ARMIA LETS HIS PLAY DO THE TALKING
Quietly confident Finn making his value clear after returning from knee injury
There’s a very good chance a lot of young Montreal hockey fans are going to grow up with a poster of the Canadiens’ Jesperi Kotkaniemi on their bedroom wall.
When Kotkaniemi was growing up in Finland, he had a poster of Joel Armia on his wall.
“I was like 10 years old and he was playing with Ässät in the SM-liiga. He was my biggest idol, so I watched him a lot,” Kotkaniemi said on the Canadiens’ website before the start of this season, recalling that he watched Armia help Ässät win the Finnish Elite League championship in 2013. “My dad was the assistant coach there, so I met him a few times.
“I think we will have a connection,” Kotkaniemi added after being selected third overall at last June’s NHL Draft and then learning a week later the Canadiens had acquired Armia from the Winnipeg Jets. “I hope so.”
Kotkaniemi and Armia, who are from the same hometown of Pori, are now part of the Canadiens’ Finnish Connection line, along with Artturi Lehkonen. Armia, 25, is like a big brother to Lehkonen, 23, and Kotkaniemi, 18.
While Kotkaniemi has won over Canadiens fans with his play on the ice and his personality and smile off it, it’s hard getting to know Armia very well even as a columnist who’s around the team on a daily basis.
The 6-foot-4, 210-pounder is a man of very few words with a soft voice and a shy smile who always seems a bit nervous when speaking with the media.
Lehkonen is more like Armia and so is goalie Antti Niemi, the fourth Finnish player on the Canadiens. It’s hard to get more than a few words out of them.
“I think that’s just a certain part of every individual’s personality,” coach Claude Julien said when asked about his Finnish foursome. “Kotkaniemi’s not the shy person, I think we all know that. He’s got a great personality, open and smiling and talking a lot. They’re different. I think when you get to know Lehkonen, he’s the same way around his teammates. Army is more of a quiet guy, but he’s a fun guy to be around. The guys enjoy him that way. I think it’s just different personalities.
“But they come from a small country that takes a lot of pride, kind of like Canada — hockey’s their pride over there. I think you’ve seen them develop a lot of great hockey players in the past and also what’s coming up in the future.”
Armia missed 25 games this season after suffering a knee injury on Nov. 6 against the Rangers in New York, but has slowly been making his presence felt since returning to the lineup, getting better each game. Armia is a big body the Canadiens can use up front and he’s able to win battles along the boards, protect the puck well and drive to the net, creating space for his linemates.
“With his injury, you saw that we lost a pretty valuable player,” Julien said. “I think he’s one of those guys that really is strong on puck. He can make plays, I think he’s got good hands, he’s got a great release, too. Because you see those things you’re always hoping that the point production as far as goals contribution is going to get better, but there’s a lot to like about his game. The way we are right now, I think his size is something that’s fairly useful to us. We’re not an overly big team — not that we’re small — but guys that size that can play and are strong on the puck and can use their body to protect it, those kinds of things are valuable pieces because he can skate and he’s got a lot of skill to go with it.”
On Thursday night, Armia got a chance to play against his old team for the first time when the Jets visited the Bell Centre.
Heading into the game, Armia had 6-7-13 totals in 29 games and was plus-10. “It’s going to be fun to play against that team,” he said. “They have a really good team, so it’s going to be a fun night.”
When asked about his reaction to the trade, Armia said: “It surprised me a little bit. I don’t know, I’m probably so boring, but I really haven’t thought about it that much, to be honest.”
It has become obvious that Armia prefers to let his play do the talking. Like many Finnish players, including former Canadiens captain Saku Koivu, he appears to have a quiet sense of confidence.
During a conference call from Finland last summer after the trade with Winnipeg was made, Armia was asked if he knew Kotkaniemi had a poster of him on his bedroom wall as a boy.
“Actually, I did not,” Armia said. “But I read the news and it was pretty funny.
“That’s a good thing,” he added with a laugh. scowan@postmedia.com twitter.com/ StuCowan1