New Father Rinne Intent on Having Bounce-Back Season with Preds

Pekka Rinne never thought he'd be conversing with his teammates - the fathers of the group - and discussing how long their infants slept the night before.
But here he is, the 38-year-old goaltender, who has seen just about everything in his NHL career, now part of the "dads group," as he called it.
And Rinne has never been happier.

"He eats, sleeps, number twos, that's about it," Rinne laughed when revealing the routine for his infant son, Paulus. "We're really lucky so far. He's sleeping great, and it's been unbelievable - the greatest experience of my life."
Rinne and his partner, Erika, welcomed their baby boy last month, leaving a few weeks for Rinne to be in full-on dad mode at home before Predators Training Camp presented by Vanderbilt Health began this week. The netminder has now been back in the familiar confines of Bridgestone Arena over the past few days preparing for his 15th NHL season - all of which have come with Nashville - but then it's right back home to enjoy the greatest gift he's ever received.
"All my life, my identity has been being a hockey player," Rinne said. "It's my true passion in life, but all of a sudden, your priorities change and there's something more important in life: it's your family, and in this case, our son. It's an instant change, but at the same time, it almost makes you appreciate the hockey part even more. You get to take a little bit of distance in it and reflect maybe a little bit.
"It's a great boost, not only for me, but there's so many fathers on our team, and fathers to be, that it's a very exciting time… We have a little bit of a 'dads group' there. We talk about our kids and things like that, and I never thought that I'd be doing that, but here I'm sitting and talking about last night and how the baby slept and things like that. It's been a lot of fun."

Rinne may have a new priority in his life, but stopping pucks still occupies a prime spot at the top of his list - and he's intent on showing he still has what it takes to earn regular starts in this League.
Fewer than three years removed from winning the Vezina Trophy as the NHL's top goaltender, Rinne suffered the worst numbers of his career - a 3.17 goals-against average and a .895 save percentage - in 35 starts last season.
Like many of his teammates that are hoping for their own rejuvenations after a disappointing campaign, Rinne is determined to not only make saves with regularity for his club, but maybe even steal a game or two over the next four months.
"Personally, I'm just looking for a bounce-back season," Rinne said. "I'm not happy about last season and not happy about my level of play. [I've been] getting ready physically and mentally these past four months since the playoffs, and I'm just very excited. I mean, at this point in my career, the only thing I'm thinking about is winning and bouncing back, not so much [individual accolades]. But at the same time, I do want to step up personally and bounce back from last year."
The Predators are about to play 56 games over the next four months in a shortened schedule with opponents solely composed of the other seven clubs in the Central Division. In a season such as this, where anything can happen, a successful goaltending tandem may be more important than ever.
Rinne and fellow Finn Juuse Saros have just about as much potential to hold that title than any other pair in the League, and the elder statesman knows what he has to do to play his part over the next week before Opening Night arrives.
"You've got to treat every single practice, pretty much like a game," Rinne said. "You have to have a plan when you come to the rink, you have to have a thing that you focus on when you come to the rink and prepare yourself that you want to get better and not just show up and treat it as a regular practice… You're going to have to take care of yourself and make sure that you bring it every single day and get better."
If Rinne can rebound, the Predators will be in good shape - and he's never had a reward like this to return home to when the workday is done.
"We all missed hockey…but at the same time, there's so much positive news [in my personal life] that it's balancing itself out and I just couldn't be happier. Everything went well with becoming a father, and with our son and now hockey's starting back, I couldn't be happier."