Aleksander Barkov: I didn’t want to change from Penna

Aleksander Barkov’s was supposed to be the self-righted captain and number one center of the Lions in the Milan-Cortina Olympic tournament, but a bad knee injury prevented his participation.

Finland fought for bronze, but Barkov, who watched the games at home in Florida, was to become the main topic of conversation for the Lions.

In the middle of the tournament, there was a big commotion when the GM of the Lions Jere Lehtinen admitted in an interview with Ilta-Sanomi that one player had suggested the head coach of the Panthers the previous summer Paul Mauricen joining into a part Antti Pennanen led by the Lions’ coaching group.

Kikeväki naturally concluded that the player in question would have been Maurice’s trusted man Barkov.

That’s why the Tampere native now definitely wants to cut off the wings of these rumours.

“I have never once been involved in any discussion where there was talk of changing the coach. There has never been anything like that. No changing coaches, no supplementing the coaching team. I’m just a player,” says Barkov heavily.

The Lions’ 4 Nations tournament in Montreal and Boston in February 2025 was gut-wrenching. Barkov says that after the tournament the table was cleaned in Leijon.

“We had discussions with the management and the players after the 4 Nations tournament about how everyone can improve. Players and coaches. Everyone. There were all kinds of ideas about how things could be done better than in the 4 Nations,” says Barkov.

“And it worked. The team played a great Olympic tournament, was really close to the final and got a great prize, a bronze medal.”

Barkov says he saw on TV that the Lions’ playing improved from last winter’s 4 Nations tournament. Also the activities of the coaches.

“The 4 Nations was a new experience for all of us. A short tournament, the best players and hard games. Everyone learned valuable lessons from it for the Olympics and it showed in the Olympics,” Barkov underlines.

“Before the Olympics, Jere and Antti kept in good contact with the players, things were discussed openly. There is nothing bad to say.”

Interview done over the phone. It’s 20:00 Finnish time on Thursday evening, but Alexander Barkov will not watch the first SM league semi-final match between Tappara and Ilves.

He is returning home from the Florida Panthers practice facility. The goods have been packed, the final meetings have been held.

While 16 other NHL clubs are preparing for the playoffs, the players of the Florida Panthers, who won the previous two championships, are going on summer vacation.

Barkov will join the national team in the Swedish EHT tournament, which will be played the week before the World Championships in Switzerland.

“You could imagine that the club management would forbid him to leave when he hasn’t played all season. But Bill Zito (Florida’s GM ) understands the players really well. He said that if the doctors give permission, then you will go without anything else,” says Barkov.

Barkov so not actually continuing his season in Leijon, but starting it. The anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments of his knee broke during the team’s first ice practices in the fall.

It immediately meant that the entire NHL regular season would be over.

“Immediately after the surgery, the doctors said that when you get on the ice after a few months, you’ll feel like you’re suddenly playing here. But you still have to wait until the end for the bandages to be fixed, and to learn the nerve pathways again. And that’s seven months,” says Barkov.

Panthers the captain has already been skating for months, but has been training with the team in a yellow jersey. A yellow training shirt means that you have not been allowed to contact him during training.

It was already clear a long time ago that the Panthers would not be seen in the playoffs this spring.

That’s why Barkovka didn’t try to force his way into the rink.

“You would have seen it when you took off the yellow shirt and looked at how the spots withstand contact and torsion. You can’t know that before.”

After joining Leijon, Barkov is involved immediately. It has been more than ten months since his last game.

“Don’t you find the feeling of the game pretty quickly?”

In September after his injury, Barkov didn’t stay behind. He decided to make the most of the unpleasant situation.

“I’m a hockey player. I want to play and not sit in the stands or in front of the TV. At first I didn’t even watch the games at all. Since then I’ve watched a lot from different angles. I’ve followed different players and how they do different things in different situations and what could be learned from them,” says Barkov.

“I’ve been practicing all the time, doing things I’ve been able to do and trying to improve in them.”

Barkov is now playing in the World Cup for the first time since 2016, when it was played in St. Petersburg and Moscow.

At that time Kari Jalonen even in retrospect, a rare tough bunch played in the team he coached.

In addition to Barkov, others arrived from the NHL Mikko Koivu, Mikael Granlund, Leo Komarov, Teemu Pulkkinen and Jussi Jokinen. About goalkeepers Mikko Koskinen was KHL’s elite, Niklas Bäckström concluding his NHL career and Hair in Saros starting it in the AHL.

And there was the trio that won the junior WC gold earlier in the same season Mikko Rantanen, I’m Sebastian and Patrik Laine.

“It was a really good team. We beat really tough teams and played well. In the final, Canada was just better.”

In ten in a year, a whole new generation of players has come to Leijon. Barkov has played in the NHL, played twice in the so-called in the best tournament (World Cup 2016 and 4 Nations 2025), won two Stanley Cups as a captain and became one of the NHL’s absolute elite.

When Barkov first joined the A national team, he had not yet played a game in the NHL. Erkka Westerlund was chosen as the head coach of the Lions for the Sochi 2014 Olympics. The coaching legend also invited the young Barkov to a meeting of potential Olympic players in Vierumäki.

Only 17 years old, Barkov didn’t even have a driver’s license, so he had to hitch a ride from Tampere.

According to contemporary accounts, the young man was so nervous that he did not dare to leave the car.

Perhaps in early May, when Barkov carries his game bag into the Lions locker room, there will be some young player who feels the same way about the all-conquering Barkov.

“I don’t remember anything like that. We did have a meeting,” Barkov squirms.

“Besides, the youth of today don’t have anything exciting. And I don’t have anything to teach them. I’ve played in two competitions and been to the final once, so that’s not much to brag about.”