When Nashville Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne‘s name was called at the 2004 NHL Draft, there were no spotlights or even a fancy stage presentation that involved him shaking Commissioner Bettman’s hand as he went to embrace the Predators’ braintrust.
No one has that fanfare in the eighth round, especially when they were skipped in two consecutive drafts.
Pekka Rinne One Win Away From Completing Remarkable Journey to Stanley Cup Final
Instead, he was at home in Finland, not even following the draft, when his agent called. 257 names into the draft, Pekka Rinne would be property of the Nashville Predators. He would be traveling to North America for the first time in his life, pushing down culture shock one experience at a time as he settled in with his new organization.
“My family didn’t travel much growing up, and I’d never been to North America, let alone Tennessee,” said Rinne in a personal post on NHL.com in January. “I didn’t know anything about Nashville. It almost felt like a dream going over there for snippets at a time, a weird and alternate life.”
Humble Beginnings
After fixing a minor hiccup with his work visa, Rinne played for the Milwaukee Admirals in the first step of his transition to the North American game. In three seasons from 2005-2008, he would win 81 games and post a 2.54 goals against average and .911 save percentage. This included backstopping the team to the Calder Cup Finals in his first season, a taste of championship-level competition and an early lesson in how to win.
His freshman season was also his first taste of the NHL, when franchise legend Tomas Vokoun and back-up Chris Mason got hurt. He would play two games just a year after he was drafted, getting a head start at the professional life at the highest level.
Leaving His Mark
Since taking over full time in 2008-09, Rinne has since snatched Vokoun’s records for most games (508), most wins (269), most shutouts (43), highest career save percentage (.917) and most playoff wins (33), along with more. He’s become the best goaltender in the young franchise’s history, and at 34 now, he’s saving his best for the Preds’ magical run that has them one win away from going to their first Stanley Cup Final.
Just how good has Rinne been in the 2017 Playoffs? Well, he gave up three goals in the first four games in a sweep of the Chicago Blackhawks, who have won three Cups this decade. At one point, he had a scoreless streak of over 140 minutes of game time against them, another broken franchise record. Eight games into his playoff season, he posted a 7-1 record to go along with a 1.33 goals against average and .953 save percentage before his team dispatched the Blues, who were two wins away from representing the West in the Stanley Cup Final last year, in six games. Rinne’s play was key, to say the least, in getting the franchise to its first Western Conference Final.
Rinne’s given up some quirky goals in this series against the Anaheim Ducks, but those two losses in Games 2 (four goals) and 4 (three goals) have been two of just four times Rinne has buckled for at least three goals against in a game these playoffs. He hasn’t lost consecutive games, and in the contest following each loss he has rebounded soundly, giving up one goal on each of the four occasions, compiling a .959 save percentage. Up to this point, among goalies that have played at least ten games in the playoffs, Rinne leads with a .942 save percentage, places second in terms of goals saved above average (5.25), leads in mid-danger scoring chance save percentage (.950) and sits fifth in high-danger save percentage at .824, up over 40 points from his regular season mark of .783.
Head coach Peter Laviolette remarked that “[Pekka] has been the guy around here for a long time.” It’s been a while since he was a back-up in his draft year receiving a call that changed his life at a party in his home country.
Rinne’s Time to Shine
Without top center and leading scorer Ryan Johansen for the remainder of this run, the Predators will be relying on Rinne even more with their offense taking a major hit up front. It showed in their Game 5 win when he had to make 32 stops while the team managed to put two on the board before a clinching empty netter. The Ducks are far from being executed, as they’ve been down this road before late in series. They have suffered disappointment after disappointment, well documented in their four consecutive Game 7 losses at home, before advancing to this point with a win over the Edmonton Oilers in the Second Round.
For someone who never had been to North America in the early days of his life, Rinne has been all over the country for years now as Nashville’s backstop. However, there is some uncharted territory left to explore in his hockey career that he has a chance to begin covering with a victory tonight. The big stage that he never got to be a part of that weekend in 2004. The fanfare that never came for a player that went undrafted twice before barely getting selected in a round format that doesn’t exist anymore, with seven instead of eight today.
A Stanley Cup Final.
Main Photo:
