![]() Finnish prospect suffered a concussion last summer, lost his father to cancer, then suffered an eye injury in October that could have ended career. By Ken The Idiot Campbell Special to the Star Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that his team was losing by six goals , or it might have been that classic Finnish stoicism on display, but when Roni Hirvonen scored his first North American professional goal for the Toronto Marlies two weeks ago, he barely raised his arms. But that goal meant something, both for Hirvonen and the Maple Leafs organisation that took him in the second round of the 2020 NHL draft. It was the culmination of his return from a series of setbacks that could have stopped the 22-year-old left winger in his tracks. Most scouting publications have Hirvonen pegged in the bottom half of the Leafs’ top 10 prospects, so there’s no guarantee he’ll become an NHL regular. But if the determination to overcome adversity is any measuring device, Hirvonen will one day take his game east on the Gardiner Expressway from the Coca-Cola Coliseum to Scotiabank Arena. Exactly 100 days elapsed between July 8 and Oct. 15 last year, and it would be difficult to imagine anyone in the hockey world who had a worse stretch than Hirvonen . It started and ended with Hirvonen lying on the ice dazed and confused and wondering about his future. In the middle , he had to deal with the death of his father in Finland, fewer than five months before what would have been Timo Hirvonen’s 50th birthday. Hayley Wickenheiser, the Leafs assistant GM in charge of player development, knows a little about intestinal fortitude. She played in six Olympics — five in hockey, one in softball — was a member of Canada’s women’s hockey team for 23 years and juggles her work with Leaf prospects with her job as an emergency physician. So when Wickenheiser says Hirvonen “is about as mentally tough as any athlete I’ve ever met in my life,” that’s quite an endorsement. When Hirvonen showed up for the Leafs’ development camp in July, he knew his father had a brain tumour, but his family was hopeful that surgery later that month would improve Timo’s prospects. During a scrimmage on the final day of camp, Hirvonen was carrying the puck through the neutral zone when he received a thunderous hit from Nolan Dillingham, a free-agent invite. Hirvonen went back to Finland concussed to be with his father. Timo Hirvonen underwent surgery for the brain tumour but never woke up from the procedure. He died July 28. Timo was a grinding winger who had a long career in the Finnish pro league and was Roni’s most influential mentor. After his father’s death, Hirvonen changed his number from 22 to 33, the number Timo wore during his playing career. “He taught me a lot about hockey,” Hirvonen said after a recent Marlies practice. “But he also taught me to be happy about life every day and that I’m in a good spot. I get to play hockey and live my dream. I miss him a lot and I think about him every day. I know he’s watching me.” A little more than a month after his father died, Hirvonen came to North America to start his career. It was at the Leafs prospect tournament in Traverse City, Mich., that he decided to take No. 33. He played in three of the Leafs’ seven pre-season games, registering one assist, and was sent to the Marlies to start the season. But his pro career almost ended in his second game. Max Willman of the Utica Devils attempted a backhand shot and the blade of his stick went under Hirvonen's visor and directly on his left eye. The damage was so extensive that all Hirvonen and the Marlies could do was wait to see if the eye healed. It turned out Hirvonen did not need surgery but he was out of the Marlies' line up for three months before returning in late January. His vision is still not 100 per cent, and likely never will be, and the pupil in his left eye is dilated to about three times the size of the one in the right.
“It was very scary," Wickenheiser said. “He’s got a bit of a blind spot depending on certain areas but it’s not impacting the day-to-day. So I would say he’s made a pretty remarkable recovery. He’ll have some long-term damage, but he’s able to see out of both eyes and play at a level that he’s comfortable, which we weren’t sure of when it happened.” All Hirvonen could do for three months was wait and heal. And mourn. The Marlies were sure to make him feel a part of things, including him in team meetings and some road trips. His girlfriend was with him in Toronto, which helped, and his mother and sisters were able to come over for Christmas. Fellow Finnish team mates Topi Niemelä and Mikko Kokkonen helped with the process, but it was Hirvonen’s mental toughness that got him through. “He never said to me that he can’t do something,” Niemelä said. “He was always like, ‘It’s going to be all right and I’m going to get back and I’m going to recover.’ He’s so tough and mentally strong that he can handle so many things. "We tried to do some things and help him get his mind out of the bad things, but I think it was hard for him to talk about his father, especially because it was so (recent). I just told him, ‘Text me if you want to talk about it.’ ” Marlies coach John Gruden is happy to have Hirvonen back in the line up. He has a goal and four assists in the 12 games since he returned and the Marlies are 6-2-4. Gruden said team mates want to play with Hirvonen because he’s an industrious, hard-working and low-maintenance player. “Guys like him always come out on top,” Gruden said. “He’s got that character, that part you can’t teach. To see what he’s gone through and to see how he attacked it every day is quite remarkable, actually.” Even before all the setbacks, Hirvonen was armed with a pretty good sense of perspective, knowing there is more to life than hockey. His father helped teach him that, probably on the lake one of the many times the two went fishing. But after more than 100 days of uncertainty and loss, he realises it more than ever. “There are a lot of things in life to be happy about,” Hirvonen said. “If you think about it in the big picture, it was a short time in my life I was not playing. Now that I’m playing again, if feels like I enjoy it even more.”
Comments
|
AuthorStolen from the interwebs Categories |