In reaching mark of 'groundbreaker,' Lehtonen savors history

NEW YORK -- There is something almost perfect about the milestone reached by Kari Lehtonen as he skated to the visitors' crease at Madison Square Garden on Monday night. Something that seemed to embody the player himself -- something that speaks to Lehtonen's understated personality and his perseverance through the thick and the thin of now 623 NHL games.

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With his start in the 2-1 shootout victory over the Rangers, Lehtonen tied the record for most NHL games by a Finnish-born netminder, long held by the legendary Miikka Kiprusoff.
"He actually told me about that like five games ago that he's going to tie him," fellow countryman and teammate Esa Lindell said prior to Monday's game. "That's pretty nice for him. Shows how he's been successful in NHL and how good goalie he has been playing."
Lindell grew up cheering for the Jokerit team in the Finnish elite league for whom Lehtonen starred as a teenage goaltending sensation. Lehtonen's turn during the 2001-02 season, when he earned goalie of the year and playoff MVP honors playing in the top league in Finland, led to his selection with the second-overall pick by the Atlanta Thrashers in the 2002 draft. That honor made him the highest-ever drafted European netminder.
"That's a little extra thing there," Lehtonen said after tying Kiprusoff. "But just getting the win in this league is hard. Getting one (Monday) to start the road trip is just very good."

Along with Patrik Laine of Winnipeg, Lehtonen remains the highest-drafted Finnish player ever.
"He didn't play a lot, just few years (for Jokerit), but he was a big superstar in Finland, too, when he was young," Lindell said. "So young to play (for the) men's team and national team. It's pretty nice to play on same team now."
Funny how things go. Kiprusoff, seven years Lehtonen's senior, emerged as a top-flight netminder in Calgary after being dealt by San Jose, where he had been drafted 116th overall in 1995.
He would go on to win a Vezina Trophy in 2005-06 after guiding the Flames to a seventh game in the 2004 Stanley Cup finals, eventually falling to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
During the 2004 World Cup of Hockey, Lehtonen and Kiprusoff would be teammates as the plucky Finns lost in the final to Canada on the eve of the 2004-05 NHL lockout.
"I was a young buck -- 20 years old or something. It was exciting times," Lehtonen said.
Kiprusoff had a reputation as being taciturn when it came to dealing with the media. But Lehtonen said his true personality was revealed when he was away from the media and team executives.
"He's a wild man when he's around friends and teammates, and it's funny how he switches it on and off for the media -- and for the coaches even," Lehtonen recalled. "There's a lot of funny stories I've heard about him."
What is clear is that Kiprusoff remains one of the grandfathers of what has become a vibrant, talented Finnish goaltending fraternity.
"He was the first true star that wasn't just backup, or played a year or two and then kind of faded away," Lehtonen said. "He was the first one who really put many years together as a starter, and he was a groundbreaker, for sure."

Dallas head coach Ken Hitchcock, likewise, had high praise for Kiprusoff, whom he saw play regularly during Kiprusoff's heyday, including in 2003-04 when Kiprusoff set a modern-day NHL record with a 1.69 goals against average.
"I mean, Kipper was a special goaltender," Hitchcock said. "He was very similar to (Sergei) Bobrovsky, to me. He could win games by himself."
For Lehtonen to tie Kiprusoff in games played among Finnish netminders is something that forces the soft-spoken Lehtonen into a somewhat uncomfortable spotlight.
"It's exciting," Lehtonen admitted. "It's something that, maybe, (in the) last couple of years I've thought about. … So that's cool."
Someone, likely Nashville's Pekka Rinne -- who is currently third at 531 games played -- will come along and surpass both Kiprusoff and Lehtonen. It's the way it's supposed to be.
But in thismoment, to reach thismilestone, is something that should be savored.
"We played many years in the league (at the) same time," Lehtonen said of Kiprusoff. "He was really one of the elite goalies for a long time. Of course I looked up to him and just the way he played, and what he did for Finnish hockey. It's awesome stuff.
"I'm sure it's something that will matter more when I'm done playing. That's when it's going to be probably fun to look at those sort of things and be even more proud what I've been able to accomplish. But now, it's more something that I'm not thinking too much about. Energy goes to trying to get myself in the best position to succeed and do well for this team."
And there's the rub.
It's not really the games played that matter so much in this moment as the other column on the stats page: the "Ws" for wins.

Lehtonen now has 299 career wins and needs only one more to join Kiprusoff in becoming just the second Finnish netminder to collect 300. And with the Stars desperate for victories -- regardless of which goalie, which nationality, collects them -- that fits perfectly with Lehtonen's mindset.
"I've been just trying to play year-by-year and month-by-month and week-by-week, and just keep going," he said. "It's been fun, for sure."
The mindset has been especially challenging this season for Lehtonen after the Stars acquired and then signed two-time Vezina finalist Ben Bishop to a six-year deal in the offseason.
"Kari deserved a lot of credit, especially this year," Hitchcock said. "This has been a tough year for him from a standpoint of we've gone a different direction. But every time we need him, he comes through for us.
"He's going to get (opportunities) because of the schedule that we're on right now. He's going to get to share the load a little bit more, and we're hopeful that he can continue to come through for us."
This story was not subject to approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club. You can follow Scott on Twitter at @OvertimeScottB, and listen to his Burnside Chats podcast here.