FRISCO, Texas - In a role he's become accustomed to every spring for the Dallas Stars, Kari Lehtonen was a workhorse between the pipes last April.
The veteran Finnish goaltender started 18 of Dallas' final 19 games last season, including all six games in the Stars' first-round playoff series against the Anaheim Ducks, Dallas' first playoff appearance in six seasons.
No matter whether it's been Marc Crawford, Glen Gulutzan or now Lindy Ruff behind the Dallas bench, Stars fans have come to expect one thing each spring and that is for Lehtonen, now 30, to be patrolling the crease when the games count the most.
Lehtonen, who is heading into his fifth full season in Big D, was 33-20-10 last season with a 2.41 goals-against-average, a .919 save percentage and a career-high five shutouts.
In the playoffs, Kari went 2-4-0 with a GAA of 3.29, a .885 save percentage and one shutout. It was his first postseason experience since he started two games for the now-defunct Atlanta Thrashers back in the 2007 playoffs and he was glad to get back out there in the NHL's "second season".
"I think it was excellent for everybody. It's a whole other feeling, playing in the playoffs," Lehtonen said. "Speed is amazing and I think it was great for everybody to see how it is and also we kind of started to figure it out also as the games went on. But I think that was a necessary step for us on the way for this team to get better and get more success."
However, if there's another thing Stars fans have associated with Lehtonen during his time here in Dallas, it's that he's going to miss at least a little time each season due to injury, which in the past has often meant a groin injury.
But last spring, Kari also missed time due to a concussion after the Minnesota Wild's Erik Haula crashed into him the night the Stars raised Mike Modano's iconic No. 9 to the rafters at American Airlines Center back in early March.
It's no fault of Lehtonen's that he seems to get hurt each year because as is the case with each season, he heads into this year again in top physical condition and again ready to handle whatever sort of heavy workload Ruff will throw at him.
"(I did the) same stuff as last summer. I did a lot of work with the conditioning coach here and some with the goalie coach. It's kind of weird when you have such a long summer. It's hard. You're ready to start and then you go down again and you try to time it, the excitement and stuff," Lehtonen said. "Everything is good now and hopefully we can have a great camp. Excited to have a couple new players but still also the same core group is together, so that's great."
While many of his teammates are back with the Stars, there are two new goalies in the mix in Anders Lindback and Jussi Rynnas, who will each be vying to be Lehtonen's primary backup at least to start the season.
Of course, that role can also mean at least a bit of steady playing time should Kari pick up an injury again this year at some point in the year, something he's done at least once in each of his seasons in Dallas thus far.
And while he can't say how he thinks the race between Lindback and Rynnas will turn out, he does like what he has seen from them both thus far, both on and off the ice.
"We have a great group here. We did a little goalie camp a couple weeks ago where I got to know these two guys more. They're both excellent goalies and it's fun to have also goalies that are similar size to me, kind of play the same way," Lehtonen said. "I get to join the practices and see what they do in different situations and try to learn from that. That's an extra good thing. They both want to get better and that's going to be great. They're going to be pushing me to do well too."
And since the season is rapidly approaching, that can only mean one thing that Lehtonen and Stars goaltending coach Mike Valley, who is heading into his sixth season with the club, are again renewing what has been a very successful partnership over the past five seasons.
"Well, it's amazing to see with him after the summer, we start doing stuff and he has all these new ideas," Lehtonen said. "He had a bunch of new ideas and we started working those a little bit in there during that Madison camp. He's been great. We just think the same way. It helps so much. It seems like every morning I come to the rink and I go talk to him and I have these ideas what I think we should work on today and he basically says the same thing before I get to open my mouth. It's kind of weird how it works."
Valley, who held a goalie camp in Madison, Wisconsin several weeks back featuring eight current NHL goalies, a group including Lehtonen, Ben Bishop of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Brian Elliott of the St. Louis Blues, agrees that it's always good to start working with Kari again, not just because of the great relationship they have already built, but also because there is plenty they both hope to accomplish in this, their fifth year of working together.
"Yeah, it's really cool because again, we can say whatever we want to one another. We don't finish each other's sentences but we do see things similarly and he's very good if I see something within his game and I point it out, he's not defensive about it," Valley said. "We'll have healthy conversations about it. You feel like you know a guy really, really well. I feel like I know the ins and outs of his game. I also understand his personality."
In fact, during Valley's goalie camp, those other netminders saw just what sort of relationship he and Lehtonen have and they were definitely impressed.
"It's a really good, cool bond that we have and I think it's pretty unique. When you work with these guys from other teams, they look at it and they say wow, this is pretty cool to see," Valley said.
