Mike Scandura
Minor League News
Manchester, N.H. - Sometimes Chicago Wolves goalie Kari Lehtonen doesn’t wish he was that good.
"It would be nice to go somewhere like [Las] Vegas or Mexico for four days because we had the All-Star break," remarked the Helsinki, Finland native wistfully.
Lehtonen, the No. 1 pick in the MLN FAB50 Hockey 2005, was the prime rib on the blue plate television special, the AHL All-Star Classic of 2005, the closest National Hockey League (NHL) fans, starved by the warlords of major league labor negotiations, were going to get to a little good action on the ice.
Kari’s summer daydreams of Sin City and sunny Mexico might have been because he wanted to be anywhere other than Manchester that night.
The Canadian All-Stars lit up PlanetUSA's starting goalie for four goals on 14 shots in the first period. It was an a-typical performance from, arguably, the league’s top netminder. Yet he was not alone.
"I think I had more fun than [Philadelphia Phantoms’ goalie Antero] Nittymaki," said Lehtonen, mastering a bit of irony in his new second language.
Fellow Finn Nitty (MLN FAB50 Hockey 2005 Player No.13 ), a native of Turku, found himself pucked by PlanetUSA as the Un-Canadian team scored thrice on him en route to a 5-4 slaying in a shootout.
"The whole team was kind of messed up," he said after a very un-Lehtonen-like performance. "I wasn't happy with the way I played, but it was a great experience. There was a lot of action... I enjoyed it a lot."
Thrashed, Yet A Thrasher At Heart
In spite of his AHL All-Star daydreaming, the Atlanta Thrashers have enjoyed the 21-year-old Lehtonen a lot. Last year in his rookie season, Lehtonen was 20-14-2 with a 2.42 goals-against average and a .926 save percentage for the Wolves. In four games with Atlanta, Lehtonen was 4-0-0 with a 1.25 GAA and a .953 save percentage.
For the most part, it's been more of the same this season. Coming out of the All-Star break, the 6-4, 205-pounder was tied for third in wins (23) and ranked third in saves (1,171) plus minutes played (2.353).
All things considered, that's not too shabby, considering Lehtonen virtually had to learn a new game.
"There are smaller rinks here," he said. European teams play on Olympic-size ice.
"That's a big difference. It's a lot easier to move the puck on the power play in Europe because there's more room. And there's more passing. Here if you have a chance to score there's always going to be a shot. In Europe you kind of always need to be aware that there's going to be a pass.
"There are quicker shooters here. They shoot from all over the place, so I need to be ready all the time. That comes with experience."
Something also comes with experience: Handling the hype. Lehtonen’s notching post has distinctions like being the second overall pick in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft (Lehtonen was the highest-drafted goalie in NHL history), andmaking the cover of publications like MLN as the number one pick in last month’s FAB50 Hockey 2005 list. Functioning on an every-day basis in that fishbowl can be a problem for a European-born player.
"I like to be away from all that stuff and concentrate on hockey and have fun," said Lehtonen. "I haven't found that much pressure … I've only played a few NHL games. Maybe when the years go by and if I don't play well in the NHL, maybe the people will start to go nuts. But I hope that doesn't happen."
What didn't happen was a smooth transition. Playing for Jokerit in Helsinki, Lehtonen backstopped the team that won the Finnish League championship and was voted the playoff MVP. Then came the daily grind of North American hockey.
"The (2003-04) season was so long," said Lehtonen. "That surprised me because we played like 50 games back home and here it's 80. The last couple of months were pretty tough. Usually we were fishing at that time."
Lehtonen certainly might have preferred fishing to such mundane tasks as practicing and ordering a meal at a restaurant.
"It was more of a mental drain at first … I felt that I wanted to go home," admitted Lehtonen. "Practicing and all that stuff took time to get used to my first year. Now I know what was going on so it's easier on the ice and also off the ice.
"I know where to go to eat … stuff like that, important stuff. What we learn [of English] in school, people don't speak that way. But I learned hockey language. After a couple of months I watched myself in a mirror and realized that I can speak a lot better now. The first couple of months I didn't talk that much but after I got over that and started to talk that improved my language a lot."
What also improved Lehtonen's ability to adapt to a new country and a new culture was his friendship with Providence Bruins goalie Hannu Toivonen [MLN FAB50 2005 Player No. 4].
A native of Kovolov, Finland, Toivonen is also having a solid "sophomore season" in the AHL.
"We used to play on the Under-20 National Team and in summer camps … we're good friends," said Lehtonen. "We talk during the season about stuff other than hockey, like what we're going to do in the summertime.
"It's a big help for me to be able to talk with him. All the teams who play in Finland are friends because it's a small country. Everybody has everybody else's phone number. It's nice."
Toivonen's may be doing some summer dreamin’ himself: He injured his left knee when his skate hit a rut during a game versus Albany on Feb. 18. With arthroscopic surgery slated for Feb. 22, he is expected to be sidelined indefinitely.
Unfortunately for the three fishing Finns, summer daydreams will have to wait. All-Star Games are going to be a mid-season fact of life for them, as will the media attention when the stakes increase in the NHL edition next year.
For the full story on the AHL 2005 All-Star Classic, Click Here.
To see the full story on the MLN FAB50 2005 Hockey rankings, click here.
