Mikael Kotkaniemi emerged from the elevator taking him from the Canadiens’ family room to the main concourse of the Bell Centre at approximately 7:30 p.m. Coldplay’s “Fix You” was already playing as he walked into the darkened lower bowl, the Canadiens hitting the ice one by one, the crowd welcoming them with a typical pregame roar.
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His eyes were not fixed on the ice surface, where his son Jesperi was one of the players running past the flag kids, the first time he would have seen his son with a Canadiens sweater on his back with his own eyes and not through a camera’s lens.
No, Mikael’s attention was on the environment, the place his son now plays, his new office.
“What do you think?” he was asked.
He was speechless, looking around the Bell Centre packed with 20,000-plus fans cheering in unison, his son skating around in circles below him, the game about to begin. Not a word came out of his mouth, he simply soaked it in.
Mikael Kotkaniemi has seen delirious rinks in his time. But nothing like this. His initial reaction to just standing in the Bell Centre should provide some perspective of what it’s been like for Jesperi to play there, and perhaps an increased appreciation of the composure he has shown in doing so as an 18-year-old.
But as impressive as it was to Mikael at first, and as speechless as he was at the time, by the end of the game there was something familiar about what he experienced at the Bell Centre on Tuesday.
“It’s the same passion than Pori, but four times bigger,” he said, standing outside the Canadiens’ family room long after a 2-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes had ended. “But it’s the same passion. It’s much bigger but it’s the same passion, you can recognize that.”
Both Mikael and his son are accustomed to the highly charged atmosphere at Isomäki Arena in Pori, Finland, where Ässät plays its home games, and it can be just as intense. Mikael coached Jesperi with Ässät last season and was forced to coach them without him this season, which was a major contributing factor to Mikael losing his job three weeks ago after Ässät got off to a horrible start to the season.
“So many things didn’t go well,” Mikael said. “When you are jumping in this business, you have to accept that one day you get fired or they are not going to give you a new contract. That’s just how this business goes. But when one door is closing, another door is opening. You just have to live with that.”
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Losing his job is why Mikael was able to be in Montreal to see his son play in the NHL for the first time Tuesday, because he now has time on his hands. But he found the new experience of being a spectator at his son’s game to be a tough one to handle.
“It’s easier to be on the same bench than (when) you look from the audience,” Mikael said. “It’s easier to be on the same bench and work together. It’s hard to watch over there, especially this kind of game.”
As difficult as it was, however, it was special to see his son realizing his NHL dream live and in person as opposed to a computer screen in the middle of the night back home in Pori.
“It was a great feeling,” he said. “I’ve never been nervous before when he was playing. But before this game, I was a little bit nervous. It’s something special because we would watch together, the NHL, and now he’s playing in the NHL. I don’t know what to think about that, but I was a little bit nervous. I wasn’t even nervous when we were at the draft at all, but in this game, because it was the first game, I was a little bit nervous.”
Mikael arrived in Montreal on Monday night, joining his wife Kati who will be staying with Jesperi the rest of the season. Mikael will be leaving Dec. 20, giving him ample time to soak in his son’s new life, and hopefully giving his son time to get used to the fact his dad and former coach is watching from the stands.
It was hard not to get the impression in the first period against the Hurricanes on Tuesday that Jesperi was trying to do a little too much. He wasn’t playing within himself, something he has done so exceptionally well thus far in his rookie season with a few exceptions. This might have been one of those exceptions. It sure looked that way.
“Probably,” Mikael said. “He recognize that I’m here, of course he’s that young, he wants to do his best. Of course, he wants to do that every night, but I think he wanted to make it so I see something special. I think so.”
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Mikael did indeed see something special, with the Canadiens pelting the Hurricanes net with 49 shots on goal but only getting one goal out of it in Shea Weber’s first game back after missing close to a year with two injuries.
“No justice,” Mikael said. “But it’s that type of game you have to take your equipment off, take a shower and go home and forget it. Just forget it.”
Also, a coach remains a coach.
“Weber plays quite a lot,” he said.
After a few minutes, Jesperi emerged from the Canadiens dressing room to greet his dad close to an hour after the game ended, having spent some time working out in the gym. He was not happy with what had just transpired and didn’t want to hear anything about shots on goal or anything else.
“Just one goal,” he said.
With that, Jesperi went home to his downtown condo with his mom and dad, an 18-year-old kid living his dream, but finally having the comfort of both his parents sharing the experience with him.
(Photo of Jesperi and Mikael Kotkaniemi: Arpon Basu)