COMMENT: Gone with a simple handshake
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By Markku Lahti in Quebec City
Teemu Selänne is one of the sports darlings of the Finnish public - eternally boyish, playful, good-natured, and with a smiling face for everyone.
But in the early hours of Sunday morning, Finnish time, the Selänne face was more serious than ever. In the bare, echoing corridors of an empty ice-hall, a big Finnish sporting decision had been reached.
Selänne’s announcement was no grand American show, despite the fact that he has lived across the Atlantic for 16 years.
This was not the retiring star player wheeled out in front of the advertising screens, sitting in an Armani suit on the stage behind a row of microphones and thanking all and sundry, praising team-mates, and shedding a few tears for the cameras.
Selänne made his announcement wearing a sweaty dark-blue set of ice hockey undergarments that had seen better days. And he had on his feet a pair of plastic flip-flop sandals.
Selänne left the international hockey arena modestly. No flashlights, no standing ovations.
Things will almost certainly be very different in the summer when he reveals his plans concerning his NHL career.
Teemu Selänne sealed his exit from the Finnish Lions with a firm, manly handshake.
It felt there and then as if this was the last handshake from Selänne the ice hockey player.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 19.5.2008
More on this subject:
 Teemu Selänne bows out after nearly 20 years of hockey internationals
FACTFILE: Teemu Selänne and Finland
MARKKU LAHTI / Helsingin Sanomat
markku.lahti@hs.fi
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