Teemu Selänne bows out after nearly 20 years of hockey internationals

"It was good to wind things up with a win and a bronze medal"

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By Markku Lahti in Quebec City
     
      The 72nd IIHF World Ice Hockey Championships are over, and so, too, is the international playing career of one of Finland’s biggest NHL stars and a key member of the national squad, Teemu Selänne.
      Selänne made his first appearance in a Finnish jersey at the age of 18 in November 1988, in a match against Switzerland.
     
In the locker-room at the Colisee Pepsi Arena, Selänne packed up his sweat-soaked team jersey and a puck from the victorious bronze medal game against Sweden before zipping up his Suomi bag one last time.
      His international career was done and dusted at 3 a.m. on Sunday morning Finnish time.
      “Yes, this was my last game for the Lions. I am going to make a decision on my future in the NHL by July 1st”, said Selänne.
      “I was pretty sure when I came to Quebec that it was going to end here. The final decision matured in the course of the tournament.”
     
After the 4-0 win over Sweden, Selänne was called to the doping control room for a random test.
      He arrived nearly an hour after the other members of the team to talk to the media in the grey concrete corridor outside the arena dressing-rooms.
      “It was good to end on a winning note, with a bronze medal”, said Selänne. “I have a silver from the World Cup of Hockey [2004], from the Winter Olympics [Torino, 2006], and from the Worlds [1999], but the bronze is a different medal. It’s one you win rather than lose.”
     
Selänne commented that his attitude to ice hockey changed materially after last spring’s events.
      In early June 2007, he lifted the Stanley Cup trophy for the first time, after 15 years in the National Hockey League. Selänne joined the NHL and the Winnipeg Jets in the 1992-93 season, and went on that year to score 76 goals, setting the single-season record for goals by a rookie. The figure still stands, and nobody else has got close.
      “After the Stanley Cup win with Anaheim, I felt that it was difficult to motivate myself in hockey at any level”, admitted Selänne.
      He did not formally retire, but took a lengthy time-out before returning to the game in January of this year.
      “And I’m glad in the end that I came back.”
     
Selänne played 26 matches during the regular season and in the first round of the play-offs, before Anaheim went out to the Dallas Stars.
      He totalled 23 points - a routine performance for Selänne and nothing much to shout about, though for any other Finn in the league it would have been newsworthy.
      At the World Championships, Selänne played the maximum nine matches. He scored three goals and collected four assists, but his contribution - particularly as the tournament wore on - received a good deal of criticism from outside experts.
      The barbs apparently hurt. “Nobody could claim that I didn’t try my hardest at the World Championships”, he commented, somewhat bitterly.
      “Of course I could have done better, but it was not for laziness or lack of effort.”
     
Two years ago, Selänne was chosen as Best Forward at the Torino Olympics, and was selected for the All-Star Team, and he was voted MVP at the 1999 World Championships, where he and the current Montreal Canadiens captain Saku Koivu dominated the points listings with 27 points between them.
      “I’ve been doing this since I was five years old, says Selänne, who will be 38 in July.
      “Playing for the national side has always been a dream and an honour for me.”
      “All the same, bowing out now is the best possible solution”, he believes.
      In fact, even this trip to the World Championships was something of an afterthought: last summer Selänne said he was quitting the international game, but when head coach Doug Shedden called him up after Anaheim were knocked out, he agreed to one more time.
     
In good North American fashion, he is liberal with praise for those who have supported his career:
      “Without the Finnish Ice Hockey Association and the national side, none of us would make it to the NHL.”
     
Selänne feels comfortable that he is leaving responsibilities in the national team on the shoulders of a fine group of young players.
      “In our dressing-room we had a bunch of young players to be proud of. One of them clearly lifted himself up to a new plane in his career at these championships”, said Selänne, and clearly he was referring to winger Antti Pihlström, who was a completely new face for him.
      Pihlström’s and Selänne’s paths had not crossed, as Pihlström was playing last season in the AHL for the Milwaukee Admirals, a farm team for the Nashville Predators.
      “Pihlström reminds me of myself in my younger days”, smiles Selänne. “Hungry for it, enjoying it, and not being shy about it.”
     
Selänne adds that when you see him standing in a Quebec City hotel lobby, it is hard to imagine Pihlström is an ice hockey player.
      “But put him out on the ice, and he does the business like there’s no tomorrow”, laughs Selänne.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 19.5.2008

More on this subject:
 COMMENT: Gone with a simple handshake
 FACTFILE: Teemu Selänne and Finland

Links:
  Teemu Selänne (Wikipedia)
  Teemu Selänne, NHL Profile

MARKKU LAHTI / Helsingin Sanomat
markku.lahti@hs.fi