Finn-omenal! It seems everyone knows who Patrik Laine is in his Nordic homeland

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This article was published 17/03/2017 (3162 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LAPLAND, Finland — Urho Ahomaa has just wrestled the last husky of three dogsled teams into his truck when he starts to dish about Winnipeg Jets rookie sensation Patrik Laine.

“He’s a big, big thing here. I know of one song about him already,” Ahomaa says, referencing a Finnish rap song he has heard on the radio. “All of Finland is following him.”

I’m here, about 50 kilometres north of the town of Ivalo — so far north the Arctic Circle is a distant memory —talking to a guy who just might have watched as many Jets games on television as I have.

“He’s scoring all the time, so he’s in the news all the time,” says Ahomaa, a supervisor for Lapland Safaris.

National hero? Not quite yet, but Finns are just as excited about Laine as they were about another Finn — some guy named Teemu — who set the hockey world on fire wearing a Jets jersey in his 1992-93 rookie year.

“I would say 75 to 80 per cent of Finns know his name and where he’s playing,” says Mikko Hiltanen, who pours drinks at O’Leary’s Bar in downtown Helsinki. “And even if you don’t follow hockey, 90 per cent of the people know his name.

“He’s all over the TV and the newspapers.”

On my first morning in Finland, I pick up the first newspaper I see on a table in the lobby: flipping through, I find a two-page spread with a huge photo of Laine fist-bumping players on the Jets bench after scoring a goal and a headline that reads, translated: “He’s our Paté!” — the Finnish nickname for the guy Winnipeg teammates call Patty.

On the next page, another story on the Finnish phenom: “What is Maurice thinking?” is the headline. According to the translation provided by a hotel clerk, the writer is asking whether Jets head coach Paul Maurice is off his rocker in leaving Laine off the first power-play unit.

This is a country that follows its hockey-playing sons. Teemu Selanne, Jari Kurri, Tuukka Rask and Valtteri Filppula, just to name a few. Heroes all.

And Laine? Let’s just say when you hand a just-barely 18-year-old rookie the Jari Kurri Trophy as the playoff MVP in the Finnish Liiga, this nation is going to hang on every shot, every assist, every goal. Even if he hasn’t yet approached the Selanne level of idolatry.

“Teemu Selanne is a living legend in Finland,” Hiltonen says.

Still, if you’re in O’Leary’s around 2 a.m. on a Saturday or Sunday morning (bars close at 4 a.m. on the weekend), and the Jets are playing, that what is on the screens. A 7 p.m. puck drop in Winnipeg is 2 a.m. here. The story is the same at many of the other sports bars in Finland, which buy NHL TV packages primarily to show games involving Finns.

It doesn’t matter which teams they play for; the fact their boys are in the NHL is what matters here.

“Even I don’t know where Winnipeg is,” Hiltanen says.

But walk into his bar wearing a Jets jersey and everyone will take notice, he says.

Ville Kaipainen played soccer with the Winnipeg Jets 1.0 when the team visited Finland in his childhood. Kaipainen says following Finnish players in the NHL is part of a good-natured rivalry with nearby Nordic neighbour Sweden, the source of a few — he’ll grudgingly admit — decent players over the years.

“So, who has the better players, Finland or Sweden?” Kaipanen is asked. “Of course, Finland!”

Kaipainen says there appears to be little, if any, resentment about Finns having to play in the NHL to pursue their dreams.

Laine’s rise to stardom began when he helped Finland win gold in the 2016 World Junior Hockey Championship. He followed that by leading Tampere Tappara to the Finnish Liiga championship title, scoring 10 goals and adding five assists in 18 playoff games, breaking the previous record of seven post-season goals by a rookie, winning the Jari Kurri Trophy.

He turned pro immediately after, and had no trouble cracking the Jets’ lineup straight out of training camp.

Laine, interviewed after a game-day skate prior to the March 6 game against the San Jose Sharks, appreciates the attention.

“It’s nice because so many people are watching what you are doing here and how things are going,” he said.

He said as far as he knows, only close friends and relatives have made the journey to North America to see him play, but he’s aware how much publicity he gets back home.

What would he like Finnish fans to know?

Roughly translated — he spoke in Finnish — “It’s nice that you’re watching and I try to score every game, so it will be interesting to see me.”

kelly.taylor@freepress.mb.ca