Since playing on the Avalanche’s 2001 Stanley Cup championship team, the Finn has been well-traveled. At times, one wonders if his tendency to say exactly what he thinks – not considered an endearing trait in the cliché-ridden sport – helps wear out his welcome.
The agitating winger was with Pittsburgh and Chicago before going to Calgary late in the 2003-04 season, becoming a significant part of the Flames’ run to within one victory of the Stanley Cup.
As he had with Colorado three years earlier, he had four goals in the postseason. He also gained notoriety in the Finals, when he was suspended for Game 5 after nailing the Lightning’s Vincent Lecavalier into the glass in Game 4.
After signing a two-year deal with the Rangers before this season, he was having an up-and-down year in New York when he was shipped to the Sharks on the eve of the trading deadline for a 2006 draft choice. That came shortly after he was a significant member of Finland’s silver medalists in Turin.
“I was accepting my role in New York,” Nieminen said in Denver last week, after the Sharks knocked off the Avalanche 2-1. “I played whenever I got a chance to play, and I wanted to stay in New York. But when this opportunity came, I was really excited to come back to the Western Conference because I like the way the hockey is played out West. I had a good feeling right away that it would be a good fit here.”
Why “Nimo” was important: Though the Sharks have been one of the more disciplined teams in the league, the third-least penalized team heading into the weekend, they needed another role-playing forward, primarily a penalty killer. He has stepped in and played well in that job. And he also has provided both a character – and that’s not always the same thing as character – and a buddy for Vesa Toskala, the goalie who has taken over the No. 1 job from Evgeni Nabokov.
Toskala and Nieminen both were raised in Tampere, and have been friends since their youths.
What he thinks of the Sharks: “We have a lot of young, fast players. We have a lot of offensive powers. Sometimes we get overanxious to get goals, so sometimes we are where the forwards need to get back sooner, and not go for a home run all the time. We have all the needed aspects, for sure, but we need some more patience.”
Sounds as if some of the lessons from Bob Hartley and Darryl Sutter rubbed off on him.
