A Tale of Two Goalie Goals: Pekka Rinne Praises Finnish Prospect Juha Jatkola's 200-Foot Tally

On the fourth anniversary of his famous goalie goal, retired Nashville Predators netminder Pekka Rinne took the opportunity to talk about somebody else.

As coincidence would have it, three days before Rinne’s ‘goal-iversary’, Finnish goaltending prospect Juha Jatkola scored an eerily similar goal from behind the red line in a Liiga game with his KalPa club. 

Rinne was watching.

“It was awesome,” he smiled. “There were so many similarities. They rimmed the puck and he went to stop it and shot it behind the net… And I didn't know he could shoot the puck like that. It was impressive, and it's not easy to do - I know it myself. So, I was very impressed and very happy for him.”

After the goal, Rinne got on his phone and texted the 21-year-old prospect his congratulations.

A Liiga alumni and a product of the Predators development system himself, Rinne has watched the early stages of Jatkola’s journey with pride and excitement, his goalie goal no exception.

“It’s exciting, and obviously just the fact that he's from Finland, right away you want him to do well,” Rinne said. “And then secondly, he was drafted by [the Predators], so you want him to do well and down the line one day hopefully he’ll get to wear the Preds logo. That's obviously the goal for him and the goal for us, too.”

Rinne was also watching last month as No. 1 goaltending prospect Yaroslav Askarov donned the Preds logo for the third time in his career and earned his first NHL win after a thrilling shootout finale against the Washington Capitals.

“It’s huge,” he said. “When I got my first win, I thought that it was the biggest thing in the world and I would have been happy if I never played again. [Askarov] is a driven person, he wants to be up here, but that's what it's all about. You’ve got to do well when you're given chances and he’s taken advantage of his chances, and he's been really good down in Milwaukee, too.”

These days, life for Rinne looks a bit different than it did four years ago.

The 41-year-old still suits up on occasion, sometimes during Finnish beer league games - imagine your ironically named beer league posse trying to score on No. 35 - though most recently during a practice with Liiga’s Tappara club.

Of course, Rinnne keeps plenty busy in his new role as European Development Coach and Scout. Just over six months into the new gig, the winningest netminder in Predators history has found himself a student of the game once more.

“It’s totally different,” Rinne said. “It doesn't matter what kind of career you had as a player, when you step on this side, you learn every day. And it’s not only from the coaches, but from the scouts and from the staff. It's a different world, but I've enjoyed it a lot.”