As opposed to being one of the first to rush a small piece to publication that bores the greater audience, I wanted to take the time to fully assess the announcement out of Smashville with a different twist, absent the cliched statistics and personal anecdotes, although great are often overdone across all the platforms that discuss the same thing.
As I am sure you all know, on July 13, 2021, Pekka Rinne announced his retirement from the NHL after an incredible 17 years between the pipes for the Nashville Predators. His heartfelt goodbye via the NHL Player’s Tribune may be read in full here:
Link verbiage
I grew up watching Pekka between the pipes for the Preds and this announcement, although quite anticipated, still pulled at my heart more than I would like to admit.
Drafted 258th overall in the 8th round of the 2004 NHL Entry Draft, Peks is what the hockey world calls a diamond in the rough, not that first round keeper that we all hope will work out. Let alone the round in which he was drafted no longer even exists. The Preds press release labeled him as the greatest Preds goalie in history, but I’d go as far to say this does not give Peks justice, he is the greatest player in Preds history. And to top it all off, I have never met a more humble, incredible person. Good luck finding anyone around the league who will say a bad word about this incredible man.
As for the hockey of it all, I continue to be baffled by the fact that we’ve created the dynamic in team sports that one is not great, unless that individual reaches the apex of that sport, that is a team championship. This makes sense for golf or tennis because you carry yourself, but for a team sport? A team championship such as the Cup is only achieved by the combination of the whole. Just as a thought experiment, do we think Pekka would have three Cups right now, maybe even four if Pekka was in goal for those championship Pittsburgh teams? The always spoken, rather than unspoken, rule that if you do not win the ultimate prize, you were not great has taken a front seat to common sense. To answer that one is not great simply because they have not lifted the Cup is an absurdity that needs to be addressed. There are more Cup winners who have been forgotten, than those without a Cup, like Pekka, who will live forever in the shrines of the great.
I’m not going to bore you with statistics as there are plenty of articles out there all saying the same thing about his shutout totals, his Vezina-winning season, or otherwise. There are also undoubtedly articles highlighting the ultimate evidence of his non-greatness, that is his failure to live up to the big moment in the less than stellar road performances in the 2017 Cup finals. What we forget is, without Pekka, that last ranked team would have never even made it to the finals that year.
There is no question that Pekka the man, the father, and the future husband is great. As for me, I choose to label Pekka the player great as well. What’s past is not prologue, for Pekka not only gave the Preds and Smashville something they had never seen before but gave the NHL and all who watch a recent memory that won’t be soon forgotten.
P.S. While what is written above is meant to recognize Pekka’s greatness, time does not pause, especially when it comes to running an NHL franchise. The NHL moves on and the Preds must as well. Saros is undoubtedly next year’s number one, but is he simply a place holder or the true future of the team? This is one of the many questions we still must grapple with to bring glory and hardware to Smashville. Time will tell. Now that I have become the official Preds writer on hockeybuzz, I’ll be sure to write frequently and bring a critical eye.
Next Key Date:
July 17 at 4pm CST the Preds’ protection list is due for the expansion draft
You can read my last post as a refresher here to see how wrong I will be:
Link verbiage
In short, my picks were:
Johansen
Forsberg
Sissons
Kunin
Josi
Fabbro
Carrier
Ekholm
Saros
Nashville Predators Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»