Here’s my latest on iihf.com.
Read it here, or below.
A long goodbye
Raimo Helminen has been the focus of 15 farewell ceremonies this spring. Now it’s time for the last one. The playoffs.
TAMPERE, Finland – Raimo Helminen announced last fall that this season would be his last, that he would retire at the end of the 2007-08 season. No, it wasn’t a huge press conference, there were no red carpets, teary-eyed statements, or hoards of reporters wrestling for space around him.
In fact, maybe it was Helminen who told the press about his decision, maybe it was the team coach, or their manager. All we know that somehow, somewhere, somebody had got Helminen to tell him that he would retire. It was probably a sentence with a few reservations, like, “It kind of feels like this might be the last season for me.” Or something along those lines.
Helminen has never been the one to grab the mike and ask for the spotlight. On the contrary. Like that time in 1995 when the entire World Championship team was invited to the Finnish President’s annual Independence Day ball where they got their share of attention from the media as well. At one point, the camera crew went to the hockey heroes. First, there were three couples, and then the camera zoomed on team captain Timo Jutila during his interview. When the camera zoomed back, Helminen had just slid off-camera, ever so slightly. Still there, just not on camera.
He’s been the one the spotlight has sought after. A star. That’s what you become when you dominate a sport a nation loves, you do it for 25 years, you win medals in the World Championships, three in the Olympics, play in six Olympics, and only represent one club in your native country all your career in the highest league.
What makes Helminen a superstar is his quiet charisma that oozes inner strength, focus, and calmness that hides a winning instinct beyond normal that, within the game, sometimes takes his blood to the boil, his eyes darting off small lightning bolts, and his mouth firing off judgment.
But, like with Wayne Gretzky, you would be stupid to make Helminen angry. What ever short-term benefit your team might get – a penalty for him, maybe – it will come back and bite you in the behind in the long-term. He just might turn on the magic and create four, five scoring chances in his next shift. And the one after that. And the one after that, until his team wins.
Then he will shake hands with the opponent, walk off the ice, talk with the media, and say: “I think the team played really well tonight.”
“What about yourself? How would you describe your own performance tonight?” a reporter would ask. “It was OK. It’s great to play with such talented scorers.” And he would mean it.
And like with Gretzky in the NHL back in 1999, Helminen’s last games of the regular season in the Finnish league became a long farewell tour when each home team honoured him, and covered him with presents, flowers and memorabilia on his last visit in each city.
While the attention must have bothered Helminen some, it also had another effect on him, according to teammate Arto Tukio. “I think he was playing even better than usual in the games he was celebrated. He’s always good, but the focus has made him take his game to another level,” he says. Helminen wouldn’t want to let the fans down.
The tour reached its climax on Tuesday, when Helminen played his last regular season game at home, against Lukko Rauma. The house was packed, people were happy, and Helminen memorabilia was all around. Teenaged girls walked around the arena with “Raipe”, and “Ipa”, nicknames for Helminen and Ilves, drawn on their cheeks.
This was it. The teams were on the bluelines, the announcer screaming on top of his lungs, the people in the stands on their feet, clapping, for minutes before the maestro stepped on the ice. This time, there was no escaping the spotlight. After about ten minutes of standing ovations, presents received, and highlights viewed, ceremonial face-off dropped by another Ilves-legend, Lasse Oksanen, a former generation’s star who, like Helminen, was an Ilves star, had most games in the national team (282) before Helminen took over, had most points in the national team until Helminen took that, too.
But Oksanen has his 14 on the rafters of the arena, a number Helminen had early in his career but had to give up when the club retired it to honour Oksanen.
The Hakametsa Arena has seen them all, all the best. Gretzky, Kurri, Tikkanen, Naslund, Gustafsson. Tretyak, Harlamov, Mikhailov, Martinec, Oksanen, Wiitala, Selanne, Jutila, Numminen, Lumme, Hasek, Fleury, Nylander, Waltin, Holmqvist, Ylonen, Valtonen, Dzurilla, Holecek.
On Tueday, Hakametsa belonged to Helminen, who stayed on the ice for almost 15 minutes after the game, wearing his sweater from 1985, another present he had got, (1985 was the last time Ilves won the Finnish title), having a moment earlier donated his last game jersey to the Finnish Hockey Museum.
Nobody had left the building. Everybody was on his feet, honouring a living legend when something unexpected happened. Helminen toured the rink, thanking everybody, and then he stopped in front of the Ilves fans, shook his fingers to indicate a coming wave, and raised his arms. The crowd answered with the same, and the salute went on, and around the arena.
Helminen had grabbed the spotlight.
Then he walked off the ice, hugged the coaches, and stepped into the corridor to the dressing rooms.
Thirteen visiting teams had celebrated him, his own club had done it now, and with his last hurrah with the national team, Helminen had gone through fifteen farewell games.
“I think we’re done with the celebrating now,” he said, smiling, got changed, and walked into the cold and dark Tampere night. Outside the arena, a dozen, maybe two dozen, fans were waiting for him. Among the teenagers was an older gentleman who wanted Helminen to sign his leather jacket.
Then he shook Helminen’s hand, and said: “Well, thank you, and good luck with everything.”
“Thank you,” replied Helminen, hopped in a car and drove away.
Of course, he will be back. The playoffs begin on Friday.