I will be coming to Dallas with my girlfriend this weekend and we will be staying one week.

We will be in AAC when San Jose, Edmonton, LA and Toronto are here. Our seats will be:

San Jose: section 119, row K, seats 17-18.

Edmonton: section 103, row C, seats 1-2.

LA: section 119, row D, seats 7-8.

Toronto: section 108, row B, seats 3-4.

If you are near and hear words like "perkele, vittu, saatana", come and say hi.

I have been twice in Dallas before, but I was wondering about few things and I was thinking this would be a good place to ask?

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I thought it would be okay to share something from an interview I read from the magazine in Finland.

Jukka Koivu, father of Saku Koivu and Mikko Koivu had some words of a young player that once came to TPS Turku, team in Sm-liiga Finland. Jukka was an assistant coach of TPS and worked very much with this player.

That young player was not a star and he had a try-out first. He made it and had some fine years with TPS 1995 - 1998. He also had a silver medal. Then he left to Nashville and so on.

Karlis Skrastins was his name and this very shy, but very much loved player started his career in NHL, but never forgot his time in Finland. Saku was with Montreal and when Jukka was visiting him and saw Skrastins during his visits in USA/Canada,he always talked with Jukka and was asking about finnish hockey.

Jukka told many similar things of his style of play, many of you know these things. But this one thing I have to share with you guys/girls.

When Karlis got his first paycheck, he sent some of it to his mother. And he bought a cow to his mother, so his relatives in Latvia would make it back there. A young man age of 21 did these things and from what I have been reading... He lived his life that way to these last moments...

We in Finland also remember Karlis and may he rest in peace. You had a great career and it did end too soon...

My friend Markus - his nick is Kyrpis - is a fan of TPS and perhaps he might share some more of Karlis to this post later.

It isn't news anymore, but since my favorite team in Finland is Jokerit, it might be cool to share some thoughts here about this one.

First the man himself. John Klingberg. Dallas drafted him in fifth round and the reason was his size. He wasn't that tall.

Well, he is now tall enough, 186cm. Like 73,2 inches?

 26 games in Elitserien with 0+5.

He played also in U20 World juniors and they liked him there.

There are others who write much better about stats and information like that. I will not be doing that.

I want to share some thoughts about Jokerit Helsinki and why this might be cool thing. For fans of Jokerit and if something good comes from this, for fans of Stars.

Jokerit is very hard place to succeed. Many players have been good before and after their time with this team. But... If you make it there, you have a chance in NHL.

Just ask Tim Thomas, Valtteri Filppula, Ville Leino, Glen Metropolit, Kari Lehtonen and Brian Campbell was better player also after his time with the team. And then there is Selanne, who will never stop playing...

So, will Klingberg have some hard times here? Yes. Only one-year contract, so his time might not last long.

But then there is this. GM of Jokerit is Jarmo Kekalainen, some of you might remember his time with Ottawa and St.Louis. Before that he was the GM of Hifk, another team from Helsinki. He made the team that were champs and as much as I hate them... They had too great defenders that were picks of Kekalainen. Marek Zidlicky and Brian Rafalski.

Wonder where those guys went later...

Jokerit also got Erkka Westerlund as their coach last season and he is someone who could teach some really good things to Klingberg. He might get some real good minutes and since his shot is right-handed, he is needed. I would love to see him play some minutes with Ossi Vaananen, but it remains to be seen.

I don't see any reason to write much more, yet.

This all might be failure and he could go back to Sweden.

But here are some cool things about the environment, where he will be heading. It might offer something really cool.

They really like Klingberg in Sweden and it's fun to see young player like this in Finland, I know he could have stayed in Sweden, so no worries there.

If all is good, some more will come later, but right now... Something to wait, if you live in Finland and love them Stars.

From the area to other.

Have any of writers/readers of this blog been in any Winter Classic games? Any thought to share or memories?

I'm going to have my first one with another reader of this blog: Kyrpis. This is the first time something like this is happening in Finland - or at least in my memory.

Game is Jokerit - HIFK. Both teams are from Helsinki so the game is on Olympic Stadion (stadium) in Helsinki.

(There was a hockey game in Stadium, Finland - Sweden in 1941, during times of war, but this should be different, since it's a league game, like games in NHL. There were also some games outside in 60's, but still not the same thing.)

I'm lookin forward what the evening brings and it's cool to see things from NHL going to Europe also. If you have some memories, do share, otherwise it's game time.

After them Stars comes not close, but second: Jokerit, so hope they win. Otherwise it's just having fun with Kyrpis, his kids and friends.

I'm sure that many other readers might have better post in this matter, but I wan't to share some moments of Jere. When I was really young I saw him playing in Kiekko-Espoo(nowdays Espoon Blues) and he was a quite gifted player... In time he would go to TPS, team in Turku and many citizens in Helsinki love to hate that team, so I didn't follow him that much after that...

Moments went on and then came year 1995. Some remember that year cause Jacques Chirac came to president for the France, others cause Microsoft announced Windows 95, some remember the trial of O.J. Simpson. But in Finland the "thing" that year was hockey. Finns became champions and it was the only so far. Jere played with his friend from TPS, someone called Saku Koivu and with Ville Peltonen they made history in this country. Jere became famous. There was even - can't prove it - big debt to his favourite bar and it was just gone. You don't want to remember things like that when your hero enters the room.

But still... Saku Koivu went to Montreal and they even saved number eleven to him. Ville Peltonen went to San Jose - failed - but still got great news from that trip. Jere came to Dallas and didn't get those news, not even in Finland... Many will not want to tell that, but that is the truth. There were some news in time, cause he played with Modano, but Lehtinen became the news truly in 1999 playoffs. Then all my friends started to wish "me" all the best cause Lehtinen was in Dallas, ain't that a... I'm not sure that I slept much during those playoffs... Another great memory.

And what about after that? Jere played great seasons and injured or not, he was important and something that to me was a Dallas Star, like Mike Modano. Year, years in Detroit won't count to me, people should start cheering Mike when he is doing good and Stars all the time, heh.

I would have many other good memories of Jere in Dallas, but writers and other readers in Defending Big D probably can give better stories of him in Dallas. This post might not be my best cause, I'm still feeling quite down, not that it is a bad thing. I wrote this quickly, cause I wanted to write while these feelings are still fresh.

One last thing... Not that patriotic thing to say, but I hope that Jere joins the core of Dallas Stars in time. Many in Finland want him to return to Espoo or join the core of the "Leijonat", I don't. To me he is a Dallas Star.

All the best. You played great and gave me - among many others - great memories. Take care and all the best in future of yourself. Yours: Henri Muroke