Finnish faction could be key for Canadiens
Speedy Canadiens could have entire line with players from Finland this campaign
The Canadiens’ Artturi Lehkonen is enjoying being able to speak Finnish again.
When Lehkonen broke into the NHL two seasons ago, he was the only Finn on the Canadiens. For the two seasons before that, Lehkonen was the only Finn on his Frolunda HC team in the Swedish Hockey League.
Now, Lehkonen is one of four Finnish players in the Canadiens’ locker-room at training camp along with goalie Antti Niemi and fellow forwards Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Joel Armia.
“It’s nice to speak in my own language every now and then,” Lehkonen said after practice Friday in Brossard. “It’s fun.”
The Finnish Connection is also making things easier for Kotkaniemi, the Canadiens’ first-round pick at this year’s NHL Entry Draft who played last season with Assat Pori in the Finnish Elite League.
“It helps a lot,” the 18-year-old Kotkaniemi said about having
fellow Finns in the locker-room. “They know things so much better than me so they are giving me every day — maybe every minute — little advice ... so it’s nice.”
Lehkonen was 21 when he made his NHL debut, so he had more life experience than Kotkaniemi, on and off the ice. While Kotkaniemi has impressed everyone with his on-ice performance at training camp and is a good bet to start the regular season with the Canadiens, Lehkonen has also been impressed with how the teenager has handled everything off the ice.
“He’s young,” Lehkonen said. “He’s a real nice kid. All Finnish people are really shy in the beginning, coming to the NHL. It’s new things to experience.”
Kotkaniemi has a sweet shyness about him that he covers up well with the big smile he so often flashes.
The teenager already seems more comfortable in big media scrums than Lehkonen did when he first arrived in Montreal and has said all the right things while also displaying a good sense of humour as he continues to improve his English.
“He’s been doing a great job with it,” Lehkonen said during a one-on-one interview, the type of conversation in which he remains much more comfortable.
“I don’t think he looks stressed or anything like that in front of the media.”
Lehkonen is comfortable living in Montreal and says the only things he misses about his home country are his friends and family, noting he left Finland when he was 19 to play in Sweden, a year after the Canadiens selected him in the second round (55th overall) at the 2013 NHL Draft.
He’s also excited about this new-look team.
“I think we’ve got a good buzz going around,” Lehkonen said about the Canadiens, who take a 4-2 record into their final pre-season game Saturday night in Ottawa against the Senators (7 p.m., TSN5, RDS, TSN 690 Radio).
“We have a really fast team and I think we’re going to surprise a lot of people the way we’re going to play. The way we are right now, we’re really hungry to start the season so I think it’s going to be real good.”
Lehkonen is looking for a bounce-back year after posting 12-9-21 totals in 66 games last season, coming up six goals and seven points below his rookie season, when he played 73 games. Lehkonen played hurt early last season before missing 16 games with a lower-body injury ( believed to be his back) and then struggled to find his game after that.
He picked up an assist in his first game back on Dec. 22 and then went 17 consecutive games without a point.
“It was frustrating,” Lehkonen said. “It wasn’t fun. It’s hard when your team’s not playing good and you’re trying to do everything to help out the team. Last year was a disappointment overall for everyone. I know, obviously, I’ve got to be better than last year. But I haven’t really set any personal goals for this season. I just want to help this team get in the playoffs and have a really good year.”
Lehkonen believes Armia can help make things better after the Canadiens acquired the 6-foot-3, 205-pound right-winger from the Winnipeg Jets during the off-season.
“I know him a little,” Lehkonen said. “I played with him in the world juniors. I know that he’s going to be a good player for us. It’s been fun to get to know him a little bit more, too. He’s really skilled. He can make things happen out of nothing. He’s really good at protecting the puck. He’s really fun to watch. I like his game a lot.”
Since Lehkonen is a left-winger, Kotkaniemi is a centre and Armia is a right-winger, there’s the possibility of head coach Claude Julien trying a Flying Finns line at some point during the season.
“It would be weird to speak Finnish on the ice,” Lehkonen said with a smile when that possibility was mentioned to him.
“I hadn’t spoken Finnish on my team in four-and-a-half years and then last year when Nemo (Niemi) came in it was different. And now, all of a sudden we’ve got four Finns.
“It’s weird.”