It was Jari Kurrin time. It was Teppo Numminen and Teemu Selänten time. Kurri ended his playing career at the age of 38, Numminen at the age of 40, and Selänne at the age of 43. In their time, these legends of Suomi hockey were, as it were, self-evident nestors of Finnish NHL hockey.
The Nestorian of the new age has quietly become the representative of New Jersey, based in Pori and since then Americanized in many ways Erik Haula33. Haula is the NHL’s oldest Finnish player now for the first time after inheriting the scepter from the goalkeeper who switched to Switzerland Antti from Raanna34.
Haula rarely collects big headlines in Finland, and didn’t do so a couple of weeks back after reaching 700 games played in the NHL. Ässäkasvatti was only the 22nd Finn who crossed the border. If this remains healthy, the ranking in the all-time match statistics will already be 19th after the end of the season.
– I hope there will be at least three hundred more. That’s a goal for yourself, Haula tells Urheilu.
At the moment, only eight Finns can fit into the Tonny club, but the club is getting more members in the coming years. with Mikael Granlund is a pair of borderline laundry, With Aleksander Barkov kolniken and Haula as well Rasmus Ristolainen four years.
– It’s really funny that the title of the oldest player now came to me. Time goes by fast and sometimes you look in the mirror and notice how the years fly by and you get older. I don’t take anything for granted, Haula continues.
As a suitcase player
It is easy to understand why Haula does not take things for granted. His NHL career, which started well in Minnesota and then in Vegas, was very much on the ropes just before the corona pandemic broke out at the turn of the decade. Haula seriously injured his knee in a game against Toronto in Vegas’ shirt in the fall of 2018.
– I got injured, after which it was said that I might never play again, Haula times.
Just when Haula’s career was about to take off like a rocket in Vegas, a knee injury and the subsequent player trade to Carolina changed everything. The player trade in particular was a tough place for Haula.
– Vegas was like some kind of dreamland. It didn’t even feel like real life. You got so much from there. When I received a phone call three days before the wedding asking if you would come to the office quickly, it came out of the blue. Injury, player trade and so on. There were changes and mentally it was a place I wasn’t ready for, Haula continues.
Haula describes the year in Raleigh, North Carolina as the most difficult period of his career. The contract was broken, and with that in mind, the start was excellent. Haula scored seven hits in the first nine games in Carolina, but the knee was not ready for the NHL load.
– I thought that if I can make power with 65 percent power, I’ll just let it go. It was the wrong choice. After the injury, I was on crutches for 12 weeks, I lost 70 percent of my thigh muscle and rehabilitated the whole year and summer. After that, the training camp started full of chaos in the new club. That knee wasn’t ready for it and got inflamed.
According to Haula, the situation got even worse after that. Six more weeks of break and when Haula returned to the ice, playing time was reduced to 10–11 minutes.
– I wasn’t ready for that either. Everything went completely downhill after that, Haula recalls.
Haula became a suitcase player who seemed to play every year of his NHL career. The road led from Florida to Nashville and from there to Boston, where Haula really began to find his identity as a player again.
– The journeyman years were difficult, but I learned a lot. I grew as a person and was able to change my own way of thinking. The kind of person, teammate and player I want to be. I am satisfied with where I have reached in that respect.
“Yes, I cook my own food”
After Boston in New Jersey, Haula has found himself more and more clearly over the course of two seasons. Now the excellently mobile and versatile citizen of Pori is his team’s third center, the coach’s trusted player. Haula plays with both overpower and underpower and takes care of important starts in all situations.
Haula is undoubtedly one of the best in the NHL in his own role.
– Playing will come easily this year. The body feels good and there is a good flow in playing. I can play consistently, and the change of coach (Sheldon Keefe) has been a good fit. Whether Ice Age is 13-14 minutes or whatever, anything goes. My role is clear and the chemistry works. It doesn’t really matter to me who I play with. My mind is clear right now, says Haula.
If not easy, at least the 33-year-old from Pori is playing very well right now. Haula is probably playing the best hockey of his career as a very reliable two-way center forward who can score 40–50 power points in the regular season.
Behind Haula’s excellent skating or physics, there are no magic tricks or large staff hired in the background, as in the new era.
– Yes, I cook my own food, Haula laughs.
He says it took time to learn what it takes to be a professional. As you get older, according to Haula, you also know better what professionalism means, and what you need to do before or after training and games.
– There is nothing extra or out-of-the-box thinking for me.
Reliable in the rink and at home
Considering that Haula was booked in the NHL booking event held in the summer of 2009 only in the last, i.e. the seventh round, he has a long and successful career at hand. Only Haula’s teammate is active Ondrej Palat has accumulated more NHL games under his belt since the seventh round.
– For me it was always just a number. I never saw myself in that caste. When I went to the first NHL development camp, I didn’t have a shutout booking in mind. I went there to turn heads with the clear goal of the NHL. It was not an option for me, but a necessity. There were no other plans, says Haula.
Although Haula has already invested an immeasurable amount in hockey for at least twenty years, there is more to the life of the father of two young children these days. Haula also had a hard time outside the rink together Christian-with his spouse during his traveling years in winter 2020, when the couple’s unborn baby passed away.
Haula gives everything night after night in the rink, but wants to be reliable on home courts as well.
– I am proud to be a father and to be with them every day. Even though I play hockey, they always come first in my life. You don’t always get nine hours of sleep, or even eight. Sometimes it’s four. They demand things, but I want to be able to look back someday and say that I was the best father I could be. That’s important to me.
It is the elegant speech of a more experienced gentleman who has seen rinks and life.