On the Stars, Finland, and how I once was confused for a Finnish Uber driver
Plus a fun story about John Klingberg and not speaking Finnish.
The Dallas Stars are in Finland right now, prepping for a pair of games later this week against the Florida Panthers in Tampere.
It’s a homecoming trip for a franchise that has vital ties to the country, most notably through Jere Lehtinen and now Miro Heiskanen — the first, and likely next Finn to have their respective numbers retired in Dallas.
For the Stars this has been at trip decades in the making, dating back to Jarkko Varvio being the first Finn to play after the franchise re-located from Minnesota to Texas. Through a bit of luck, the Stars have drafted and developed more Finnish NHLers than any team, when the Stars were given a choice to potentially go to Sweden during the 2023-24 season, they declined with the caveat they’d be able to go to Finland one year later.
For the current members of the Stars “Finnish Mafia,” it’s a chance to build on their ties to home and some business savvy.
Roope Hintz is launching a signature shoe. Esa Lindell is checking in on Jokerit, the franchise he is a minority owner of and helped save. Heiskanen is one of the faces of the NHL in Finland, up on billboards side-by-side with Florida Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov, who after becoming the first Finnish captain to hoist the Stanley Cup is the biggest name on this NHL cameo.
Five years ago, in 2019, at my old employer I was able to spend a week in Finland exploring the country that helped define the Stars. I explored ice rinks and saunas, learned about the country’s history, and at one point got confused for an Uber driver by a drunken Finn after I dropped off my pal Jeff Toates at his hotel in Helsinki.
(The guy was confused, I had no idea where I was, I told him I’d drive him 10 minutes, and he directed me with a series of lefts and rights and he got out of the car at another bar. He said he’d pay me with what was probably the Finnish version of Venmo or Zelle, but never did. Years later, it was probably not my smartest decision, but hey, I lived to tell the tale.)
(Another side note story, when I was in Finland there was a Liiga alumni game in Lahti, where I was effectively riding along with Lehtinen and we went to a player’s reception with the mayor of Lahti. Only two people in the room didn’t speak Finnish, myself and John Klingberg. After Teemu Selänne gave a toast, Klingberg told me I should go up and grab some food from the buffet before anyone else. Thankfully, I didn’t, because Klingberg didn’t inform me he didn’t understand any Finnish until later that day when we were at the rink.)
I’m not on this trip, but I’m glad that my pal Robert Tiffin is. If you haven’t already, you should read Robert’s stuff and he’s instantly become one of the go-to voices on the Stars beat this season. I texted with him this morning, he’s going to watch Jokerit play Hokki today, he’ll probably write something about it and I’m looking forward to it.
I know at least a couple readers of this site are heading to Finland and have asked for some suggestions when it comes to exploring the country. I took one trip in 2019, so I’m far from an expert, but here are some of my quick notes:
Visit a sauna, find the time to explore part of the Finnish culture. When I was in Finland I visited Rajaportti Sauna, the oldest active sauna in the world, I believe.
South of Helsinki, take the little ferry to visit the island of Suomenlinna. It’s an old military fort that has been held by Russian, Swedish, and Finnish kingdoms in its history.
Go find an underground rink. One of my favorite things about Finland’s hockey culture is how they simply built rinks whenever and wherever they could, even under ground. In Tampere I found the Hervanta jäähalli, and underground rink where you take stairs or an elevator roughly 40 meters to the ice below. When I visited Finland, Lehtinen told me, “As a country I think we learned to make the holes because they were supposed to be bunkers … I guess it’s better to play hockey in them.”
In Tampere, where the Stars and Panthers will play, there’s an old watch tower and bakery, the Pyynikki Observation Tower and Café, and the donuts were great and the view from the top was even better.
Perhaps my most important note, talk to Finnish hockey fans. One of the things I learned on my trip was how hockey can be this universal language. I made friends with a dad watching his teenage son practice and drank beers with random fans of Hämeenlinnan Pallokerho.