Editor's Note: A special thanks to Kevin Woodley and David Hutchison of InGoal Magazine for facilitating this interview with James Reimer, Ben Scrivens and Jussi Rynnas. Thanks to everyone who submitted questions on the site.
Topping the list in today’s Part 2 of a two-part series here at InGoal was Jussi Rynnas explaining why he was playing in a beer league just three years ago: He never had a goalie coach growing up in Finland and didn’t get his first until he was 20 years old. In a country where most goalies have personalized, position-specific instruction from the age of eight, that makes him an anomaly. What’s next? No sauna?
Question from clrkaitken: for Jussi – What’s the biggest difference between playing professionally in Finland and in North America?
Jussi Rynnas: "I think the rink being smaller. You realize the shot is coming so fast. There is so much time in Finland and in Europe because the rink is so much bigger. If the puck is in the corner you can almost smoke a cigar before it gets to the net. Here it’s different. There’s more traffic here too. You have to be more aggressive here and just show that this is my area and push the guy a little bit more out of the crease. And at the same time you are pushing you have to still see the puck, you can’t just push and push and push (makes cross checking motion)."
Forget The Bus or The Eclipse or The Finnish Monster. I think Jussi Rynnas needs to be called Denis Lemieux. Just a mind-boggling story. You can read part two of InGoal Magazine and PPP's interview with Jussi Rynnas, James Reimer, and Ben Scrivens over on their site. Some of the community's questions made the cut once again. You can read part one from yesterday here.
