Finland held an Olympic hockey practice in Milan. He?s the only one who showed up.

I\u2019m a sports columnist for the Vancouver Sun and Province covering the in-and-outs of the city's favourite \u2014 and truly desperate \u2014 passion: the Vancouver Canucks. When not cataloguing the daily travails, ups and downs, of the Canucks, you'll find me occasionally weighing in on the Vancouver Whitecaps and B.C. Lions. I once wrote a story about a bolide \u2014 ask me about that \u2014 and Vancouver's most senior cobbler.

Postmedia is the only full-time professional journalism home I\u2019ve ever known: started at The Province in 2013, working initially as a web editor then as a digital reporter covering general news. On the sports beat since 2018.

From 2011 to 2014 I was a contributor to the popular hockey blog Canucks Army.\r\nEDUCATION

B.A. (Hons) History from UBC 2004, B.Ed. (Secondary Education) from UBC 2007. Certificate in Journalism from Langara College 2012.

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Finnish flag bearer Mikko Lehtonen leads the team in the athletes' parade during the Opening Ceremony of the Milan-Cortina Games. Photo by Elsa /Getty ImagesArticle contentMILAN — There is only one player on the Finnish men’s hockey roster who is truly a defending Olympic champion in 2026.

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He’s also the only man to have skated in a one-man practice.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.Try refreshing your browser, ortap here to see other videos from our team.Play VideoArticle contentMikko Lehtonen was on the ice all by himself at the Santagiulia practice rink on Saturday. The 32-year-old, who spent part of a season with the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2020-21, had been flag-bearer for Finland during the Opening Ceremony on Friday night in Milan.

Advertisement 1 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function() { const template = document.getElementById('oop-ad-template'); if (template && !template.dataset.adInjected) { const clone = template.content.cloneNode(true); template.replaceWith(clone); if (template.parentElement) { template.parentElement.dataset.adInjected = "true"; } } });Article contentHe is the only Finnish player who is not currently playing in the NHL. Lehtonen plays professionally in Switzerland.

His teammates, 24 NHLers, weren’t going to arrive for another day. But there was practice ice available on Saturday, and so why not skate, he said.

“Oh lots of reps,” he said with a laugh after his solo workout, accompanied by assistant coach Ville Peltonen.

“But it was good to get on the ice. Lots of good drills, good time with Ville. But I would rather have a couple more guys in there. And goalies too.”

When a player is coming back from an injury they’ll skate by themselves, but this was different. This was just circumstance — and what a circumstance. He’s the only man on the 2026 Finnish roster to return from the miraculous gold medal-winning 2022 Finnish squad.

Being asked to be the flag bearer was a humbling honour for him.

“It was cool. An amazing experience,” he said. “I think that’s one of the biggest you can get as an athlete, carrying your flag in an Olympic ceremony.”

No pressure from being the defending champions, he believes.

“Like we’re defending champions, but it was for four years ago, we have a completely different team and just a new tournament,” he said. “It’s gonna be whole different game with best on best, I would say.

“But, obviously, we would like to repeat it, and that’s why we’re here. And hopefully we can do it.”

There’s a gold medal to defend. There’s no time to waste.

pjohnston@postmedia.com

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Finland held an Olympic hockey practice in Milan. He?s the only one who showed up.

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