Jere Let The Right One In I didn't read some glowing column in The Dallas Morning News. Not many TV or radio segments, not that they really care. Too much attention being placed on Cliff Lee's money grab.
Remember, Lee didn't win a ring while in Dallas-Fort Worth. Lehtinen did.
In the grand scheme of things, Lehtinen is probably the second-most important Dallas Star in its current state (as a Dallas team, not Minnesota). Probably one of the top 15 or so Dallas-Fort Worth athletes of the past 20 years. Has to be.
Yet, you couldn't find a guy who avoided big contract talks, media brush-ups, shit talk and anything that would call attention to himself. "Quiet" would be an understatement.
This may be due to him being Finnish and probably not speaking the best of English.
Arguably, my favorite Lehtinen experience probably came while attending a game and enjoying a nice game of "Finnish or Gibberish," in which a Finnish Dallas Star says something and the audience is asked to guess if it is Finnish or gibberish.
Lehtinen did his talking on the ice.
He wound up with 514 total points during his NHL career. He was drafted by the Minnesota North Stars in 1992 and made his NHL debut in 1996, when he was name the Stars' (then in Dallas) rookie of the year.
During the Stanley Cup year, Lehtinen probably had his best year. He notched 20 goals and 32 assists. In the playoff run, he scored 10 goals.
The next season, the injuries started. He missed all but 17 games due to a bum ankle. He put together another good six or seven seasons. Really solid. Nothing flashy. Due diligence. As time wore on, the injuries mounted and he missed more and more time. The Stars held on too long to 1998-99 and this included waiting on Lehtinen to come back from the latest setback.
His play was rewarded. He won the Frank J. Selke Trophy three times (1998, 1999, 2003). Lehtinen was named to two All-Star games.
For the Finnish hockey team, he won four Olympic medals (three bronze, a silver) and four World Championship medals (three silver, a gold). He's only one of six hockey players with four Olympic medals.
He also met his wife at the Lillehammer Olympics in 1994. Not bad.
Bottomline: Lehtinen was really good and those great Stars teams of the late-1990s and early-2000s were a mirror of the way that Lehtinen worked the boards, in front of the net and at the blue line. Every professional team in this city could use a Lehtinen.
