Team employees and executives were sprinkled throughout the room. Fine with Rinne, who prefers the dimmer switch turned to low on the spotlight. Ryan Johansen, who requested to be in attendance, was the only teammate there, though many have scattered home all over the globe for the summer. It was the first of an endless stream of thank yous, the same words that headlined his announcement a couple of hours earlier in a story he penned for The Players' Tribune. THANK YOU: Retired Nashville Predators goalie Pekka Rinne no good at goodbyes - and I'm thankful for that One word that comes to mind is 'thank you.' "ĮSTES: There won't be another Pekka Rinne, a 'man of the people' and true Nashville treasure "I guess we all know why we're here," he began.
The 38-year-old "quiet, shy guy" from Finland made his exit from the NHL almost as quietly as his entrance as an eighth-round pick 18 years ago after being passed over in the two previous drafts. Wearing a simple white T-shirt, jeans a dark navy ballcap, white gym shoes and what appeared to be a wedding ring, Rinne took his seat behind a table on a raised stage, a black curtain draped behind him as he officially drew the curtain on his career. The words came out of Pekka Rinne's mouth in a place called "The Honky Tonk Room" on Tuesday inside Bridgestone Arena, the goalie's home away from home, a relationship that began 18 years earlier while he was at a cabin party with friends and learned he'd been drafted. View Gallery: Goaltender Pekka Rinne announces his retirement from the Predators
0 kommentar(er)
