We Lost Another Good One :(

Its with much regret that i write this blog :( Back in 2010 i was tripping around Europe with Rainer and we went to Finland without our gear for a hockey party for this guy named Petri Riihelainen . He ran this hockey team full of crazy Finns that travel around the world playing hockey ... back in the day they were called the Nokia Ice Devils but i am not sure what they are going by these days . Really that was an awesome trip and i made a lot of great friends just like every other trip but on this trip when i was in Finland i met this great guy named Kalle Valitalo well actually i met 2 Kalle's as Petri's brother is Kalle also so this Kalle we called Crazy Kalle .

I knew the minute i met this guy that he was a proper hockey player , beer drinking fun loving guy that looked like a big Finnish bear . We met outside the sauna at the party , yes everything in Finland includes a sauna ! One of the first things Crazy Kalle asked me was which NHL team i cheer for and i told him of course the Leafs and he squeezed the shit out of me LOL ! There was a lot of drinking that night and of course we stayed in touch until our next meeting ....

In 2012 we met in Estonia to play for the Rainman All-Stars and that is where we became eternally team mates . You know that when you win a championship with someone you will always remember them and will always have that connection and that is exactly what we did in Tallinn . We beat a semi pro team to win their tournament there and then we had to say bye ... yeah i know you are wondering , this can't be it right ? No there is much more :) While we were in Estonia it was Kalle's birthday and man that was insane ... 

Of course i can't really get into too many details because i don't remember half the night but i do remember running out of alcohol at the hotel and Kalle (on his bday ) wanted to go to a store to buy more so i offered to go with him . On that walk we yelled vulgarities in Finnish that he was teaching me , we laughed our asses off and made fools of ourselves ... when we finally got back to the hotel after getting lost we went to the wrong room , actually we went to a few wrong rooms LOL ! I will always remember those moments that night where we really bonded ...

It is with great sadness that we had to say bye to Kalle this week ... buddy wherever you are make sure to organize a game for us for when i get there ... Go Leafs Go !