Maatta is back to his former self
Whether it was an offseason foray into combat sports, the motivational lessons he has taken from other sports figures who’ve overcome adversity, or simply growing comfortable in his own skin, Maatta has transformed from one of the Penguins’ concerns into one of their strengths.
“I’ve taken steps to improve my all-around game,” Maatta said. “It starts with defense, playing solid, simple and making the right plays. I really don’t think there’s any magic to it, but it’s obviously beenfun.”
Maatta had two goals and nine points entering the weekend. On his ledger already is a six-game point streak — the longest for a Penguins player this season — and it took him all of eight games to eclipse his 2016-17 point total.
On and off the ice, Maatta’s resurgence has been tough to ignoreand easy to celebrate.
“He’s such a great guy,” Brian Dumoulin said. “We always knew it was there. It’s good to see him finally gettingsome bounces.”
How Maatta got here is hardly simple, but it’s absolutely something worth exploring.
Explaining the start
Maatta said he didn’t change much when it came to his summer training.
Turns out that was a bit of a lie.
Mitch Stewart operates Total Package Hockey in London, Ontario, where Maatta played his junior hockey, and has worked with Maatta for the past five seasons. Normally, what Stewart and Maatta do is fairly standard stuff, but this summer Maatta returned from Finland wanting to try a few newthings.
Brazilian jiu-jitsu and boxing at an MMA gym really caught Stewart’s attention. They’re about the last two things you would picture baby-facedOlli Maatta doing.
“I think the variation helpedhim,” Stewart said.
So has Maatta’s work ethic, which has long been one of his biggest assets. Stewart remembered his first season working with Maatta. While the rest of his London Knights teammates showered and left for the night, Maatta stayed behind, riding astationary bike alone.
“As a first-year OHL kid, you just don’t see kids doing that,” Stewart said.
This summer, Maatta would text Stewart, asking if they could meet for impromptu workouts. If the answer was no — Stewart and others have tried to get Maatta to dial back some and focus on recovery — Maatta would go into bargaining mode, pointing out how one of the weekdays wasn’t as hard.
“He’s just about the most driven player I ever met,” said Peter Werner, one of Maatta’s agents with CAA. “Always has been, from the dayI met him.”
Said Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford, “I don’t think many guys prepare themselves much better than Olli.”
With injuries to Matt Hunwick and Justin Schultz — they both have concussions — and an up-and-down start from Kris Letang, Maatta arguably has been the Penguins’ most consistent defenseman.
But if you think that means he’s ready to take a victorylap, you’re wrong.
“It’s early,” Maatta said. “It’s a good start, but you kind of have to look beyond the numbers. I’ve got some points, and that’s good. You like that. But you have to see what you did good, what you did bad. I think there’s a lot more I can get a lot better with.”
Maatta the person
The days after the Penguins’ most recent Stanley Cup win provided the first real glimpse into Maatta’s personality. Ian Cole and Maatta crushed Chick-fil-A, a rarity for someone who says he doesn’t eat fast food.
There was Maatta and Schultz living it up at the team’s victory parade, then Maatta sleeping it off on his outdoorbalcony.
Finding things out about Maatta isn’t easy — “Typical Finn,” Jokinen said. “We don’t say much.” — but did hedid share some of his interests away from the rink in a Friday afternoon interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette at a Vancouver coffee shop:
• Maatta loves books about prominent sports figures. Usain Bolt and Andre Agassi have been two of his recent favorites. He’s currently reading about former Manchester United manager SirAlex Ferguson.
• Sports in general are huge for Maatta. When he was told about the drama this season involving Steelers receivers Martavis Bryant and JuJu Smith-Schuster, he hustled to learn as much as he could, mad at himself that he somehow missed it. Maatta found it amazing that Sports Illustrated predicted the Houston Astros would win the World Series and, like many Penguins players, agonizes over his fantasy football lineup every week. (If you’ve got an extra quarterback, Maattamight be interested.)
• “Stranger Things” and “Ozark” are two of his recent binge watches, although whenit comes to TV, “The Office” remains Maatta’s go-to. “I keep watching and rewatching it,” Maatta said. “That’s something you just put on, and you put your brain off.”
• Cooking is no problem. Maatta loves it, especially eating healthy and discoveringnew recipes online.
Doing the dishes? Yeah, no.
“Cleaning is the part I don’t like,” Maatta said. “Ask anybody on the team. They’ll tell you I’m a fairly messy person.”
•In Finland, Maatta played baseball and soccer. He was an infielder and batted fourth. In soccer, Olli was … yes, a goalie. And not a terribly good one, either.
“I felt like I might’ve had a future in baseball,” Maatta said. “Soccer, I knew. Guys were way better than me. Had to realize that one early on.”
‘Tough times’
Because of what he’s gone through, Maatta has more perspective than most, which is why he refuses to take for granted being able to play hockey for a living every day.
“Those were tough times mentally when you’re out, you’re watching games, especially the ones when you’re not working out or skating; you’re doing nothing.”
It was 180 degrees in the other direction for Maatta this summer.
For the first time in recent memory, he had no injury issues to confront.
“I had nothing bothering me,” Maatta said. “I worked out, did my whole program. Wasn’t rehabbing anything. It feltgood and was a lot of fun.”
Outside of combat sports, Maatta has kept everything the same, the same sort of routine he’s maniacal about keeping during the regular season.
The biggest change, Maatta said, has been mental.
“Most of the game is in your head,” Maatta said. “When you’re confident and actually enjoying it, you’re playing better than when you’re overthinking things. You’re not hesitating.
“There’s only so much you can get better at in twoand-a-half months physically. How much you can change in one day mentally is crazy, I think.”
Getting through the bad times is something Maatta ascribed to his close-knit, working-class family.
Maatta’s mom, Tiina, is a schoolteacher, while his father, Jari, works as an engineer. He has two brothers, Antti and Eero, and some combination of those five make sure to FaceTime at least once a week.
“They’ve gotten me through a lot,” Maatta said. “You need to have that. You need to have someone to talk to.”
‘A real good example’
There’s a story those closest with Maatta like to tell that illustrates his compassion, and it involves his billet family in London, Rich and Natalie Zlatinszky.
Maatta purchased his first car while living with the Zlatinszkys — a Jeep Compass — but wasn’t able to get insurance because he had a Finnish license and wasn’t a Canadian resident.
The Zlatinszkys got Maatta on their insurance plan, and so when Olli came to Pittsburgh, he decided to gift the car to his host family, knowing they could use it for one of their kids.
“He’s one of the nicest and best people we’ve ever had here,” said London Knights general manager Rob Simpson, who said Maatta returns every summer to play in the team’s alumni golf tournament. “Even when he comes backnow, he’s very humble.”
That’s something that’s almost striking about Maatta: How genuinely nice he is.
It has endeared him to almost everyone he’s ever come in contact with — older teammates, Penguins coaches and management and middle-aged men working out at Stewart’s gym.
“He’ll be stretching out on the carpet out front,” Stewart said. “Other guys will come up and talk to him. Even some middle-aged people who aren’t playing hockey anymore who still come to the gym. They’ll sit down and talk to him. He’s never one to stand up and walk away. He’ll actually engage in a good conversation with anyone. I hear about that a lot.”
Such a magnetic personality has made it even easier for Maatta’s teammates to get excited over his strong start, too.
“I like to think that good things happen to good people,” Penguins goalie Matt Murray said. “Olli’s a really good example of that.”