On Saturday, will show the NHL match between Nashville and Florida, coached by Tuomo Ruudu, starting at 20:55 on Areena and TV2.
SUNRISE. The air conditioning blows in the windows of the FLA Live Arena, as it does everywhere in Sunrise.
A small group of media has taken the trouble to follow the Florida Panthers’ morning ice. Most of them have already moved in their Hawaiian shirts to listen to the head coach Paul Maurice’s thoughts before the evening’s struggle. In the match, the Finnish stars will be skated by the cheering Dallas Stars.
The lone Finnish representative of the media waits patiently in the corridor for another coach.
Stories from an NHL coach’s mouth in Finnish are a rare treat, but Tumo From the screen they are found. The national team legend, who played a long career in North America, is now part of Florida’s coaching team for the second season.
The booth corridor of Florida’s home cave has a multinational atmosphere. Communication between employees takes place in a mixture of English and Spanish.
A few Finnish curse words are mixed in between.
Around the corner, you can hear the bouncing of a soccer ball.
It’s the Dallas Stars’ Finns, Miro Heiskanen, Roope Hintz, Esa Lindell, Jani Hakanpää and Joel Kivirantawho awaken their senses before the actual morning practice on the ice of the arena.
Tuomo Ruutu greets the five and the man’s mouth turns into a wide smile when he is asked about the biggest differences between coaching and playing.
– As a player, there were more knocks, he throws.
In the current job description, you don’t have to think about ice packs, a cold bath or a two-hour warm-up in the mornings to be able to participate in training.
– It’s a really positive improvement, Ruutu laughs.
How does one become an NHL coach?
Ruutu, who turned 40 this week, was able to work with numerous top coaches during his playing career. The lessons have been clicked along like that From Jukka Jalose and From Erkka Westerlund than From Peter Laviolette and from Paul Maurice**.**
During the playing years, the thought didn’t reach beyond the next match, but the thought about coaching matured when inactivity hit after the career.
Before moving to Florida, Ruutu worked in the coaching team of the under-20 national team and was involved in the player development of the New York Rangers.
– I am goal-oriented, but I haven’t thought about that goal-orientedness, he spins.
– I was like that as a player too. Every day I try to do things so well that I can be satisfied. Then there is a chance to move forward.
When browsing job ads, the text: We are looking for an NHL coach is less likely to come across.
The NHL veteran admits in a quiet corner of the media room that the search for a job behind the Panthers’ bench did not happen by browsing the classifieds.
– There are certainly many ways to end up in NHL coaching. You have to be active in the direction of the clubs, and of course sometimes we contact you in the other direction.
– I had already talked before that there might be some work, and in the end I ended up here, Ruutu opens his own process.
When the players arrive in their sports cars at the arena’s parking garage, the coaches are already at the end of their day. The morning starts at six with the planning of meetings and exercises.
In the middle day, we train at eleven o’clock. If a game has been played the night before, practice is moved forward by an hour.
– After that, we will prepare again. The next day, the next game and the next opponent, he states, counting with his fingers.
And that’s how it goes.
Anton Lundell: “Tuomo has been a big help”
Not a single person is sitting on the red benches of the Florida home cave, which draws more than twenty thousand people to its pavilions.
And there’s no reason, it’s only halfway through the day.
Most of the players have left the rink, but there is something going on in the center circle.
Assistant coach Ruutu, dressed in a Panthers cap and windsuit, has collected a pile of pucks in his hands and crouches down to drop the pucks onto the ice one by one.
In front is a blue and white start Eetu Luostarinen and by Anton Lundell between. The first mentioned in his blue and Lundell in his white training shirt.
After a little ice skating, Luostarinen takes the first, Lundell the next two starts. After four rounds, we are level.
As is customary in the NHL, both take the steals in the last starting situation.
The fifth wheel decides the winner.
Luostarinen flashes black to his own side and grabs the victory three-two.
This is not the first time that Tuomo Ruutu messes with the Panthers’ Finnish players.
– Almost every day we talk about playing. We watch a lot of things on video, and going through situations is much easier in Finnish, says the 24-year-old Luostarinen with satisfaction.
– Tuomo has been a big help. Thanks to his playing experience, he can see things from a player’s point of view, says Lundell, who is attacking in his second season with the Panthers.
Where are the Europeans?
Like the corridors of the Panthers’ home arena, NHL bowls have also featured multinational entertainment in recent years.
The names of European countries are increasingly written on the players’ passports, and the league is constantly looking at new markets outside of North America.
One thing this does not apply to: coaches.
For example, with the exception of Tuomo Ruutu, Florida’s entire coaching team consists of Canadians.
The topic has been talked about a lot by, for example, the head coach of the Lions Jukka Jalonen under. It has been considered why Jalonen, who has won everything in Europe, is not fit for the NHL.
– North American coaches are under the radar in junior leagues or farm leagues. Through that, they also get to know certain people, the Finn reflects.
In the hallway, office workers dressed in sweatpants with the Panthers logo greet Ruutu with the traditional questions: how you doing and everything okay.
Ruutu, who moved to America almost twenty years ago, greets back with the same terms. A player with a long NHL career feels at home here.
However, Ruutu does not consider it necessary to know North American culture if the goal is a place in NHL coaching.
– Sometimes it can be good not to follow the same routes as the predecessors. If you always repeat the same things, it’s hard to bring anything new.
– European players once brought new dimensions to the field, coaches would certainly bring new kicks behind the bench.