Finnish team leader Mika Kortelainen and goalkeeper Jussi Olkinuora talk about what makes Kari Lehtonen a specialist. Lehtonen himself says that he is an armpit and the main culprit.
– Special case. Specialist. It’s very hard to go open, What “Cologne” Kortelainen says and growls to laugh.
Let’s still try. What a specialist it is Rocks “Leke” LehtonenLions Goalie Coach?
– Well, first of all, Leke has principles where it doesn’t make any sense, but for him it certainly makes sense, Kortelainen laughs.
What kind of principles?
– Well, Lekehän never goes to the store.
– It doesn’t want to queue. No, you agree to queue.
So who’s shopping for Leken?
– Well, definitely wife and family and everyone else.
The specialist does not trade, the matter is clear. What else describes this exceptional man?
– Leke is a master of useless information. For example, you can memorize all the turns of an Unknown Soldier.
– Let’s be tested! And many more times. It really remembers them. And now let’s talk Edvin Laine version. From there, it digs every thing. Incredible memory capacity.
I heard that Lehtonen is pretty precise on schedules.
– It’s never too late. It is always the first to wait for the bus, even if the bus door is not yet open. If we get together somewhere, Leke will be there a day earlier than five minutes late.
Now seems to be a good time to bring out Lehtonen’s trademark.
– Unload! That is the uninterrupted grinding. And not very inconspicuous, Kortelainen growls.
– Now it’s a bit of a silly question for the journalist.
– Well, Yankees, of course. What else could it be?
As a goalkeeper coach, he has been praised for a long time. What is professional greatness based on?
– Well, if you start lightly, at least not for technical aids. Lekehän is very bad with all apps and others, Kortelainen laughs.
I understand Lehtonen is an excellent human leader?
– Yes. Leke knows how to treat goalkeepers as people. He recognizes what everyone needs. The personalities are so different that you need to know how to communicate. Leke gets along with everyone. And when the essence is still such a teddy bear. After all, no one can miss it.
Is Lehtonen the one who keeps the atmosphere in the Lions on the roof?
– First of all, it must be remembered that everyone in the Lion can be who they really are. Leke and Mamba (coach Mikko Manner), it has two good examples of how different personalities bring roughness, kill boredom. Leke is somewhere there at one extreme and Mamba at the other.
What kind of co-worker is Lehtonen like?
– It’s awesome. There have been no bad days with Leken. Maybe every day here you learn something new from Leke, Kortelainen says.
Let’s ask the goalkeeper’s opinion next.
Jussi Olkinuorawhat kind of person is Kari Lehtonen?
– Bearded goalkeeper guru.
Kölli talked about Lehkonen’s specialties. They must be familiar to you too.
– Yes, but not everything can be revealed…
– Unload he eats a lot. And that’s a good way. I recommend it to everyone, especially children. But maybe not to the full extent of Leke.
What about the goalkeeper coach, what kind of case?
– Excellent from a pedagogical point of view. It’s great how Leke treats people. Sometimes really critical, sometimes really polite. Can work with different people in different situations. It’s a skill where Leke has developed a lot over the years, Olkinuora says.
Kari Lehtonen, your professionalism has been praised numerous times. There was a little less talk about the person. What do you guess was Kortelainen’s analysis of you?
– It probably said I was an armpit. And that’s true. With Mamba, there are those in the management team who are most upset. And strives to maintain a happy atmosphere. Of course everyone else does, but we are the main culprits of some kind.
Kölli said that in the Lions booth, everyone can be their own.
– That’s the way it is. Everyone appreciates everyone as they are. Everything. I claim that the result has come through it. We are all completely different, but damn united.
How do you create such a really good-sounding operating environment for goalkeepers?
– You have to respect the individual, that’s the essence of everything. Now think about being on the team as an individual coach, it’s pretty intimate the dialogue that’s going on. Then you have to take into account different personalities. There have been quite a few goalkeepers here in my national team time as well. You have to figure out who you are dealing with, what kind of person it is. Respects his ways of working. Getting to know a person and reading a person is the biggest thing.
Have you learned to be a good human expert or is it a type issue for you?
– The type question. As a guy, I am extremely social. I get along with people. If I don’t come, I’ll leave. There are quite a few people I can’t get along with. I can adapt in the coaching process. I like to be with people.
What would happen if you were not allowed to do social, interpersonal work?
– I couldn’t imagine myself somewhere in the archives of the ministry, downstairs alone carving out the crank where those ungodly shelves move, and retrieving alphabetically the tax information of someone from Matthew from 1974. No goddamn board.
Jar, it’s your trademark.
– It’s in games and ice practice. Not by the way. In civilian, I do not eat canned. Or if now my wife sometimes on the car offers to take you to unload, then I might take.
Why do you grind in games and workouts all the time?
– I wouldn’t stay up on the ice without unloading. And the game would leave conscious without disassembly.
– As a younger man, in 2008, when I started my job in league coaching, I got some excitement and nervousness about grinding into it.
So, it looks pretty intense.
– I eat it like a rottweiler! That’s where the jar gets a ride.
How much decompression does it take during the game?
– Two pieces per batch. But if you go for overtime, then you have to take a new taste. Extra pockets are always ready in your pocket.
Does the unloading have to be of a certain kind?
– It must be a pillow can to dispense two pieces of it. I don’t eat a disc can or any hubbabubba. Stone Curry always says me as a hubbabubba, but yes it is a Yankee.
Kari Lehtonen leaves goalkeeping coaching in the Finnish Championship League and moves full-time to the Hockey Association. What his mission statement is there has not been explained in detail yet.
Let’s ask a member of the Lions coaching team From Ari-Pekka Selin.
What is Leken’s future job description?
– Director. It’s a leader.