An old game friend asks about the reports and, laughing, wishes a good day.
– It might be a little sour, are Vahalahti’s greetings.
A real challenge awaits, namely an hour of hockey with an NHL professional.
The winners of the Stanley Cup in Colorado are included Mikko Rantanen and Artturi Lehkonen like the one who played a great rookie season in Arizona Matias Maccelli too. New York Rangers, who represented Leijon in the World Cup Kaapo Kako as well as the Nashville striker Juuso Pärssinen also cool off in the rink.
Today, one journalist is also mixed in the mix.
The door to the players’ entrance is locked and can only be entered with a four-digit code.
While the conman Vahalahti guides the reporter in the right direction, a red Porsche convertible pulls into the yard of the hall.
You can easily tell from the black license plates that the car is much older than the driver.
Because the parking lot is full, Kaapo Kakko turns right in front of the door.
The dressing room is the same everywhere
The locker room has its own rules and things that happen there are not leaked to the outside. You can be yourself in the booth and outsiders are rarely allowed there.
The experience of almost four hundred SM league matches may be useful today, however, because the reporter has been granted special permission to sit on the bench and listen to stories.
Although it is common in the NHL for the media to be allowed into the locker room after practices and matches to talk to the players, the presence of the cameraman causes a little shyness at first.
– When the camera is there, mouths close. That’s how it always happens, Lehkonen throws and the atmosphere lightens a bit.
The hierarchy is clear, the parents have more space and Rantanen has taken over the boulder at the end of the bench.
However, the most experienced gambler of the bunch sits on a chair in the middle of the booth.
609 games in Pheonix, Dallas and Columbus twisted Lauri Korpikoski is currently TPS’s man, but injuries prevent the striker from playing this season.
Korpikoski lightens the mood and remembers his time in the fabled hockey league.
A story about a nightclub in New York’s Manhattan piques the interest of Kako, an attacker in Rangers.
However, the story remains in Turkuhalli’s graves. Booth stuff stays in the booth.
Rantanen’s passes click on the shoulder
Ice training is ready to start. First, we warm up and feed in pairs in the middle area.
The reporter has been paired with Mikko Rantanen. The passes of the strong attacker click on the shoulder with precision.
The signatory has to play it safe. Soft ice gives a good excuse for careful feeding work.
– Yes, you have to be on your guard here, just to stay upright, Rantanen points to the ice.
It warms the mind.
Next, queues are made in the corners of the blue lines, fed with one touch and then laid out.
The reporter is in danger of falling under the eager Rantanen’s wheel already within the first few minutes. However, a quick evasive move prevents a collision.
– Sorry!, the 193-centimeter and hundred-kilogram colossus acknowledges the situation.
Relaxed and hard
Half an hour is over and the players are sliding towards the changing rooms.
Some are chatting casually and the rest are sipping water from their drinking bottles before the start of the game.
The reporter snorts.
Even focusing on basic things like skating, passing and shooting takes energy and the repetitions come at a fast pace. The calf is heavy and the heart is pounding.
Rantanen poses in group photos and tells stories with friends on the side of the rink. The difference between a current fitness athlete and an NHL star working hard for more than 22 minutes a night is considerable.
– There are a lot of good guys here. During the season, the pace is so fast that it’s nice to train in a more relaxed atmosphere sometimes, Rantanen reflects during the break.
Next to you, Kako’s mouth is open and the story is flying. According to Rantanen, Kakko is the funniest of the group.
– The second is nicknamed Timo Silakka, Rantanen grins, referring to the legendary Kummelit character.
Puck in the middle and it’s game on
Decibels and intensity rise like a snap of the fingers.
Even though it’s still summer and the start of the NHL season is still a long way away, the game brings practice to life.
Sometimes we go to the borders of the rules, and this immediately results in protests from both sides.
There is serious fighting for the puck and it is the fighting that separates the young yellow noses from the experienced NHL players.
Lehkonen stands firmly with his skates on, like Turku Linna konsana, and his 181-centimeter frame is built in such a way that the wall does not break from the middle of the body.
Rantanen’s club, on the other hand, is not moved to the side by the undersigned’s bicep turn. At his best, the Colorado striker keeps opponents at bay with his stick and protects the equipment at the same time.
Some light, some heavier
A little comfort for tired legs comes at the end of the game.
The deciding goal is credited to the reporter, but the smile freezes at coach Korpikoski’s announcement: Next we will skate.
Some of the players jump to the side of the bench.
– The players are at different stages of the training season, so you have to think about the program in terms of the whole. If it’s a lighter week, it’s better to skip skating, says Korpikoski.
It means painful minutes for the journalist.
The familiar pattern repeats itself. Rantanen jumps to the bow to break the wind and leads the group around the rink. The reporter comes after the group, a tactic known from cycling.
The first round is going well. Likewise the other.
The problems start on the third. The thirty second recovery is too short and the heart beats high.
The fourth falls to his feet. The head says that the legs must move, but the message doesn’t get through.
Take a break by leaning on your knees.
By the fifth, the rest of the group is already widening the gap. Only the memory of what skating should feel like is pounding in the rear rage.
Before the last round, my legs don’t feel anything anymore and my head is foggy. The back rises without help to a vertical position. Willpower is the only thing that carries the former professional hockey player, now a journalist, over the finish line.
Foursome training for a top player
The players are banging their sticks on the ice due to the end of practice, while the signee is shaking his head in his hands next to the sideline.
An hour’s ice practice eventually turns into a full ten-hour training day.
Next to him, Artturi Lehkonen smiles and gives his own assessment of the difficulty of the exercise.
– Although it’s quite hard to believe, on a scale of one to ten, this was Nelonen’s training, says Lehkonen.