News: Don Waddell on Kari Lehtonen’s Distance to The Rink

Update on Kari Lehtonen: “Not close to being on the ice. He’s in the gym here. Everything is going well.”

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IHWC 2007 in Moscow: Finnish View

Tournament Memories by Anna0Manna

Before the tournament people definitely thought that Fredrik Norrena was number one goalie of the Finnish team, because he was more experienced and played before the national team. It was Kari’s first WC tournament for the team of Finland, and, of course, people didn’t give him the same kind of trust as to Norrena. However, the situation changed during the tournament and Kari appeared technically better and more reliable than Norrena and therefore he became number one.

Kari Lehtonen Turns 26 Today

By the time Kari Lehtonen turned 26 he played 11,671 minutes in 204 NHL regular season games, made 6,362 saves with .912 save percentage and GAA=2.87.

After his injury-surgery history the best thing to wish Kari on his birthday would be the health and the successful return to the ice.

News: Don Waddell on Kari Lehtonen’s Return

Don Waddell Interview on NHL Live 11/10/09 (7:22)
“He [Lehtonen] is probably out till the first of the year.”

News: Kari’s Interview in Veikkaaja

Finnish  sports magazine Veikkaaja published an interview with Kari Lehtonen. In this interview Kari described that he felt like a new man after the surgery.  Unfortunately, American media does not cover Kari’s situation. We are lucky to get some news from Finland. Here is the review of this article kindly made by Evey:

Here’s some main points of the article. Overall it was very positive reading. I think a sentence “Kari Lehtonen hasn’t given up” summarizes the message of the article.

Fast Healing for Kari

We all are very concern with Kari’s health. However, there is no really reason to wet napkins. Kari’s situation sounds promising:

1. If all the bone pieces that cost the pain were eliminated, it’s the best news. It means Kari does not have the pain any longer.
2. Kari is still young, and his recovery is expected to be fast and easy.
3. For the same reason no need to worry about the chances that his career is over.
4. Injuries happen. Not all of them are critical for the future development. Back injuries (like one that Kari had) do not “characterize” a player like an “injury prone” for the hockey business professionals.
5. The most important thing in this picture is that Kari’s goal achieving capability has the highest possible grade.

News: Kari Lehtonen underwent the second back surgery

Kari Lehtonen underwent successful back surgery on Friday, Oct. 30 at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, NY.  The procedure, which was performed by neurosurgeon, Dr. Paul Maurer, was to remove edges of bone that were applying pressure to nerve roots in his back at two locations that were different than that of his original disc surgery on July 20.   He will be sidelined for 6-8 weeks.

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The full injury history is in the Lehtonen’s surgery recovery log

Here is the address for those who want to send Kari a get well card:

Kari Lehtonen
Atlanta Thrashers / IceForum
2300, Satellite Boulevard, Suite 200,
Duluth, GA 30097

UPD:  if it’s not 16th of Nov yet, you may probably want to add birthday greetings too to your card.

Kari Lehtonen’s Mask History

Dedicated to the Mask’s 50th Birthday

The Finnish men’s ice hockey team is called “Leijonat” (“The lions”). Needless to say that every young Finnish hockey player has a dream to play for the national team,  every young Finnish hockey player wants to wear the lion logo.

“I don’t know if the following story is actually true (some people claims it’s just an urban legend) but apparently Kari himself has explained the origin of his nickname as follows:

When he was younger he wanted to have a lion on his mask but the painter who tried to fulfill this wish somehow screwed it up and the lion ended up looking more like an ermine. Other players were amused by the picture on Kari’s mask and started to call him Kärppä. And that name stayed with him ever since.” (source)

Hockey Fans Show A Great Deal of Interest in Kari Lehtonen

Googlefight is a website that allows to compare the number of search results returned by Google for two given queries. It can be used as a measure of competitiveness. (source)

The results indicate that despite Kari’s prolonged recovery from the surgery, hockey fans show a great deal of interest in him.

The Weather in Finland and Karila

Beautiful fall in Finland today.  Thanks  again to the folks from this country.