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Rookie Kaapo Kahkonen is ‘boring’ in net, and that’s OK with Wild
By DANE MIZUTANI | dmizutani@pioneerpress.com | Pioneer Press
PUBLISHED: March 9, 2021 at 1:14 p.m. | UPDATED: March 9, 2021 at 1:14 p.m.
As dominant as Wild goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen been between the pipes this season, nobody would know it by talking to him. At least he is self aware.
“I probably sound really boring on these interviews,” the 24-year-old rookie from Finland said with a smile. “It’s just the daily work, I believe, that matters and doing those little things right.”
It’s not so much that Kahkonen is cliche as it is that he’s extremely quiet. He doesn’t offer up much insight after games. It doesn’t where he’s coming off a shutout like he did in Monday’s 2-0 win over the Vegas Golden Knights, or if he just got lit up like he did in a blowout loss to the Colorado Avalanche earlier this season.
That quietness from Kahkonen is akin to that of fellow countryman and former Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom.
Most everyone remembers Backstrom from his days manning the crease for the Wild. He was very quiet off the ice, and in a lot of ways, very quiet on the ice, too
No situation ever looked too stressful for Backstrom. He was cool, calm and collected, and that seemed to rubbed off on the rest of his team.
That’s exactly how Kahkonen plays. Which maybe shouldn’t come as a surprise considering both guys hail from Finland.
“I’m not trying to focus on being calm or quiet,” Kahkonen said. “I’m trying to focus on being patient. I think that’s the key word there. I would probably put it that way.”
That style of play is something Wild coach Dean Evason said is hard to coach. Usually a player has it or he doesn’t.
“You can enhance the training of it, for sure, in today’s game,” Evason said. “My guess is he’s been like that his entire life.”
In addition to his calmness, Evason has continuously lauded Kahkonen for his compete level.
“He’s the type of person who doesn’t care about anything except getting in the net and competing,” Evason said. “There’s no stress. There’s not any type of maintenance. He just goes about his business.”
Kahkonen’s meteoric rise this season has put the Wild in an awkward spot.
Though presumed starter Cam Talbot, a eight-year NHL veteran in his first season with the Wild, has been playing pretty well as of late, it’s hard to justify taking Kahkonen out of the lineup right now. He has won seven straight starts — a franchise record for a rookie — and doesn’t look to be slowing down anytime soon.
It might be worth riding Kahkonen until the wheels fall off. Especially in an condensed 56-game season. After all, he is 10-4-0 in 14 games for a Wild team that is 14-8-1. He is a big reason the team is in the upper portion of the West division standings as it nears the halfway point of the season.
“Even last year when he came in (from the Iowa Wild), he played great for us,” captain Jared Spurgeon said. “Maybe a bit more confident this year knowing what’s going on. It helps that (he has) confidence playing the puck. He gets out there and stops it, and he can move it pretty quick as well, and hard. If we’re in trouble, he knows what to do with it.”
While some might mistake Kahkonen’s unflappable nature for boringness, he’s OK with that, and the Wild certainly are too if it’s going to yield these types of results.
“You want to look calm,” Kahkonen said. “Then my teammates see I’m doing (my) job and they can focus on their job. I think that’s what it’s all about. It’s good to hear it looks like that. That’s what I’m trying to do here.”
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