One of the beautiful things about hockey is how global it is becoming. For a number of decades, Canada, America, and Russia were the hockey super-powers, but in the last couple decades we’ve seen countries like Finland, Sweden, the Czech Republic, and more catch up and – according to the IIHF – even surpass is some cases.
A lot of that can be attributed to guys like Teemu Selanne, likely the greatest player to come out of Finland. The Finnish Flash helped to inspire young hockey players in his country, and the result has been nearly quantifiable – three World Juniors championships since 2014 can attest to that.
From the moment Teemu entered the league (and promptly scored 76 goals in his rookie season), he established himself as a certified beauty. But his on-ice play isn’t the only reason why he was so beloved, off the ice he was just as fun to be around.
Just ask Jean-Sebastien Giguere. The two even got into a fun little chirp-off after Selanne came after his former goaltender’s English.
The whole chat between Selanne, Giguere, and another former Duck in Chris Pronger is pretty entertaining, and Selanne even reveals that when Pronger first was acquired by the Ducks, he thought they must be talking about his brother Sean Pronger (who actually did spend 108 games of his career on the Ducks).
Whether the Finnish Selanne or the French Canadian Giguere has better English is up for interpretation, but for Selanne to straight up say he hopes Giguere isn’t teaching his kids English… ruthless, Teemu!
