S77 Helsinki Titans Training Camp - Patrik Laine's Experience

[Laine 1,361]

8:00 PM - Sunday, March 14th - Helsinki, Finland.

 

I was landing in Helsinki after an absolutely amazing WJC. Turns out that the board over there wanted to bring me in as a GM, so I ended up logically with Team Europe. I knew I had to stay in shape, so I had full gear on during morning skates, practices, scrimmages, etc. The only time I wasn't practicing with the team was during the games when I was behind the bench. I brought in my good buddy Jiggly Gumballs as my AGM, so we coached them together. Also got to see a few familiar faces. Gunnar Odinsson who had previously played on a line with me in Helsinki was there, as well as Paul Atreides who I am also good friends with. Our team didn't start off too well, going 1-4-1 in the first 6, but with help from Jiggs' coaching, we rallied to go 6-0 to end the tournament on our way to the Gold Medal. I was really proud of the team's ability to rally. Our top line absolutely went off all tournament, with Odinsson scoring 4 goals and 4 assists in the 2 medal round games alone on his way to MVP. Anyway, I landed in Helsinki, and took my gear off the plane. Jiggs came with me, despite needing to be in LA for practice. He had gotten the okay from his GM and HC to come and pick up some gear from my place. We drove to my place just outside Helsinki, and I gave him some extra sticks, gloves, and whatever else he needed. I said goodbye, and wished him luck as he headed off to LA. He had really become the biggest piece of that defense and rightfully so. His ability to block shots is second to none in my mind, well maybe except for my good buddy James Rose, who has moved from London to Riga. I knew practice started at 9AM the next morning and quickly fell asleep.

 

6:30 AM - Monday, March 15th - Near Helsinki, Finland.

 

My alarm was set for a nice 6:30 time. I took a shower, had breakfast, got my gear ready, and departed for the arena. The first practice of camp wasn't scheduled until 9 AM, but I wanted to be sure to get some work in out on the ice before practice. I had texted Jubo, our GM and Head Coach, the night before and told him of my plans. He said he would leave the locker room door open for me. I arrived around 7:30 and made my way across the arena through my usual zamboni tunnel route. I saw a few of the workers, who had asked for autographs for their kids. Of course I said yes. I love doing things for the fans. Even the simple gesture of tossing a puck or signing something is great. I really love the looks you see, especially on the younger fans, when you know you've made their entire night. Anyway, when I got into the locker room, there was a little bit of gear organizing to do, and I finished it off rather quickly. After that, I quickly found my locker. I had my good friend Venus Thightrap on my left, and incoming rookie Aurelien Moreau on my right. I was really excited when I saw we had picked him. I called him as soon as we drafted him  and told him I was really excited to have him be a part of the team. He was pretty excited, not gonna lie. Anyway, I organized my locker, put my gear on, and was out on the ice by 7:45. I was out there all by myself and I felt so good out there. I had worked on my 200 foot game all offseason long and was starting to feel it. I was faster, quicker on my feet, and my shot, as usual, was absolute poison. I had about 20 pucks out there, as well as a passing triangle. I aligned it so I could pass myself one timers. Getting that power play going would be crucial to our success. Around 8:05, I saw a familiar face go by the zamboni bay. I couldn't tell who it was at first glance, but the hair told me it was V. She takes really good care of her hair. She was probably coming early too, as she did during our time together at the S73 WJC. She joined me on the ice around 8:20 and we worked together on a few things until 8:45. We practiced one timers, cross ice passes, 1 on 1s, shooting. I gotta say, we really pushed each other to be at our best. It was great having her back on the team. I met her frequently during our VHLM days when I played in Miami. She was on Houston, my old team, but we really gelled when we both got selected for the WJC. The two of us on a line, as well as Warsaw's Aloe Dear played well all tournament, and we dubbed it "The European Line". We ended up with Silver, which is still a great achievement. Anyway, Vaakanainen, Vikingstad and a few other joined us at 8:50. Trent Gibson, our new rookie goaltender behind Driver, ended up showing up right at 9:00. Talk about making a great first impression, am I right? We worked through our usual drills when Coach Jubo came onto the ice. Practice was a good wakeup call, although I did note a few things in the process. First off, V seemed to gel with the entire team. She was making excellent pass after excellent pass and was going bar down with that wicked wrist shot she has. Second, I was really impressed by all of the rookies. Their professionalism and work ethic impressed me. I gotta hand it to them. Lastly, I sensed a little bit of a rivalry between V and Gibson. The two of them almost dropped the gloves after V crashed the net during one of our puck battle drills, but I managed to break the two of them up before anything could happen. The rest of the day was pretty boring, just drove home and sat around for a while. I did work out and did some more practicing during the evening, as well as invited a few people over for dinner, but the morning was the real highlight today.

 

9:30 AM - Tuesday, March 16th - Helsinki, Finland.

 

Woke up at 8:30 this morning. Coach Jubo said that there would be no morning skate and instead we would have a practice at 12 and a scrimmage game at 5. I took the extra time to take V, Vikingstad, and Vaakanainen to a place I used to eat as a kid. They serve Finnish-style Chicken Wings. We met at the rink around 9:30 before we took off, and were back at the rink in time for practice at 11:15. I think they enjoyed it, as the menu also had a few other items I could tell they had a lot of interest in. All 4 of us were on the ice early, doing some power play work with one timers, wrister seams, screens, the whole nine yards. Practice was a lot more intense today. Things got a lot more physical with lots more puck battles, screens and hitting. I felt a little bad because I hit Thightrap pretty hard in one of our drills. She was okay though, she's as tough a hockey player as I know. Practice finished around 2, enough time for me to eat and prepare my gear for the scrimmage game at 5. I took a walk downtown for about an hour, and then had something to eat and headed back to the rink. The teams were pretty even across the board. Just seconds into the game, Vaak hit me with a long stretch pass for a breakaway chance. I realized on my way in that Gibson didn't cover the high blocker side. I dragged the puck, look at it and put it right off the bar and in. It was 1-0 early in this one. They wasted no time battling back, getting goals from Thightrap and Rune within a span of 3 minutes following the breakaway goal. When me and Verlander were caught up in the corner, he got called for Holding, and I wanted to make sure we scored to get back in it. Nasherov hit me with an absolutely beautiful pass and I one-timed that puck into the back of the net, as we knotted the game at 2. The Nasherov line went right back to work after that, making it 3-2 for us. After that for a few minutes, it was all Team Blue. Thightrap and Vikingstad were absolutely moving it back and forth with great chance after chance as Dan Dan got into the action as well. I realized how much they passed the puck near the top of the circle, so I aimed to cut it off. Rune pulled down, leaving Hjalmarsson alone at the point. Rune took a pass and was looking to drop it back. She did, and I quickly accelerated and poked it ahead. I chased after it, with Hjalmarsson on my left. I slowed down after securing possession and dragged the puck between the legs of Hjalmarsson. I had a partial breakaway, but enough to work with. I attempted to pull off the one-handed tuck on Gibson, and boy did I get lucky. I did pull it off after pulling Gibson to the left on the forehand fake. I reached back across and pulled it. Luckily, puck luck was on my side this time as it hit the post and bounced in. I went right back to work after the next faceoff. I had to take it, as Vaakanainen got waived out. I tied Vikingstad up in the dot, chipped the puck past Thightrap up the wall and just through it on the net. I didn't see it so I'm not sure how it went in, but it went in. The next 10 minutes were all Team Blue. They had chance after chance, but Zamboni Driver made a bunch of amazing glove saves including one off the signature V one-timer. It hurts to save those. I should know, I blocked one during the scrimmage. I still have the mark to prove it too. After a few dire shifts, we were able to carry the puck out. Vaakanainen dumped it down to me behind the net, and I attempted to make a play. I set up behind the net. I was expecting Rune to push me like she did on each play, but she gave me time and space. I set up one of my classic trick moves. I lifted the puck up on to my blade and twirled it around the net into the top corner. The lacrosse goal, a staple of my practicing was finally done in a game situation. Even Team Blue's bench was yelling about that one. The only one who really didn't seem to like it was Gibson, and I really don't blame him. I mean, if someone were to hang 5 goals on you in a scrimmage game at training camp, would you be happy? I don't think so. The rest of the scrimmage game (15 minutes) was dominated by Team Blue, as they desperately tried to crawl their way back into it, but Driver shut the door on them. The final score ended up being 7-2 White Team. The game was fun, and it taught us some things we needed to work on. I arrived home at about 9PM after the game was done, and just went to sleep after that, I was exhausted.

 

7:00 AM - Wednesday, March 17th - Near Helsinki, Finland.

 

Today, we had another morning skate at 9. Followed my normal routine and headed down to the rink. Today's morning skate was more about precision then anything else. Crisp passes, protecting the puck, making smart plays. You know, just general hockey sense. I had a few really good puck battles today. One of them was me and Thightrap behind the net. It ended up on top of the net, but right where the back bar and bottom bar are, so we were both trying to dig it out and battling for position. She ended up pushing me on to the net, but I wasn't mad at all. Gave her a nice stick tap and a chuckle and moved on. The morning skate was a bit more intense later on, as hitting drills were used later on. We also had special teams practice at 12. We were working on the power play, which is really good. Since V and I are opposite hands, we take the circles, Vikingstad takes the net, but can also swap with me at the circle, and Vaakanainen passes from either the corners or behind the net. Rune holds down the point with her signature slapper and her crisp one timer passes. I'll tell you, when she puts a pass in the wheelhouse for me, which is pretty much every time, look out. I absolutely drill those every time. Coach Jubo worked us through a few positional changes we can use when they recognize the scheme, which involves Thightrap taking the slot, Vaakanainen taking the right circle one timer. and between me and Vikingstad, one of us can take the left circle one-timer while the other passes. We can also move Rune into the circles as well. During one of the practices as a unit, I was playing net-front and I took a puck up in the face, but it went in. I remember scoring my 40th goal like that last year. Rune was just throwing it to the net and it goes off my face. A small price to pay for a goal I guess. Anyway, we got a lot of work done, and also got our new PK unit some valuable experience in the process. Mostly everyone else had left for the day, except for myself, Venus, Vaak, Driver, Dan, and Fairchild. Driver wanted some more shootout practice and more practice in general and suggested we stay after to help him out. I said yes, as I wanted to get some practice anyways. We stayed for about 4 hours, and worked with many different types of shots. Penalty shots, shootouts, wrist shots and slapshots from various zones. I think we really helped him get his confidence back up heading into the season. I used the rest of the day to spend some time with my family, which is always cool. I had dinner there and stayed for a while. After that was over, I went home and went off to sleep.

 

10:00 AM - Thursday, March 18th, Helsinki, Finland.

 

We had an optional morning skate this morning. Surprisingly, most of the team showed up. I arrived at the rink around 9:30 and surprisingly saw Gibson on my way in. He told me that he had a goal for the day. I asked him about it. His goal was to prevent every Finnish player on the team from scoring. This means he would need to keep me, Vaakanainen, and Helminen away from scoring. It was pretty ballsy for him as a rookie to say that, so I responded with "Well, that's not gonna happen.". He told me to watch him do it. Once we got onto the ice for the skate, the funniest thing happened. I let Gibson do his whole 10 minutes warmup, as I practiced on Driver while he got ready. Gibson wanted me to do a shootout attempt on him to start. I picked up to the puck from centre ice, brought it right in between the faceoff circle, and ripped a laser beam of a shot right over his shoulder, blocker side. As I skated by, I chirped a little and said "So, about stopping the Finnish guys from scoring?". He told me to shut it pretty quick in a sort of angry tone, but I could tell he was laughing underneath that mask. I gave him a tap on the pads and gave him more practice on reading the shooters in breakaway/shootout situations. I think it was working, because when Thightrap came to practice on him as well, he was up to the task. Jubo rallied us for a 3 on 3 around 11:00. It was a tightly contested offensive affair with both teams getting chance after chance, back and forth, but we ended up dropping it 7-6 in extras. After practice, I asked Vaak, Vikingstad, and Thightrap if they wanted to go swimming with me. They all agreed, The four of us together departed for a beach just outside Helsinki and spent a few hours there. We brought snacks and everything. It was nice to get our minds off hockey for a little bit and a good partial team bonding experience. We spent the evening doing some more practice at the rink, and afterwards, we all went our separate ways to go to sleep.

 

9:00 AM - Friday, March 19th, Helsinki, Finland.

 

Today was our last big practice of training camp, so I envisioned making the most of it. Once again, the intensity level hit a fever pitch as we practiced hitting and takeaways. The main purpose of today's practices was to deploy our neutral zone schemes while defending. This includes things like how we line up, different aggressiveness levels for different scores, taking the puck back, points off turnovers, etc. We put in around 2 hours of work on it and I have gotta say, it looked really good near the end. We also did some 5 on 5 scrimmages to get more game experience, but the main highlight of the day was other things. We had received a list of who everyone would have as a roommate during the season. The previous 3 seasons in Helsinki, I had bunked with Spencer Elsby, but he had been traded to the Chicago Phoenix. I checked the list and I ended up bunking with rookie Aurelien Moreau. I had talked to him and worked with him several times throughout camp. He seemed like a good guy to have as a roommate. Our first game was on the road in London the next day, so we took some time packing up our gear and getting stuff ready. We had media availability at 7PM just before we left for London. I wasn't too surprised by the questions the media asked. They asked stuff like "Are you confident in the team" and "What did you think of the Elsby trade" and "What are you looking to build on this season". I'm definitely confident in the team. The offense has even more firepower with V playing on the wing across from me, while I do believe our defense will go through some growing pains. The Elsby trade caught me a bit off guard, but I think it was necessary from a cap perspective. I helped him through the whole process as he transfer from Helsinki to Chicago. My goal this season is to keep my scoring up but also to be more consistent across the ice. My main weakness last season was losing puck battles, so I trained hard on that all summer long. I have a big frame so I have to use that to both get to loose pucks and protect the puck in the corner. Once the media spotlights were done, we boarded the plane and set off for London. I remember the sun going down and falling asleep on the plane. Me falling asleep on the plane told me one thing: VHL season was back in full swing.

 

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Spoiler

Mentioned: @JigglyGumballs @Mr_Hatter @BOOM @MattyIce @BladeMaiden @Jbeezy76 @Jubo07 @Dil @MMFLEX @GreenGato @Big Bob @Frank @Emi @McLovin @Caboose30 @Tape-to-Tape @Vat

 

Edited March 24, 2021 by PatrikLaine

[BOOM 8,745]

Nice read. Best of luck this season. 

[mattyIceman 1,213]

 

Srsly awesome post

[Frank 5,208]

 

Now do one on the regular season.

 

[JigglyGumballs 1,056]

If only you spent that much effort on essays lol

 

Also great read btw

[Laine 1,361]

49 minutes ago, JigglyGumballs said:

If only you spent that much effort on essays lol

 

Also great read btw

Hey you haven't read my essays, my essays are better than this.

[Laine 1,361]

Claiming for a 2nd week (4/4)

[Laine 1,361]

Claiming for a 3rd week (4/11)

[Laine 1,361]

Claiming for a 4th and final week (4/25)