Film Room: How Artturi Lehkonen became indispensable for the Avalanche

“Mini-Val”.

That’s what Avs coach Jared Bednar was told he was getting when the Avs went out and acquired Artturi Lehkonen.

Turns out, that proved to be about as good a comparison as you could make.

Lehkonen proved to be a perfect fit on any line coach Bednar put him on. He spent time with Nathan MacKinnon, he spent time with Nazem Kadri, and even spent some time on a line with Darren Helm when injuries hit in the playoffs to help form a defensive energy line.

With 23 points in 36 games in Colorado, the offense clicked immediately, but offense wasn’t the main reason the Avs felt comfortable trading away Justin Barron and a second round pick for Lehkonen. The 27 year old Finn had previously established himself as a strong forechecker and a very reliable defensive forward. Combine that with his skating ability, and the Avs pro scouts targeted a player who played exactly to the Avs identity.

A lot of what Lehkonen excels in doesn’t necessarily show up on the scoresheet. He’s a battler, and that battling never stops. In watching and re-watching over 200 of his shifts from the magical postseason run, it’s apparent he empties his tank on every shift. I’m not sure he knows any other way.

This film room will take a peek at some of the things, big and small, that Lehkonen excels at. These attributes not only helped Lehkonen earn a long-term extension in Colorado, but played an important role in the Avs winning the Stanley Cup.

Dirty Areas

One of the first things you notice about Lehkonen is that he’s really not a big guy. Listed at 5’11”, 179 pounds, he’s not the type of guy you expect to spend so much time around the front of the opposing teams net. The reality is, he often lives there. When Kadri went down, Lehkonen was the Avs first choice to put into that bumper role that involves some dirty work in the slot, and it worked.

In this clip, you can see Lehkonen planting himself at the top of the crease and outworking multiple Oilers players for not one, not two, but three shots on net. None of them went in, but these show you how fearless he is as a player, and why he had so much success once he got to Colorado.

Forcing Mistakes

I’m not sure why, but this play got the hockey nerd in me all hyped up. As the third forward high, Lehkonen recognizes where the breakout is going, and doesn’t just let the Predators get an easy dump in. He pressures and angles the Preds player to the boards, doesn’t let them get a clean chip into the Avs zone, and forces a turnover right to the Avs defender. The play doesn’t stop there.

The puck eventually bounces around back to Lehkonen, who manages to win another battle against his man to get the puck to Kadri for a clean look in transition. This quick transition was a big part of the Avs identity all year long, and strong defensive work from the forwards like Lehkonen lets defenders be a little more aggressive stoping plays at the defensive blue line.

Give and Go

Going into next season, Lehkonen is a lock for top six minutes, given the way the team is constructed and how he fit in with the team after being acquired. For a player whose never topped 20 goals or 40 points in a season, he might not be your prototypical scoring line forward, but the fit he showed with multiple players on the team down the stretch make you feel better about him in that spot moving forward.

Here’s a nice little give and go with MacKinnon, where Lehkonen makes the quick no look pass, and immediately his hockey IQ kicks in. He recognizes that the Cirelli stops looking at him, and heads for open ice. An elite player like MacKinnon, someone who he will likely spend a lot of time with next year, sees the opportunity and hits him. He doesn’t score, and I think it’s fair to wonder what his top end is as a scorer, but it’s a quick look at the intelligence of Lehkonen and how he’ll create chances for himself in a scoring role.

Outnumbered? Not a problem

Everyone on your team is changing? No problem, 62 can handle that.

He finds himself, unsurprisingly, around the net again for MacKinnon’s shot. When it misses, he wins the battle to find the puck, and makes a nifty play to chip it off the boards to himself while avoiding Bellemare, and throws it back into the slot for a great look from a fresh Nichushkin. To be a good player along the wall, you have to be able to handle the puck in tight spaces, in addition to being a player who will put in the work to battle. It’s a skill not every player has, but something Lehkonen excels at.

Effort wins out

A big reason why face-offs don’t matter as much as a lot of people think they do is because too many things can happen even if you do pull off the perfect face-off play. Look at Tampa here. Stamkos wins the face-off about as perfectly as you could to Kucherov, with Palat there to set a pick to give him time. None of that ends up mattering, because Lehkonen recognizes what’s happening, works to avoid the pick being set by Palat, and helps Toews double team Kucherov and end the possession altogether. You can do everything right off the face-off, but a player like Lehkonen can end a good look in an instant.

Defense leads to offense

This is why coaches preach that if you keep playing the right way, good things will eventually happen. If Lehkonen doesn’t track back well, this play could have been a bit of a problem after Manson misplays it, but instead, Lehkonen is there as the safety valve as the F3 to stop anything bad from happening. Soon after, he’s nearly rewarded when Nashville turns it over, as his speed gets him to the puck first and he hits Compher in stride for a great look.

Eat it

In the grand scheme of things, this is a pretty small play, but one that caught my eye with Lehkonen because he did it multiple times in the hundreds of shifts I watched. The immediate instinct of a winger in this situation, especially if their team is hemmed in their own zone for a bit, is to just try to chip it off the wall and hope it gets out. A lot of times that can just lead to another change of possession and you’re back hunting the puck again.

Right here, Lehkonen makes a decision not to chip the puck, but rather just eat it along the wall and wait for help. He holds off the much bigger defenseman and protects the puck long enough for his center to come in and help. The Avs eventually got the puck over to Makar for a much cleaner zone exit.

Get it back

This play isn’t that dissimilar to the “Forcing Mistakes” play above. The big difference here is that Lehkonen isn’t in front of the player with the puck. After the Blues read MacKinnon’s pass to the slot, they look to have a pretty easy breakout that should lead to at least a dump in. Not so fast. Lehkonen immediately gets on his horse, works his way around the attempted pick of Perron, and pressures Saad as quickly as he can.

The Avs defenders recognize Lehkonen is tracking back, and are able to keep a tighter gap, which leads to them breaking up Saad’s pass and regaining possession for their team. The Avs have one of the best defenses in the NHL, but work on the back check like this makes any defenders life a little easier.

Work work work work work

If there’s been one big theme in this film room with Lehkonen, it’s that he just plain outworks the opposing team most of the time. I had to cut this GIF down just a bit, but this play gets into the zone because Lehkonen outreaches McDonagh to deflect it in at the blue line. He then outraces him behind the net and protects the puck to get it to Rantanen. Mikko turns it over, but instead of staying put, Lehkonen recognizes the turnover, releases from behind the net, and is in position to create another turnover that results in a good look for MacKinnon.

Clutch

As if scoring overtime goals in back to back seasons to send his teams to the Stanley Cup finals wasn’t clutch enough, he decided to seal the deal this season, scoring the Cup-clinching goal for the Avs. Not exactly an easy shot to get off, either. A cross-body one timer with that much velocity is not easy to pull off at high speed, and sending it over arguably the best goalie in the league’s glove just adds style points.

This film room focused on a lot of the little things Lehkonen does that make him such an ideal fit for the way the Avs play. Might as well finish it with the biggest play of his career.