An Interview with Oskar Osala by Juha Hiitelä

Here is a great interview by Juha Hiitelä a very well-respected sports commentator and writer from Finland.  He also Twitters at  @jhiitela.  He obviously knows and loves hockey; and is a frequenter participant on Twitter.  I wish John Forslund and Chip Alexander were as avid on Twitter as Juha Hiitela.  He is presently covering the World Championships; and has been extremely gracious to the Caniacs, who twitter day and night about the Hurricanes in general and the Finnish Canes in particular.  Juha caught up with Oskar Osala at the World Championships and let me post his interview at Canes County.

Oskar Osala Quotes:

(about the first game) "For some reason, I'm not nervous. Everything is fine. I'm excited and looking forward for the game."

(about watching first 3 games in stands) "It's like biting your fingernails (JH: I'm not sure if there's phrase like that in English, it's Finnish phrase). Watching games is nice, but you get excited more. I'm glad that team managed to do their task well."

(about Finland's first three games) "First game against Denmark was hard. Maybe guys were too nervous because there are so many first timers. Next two against Germany and USA looked much better. They were fun to watch, even those were tough games. But from the beginning you could sense that we'll win both."

(his thoughts about not being registered to first stage) "It was not a surprise. I was prepared for that."

(Osala has not been in any lines during the practices, so he has skated alone between blue lines) "There's not much ice left in those spots in practice rink. It gets boring, but it's good training. Ice is bigger here and after all that skating I feel good."

"For defensive play bigger ice is more difficult but much more fun in attacking the zone. You have more time for making your decision and to get more speed. In AHL wingers usually just stand and wait for puck, here there's chance that you can get puck in full speed. I look forward to skating on the  left wing and get a puck there. I like that since skating is one of my strengths."

(about last two years) "A lot has happened. Around 200 games in AHL. 

Championship (Calder cup) and trade. I still want to wait for my chance in NHL. If it takes another 200 games in AHL, I'll do that. I would like to have a proper chance in NHL. I've played 3 games in NHL and there's always been three months between them. It's difficult to get used to level of play when situation is like that."

Brief Resume of Juha Hiitelä

Here's an initial and brief small resume of Juha Hiitelä.  I will add more detail later tonight after doing some more Google searches.  Juha was too humble and unassuming to send me his full resume:

Hockey writer since 2002. Internet, newspapers, weekly and monthly magazines. Currently as freelancer. Writing also about soccer.

Hockey talk show host in syndicated radio stations in three citys (Tampere, Jyväskylä, Oulu) during their hockey broadcasts since 2006.

Post game interviews in TV for Channel 4 (Finnish league TV rights

holder) since 2008.

Currently in my fifth World Champs (2002, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2009,

2010) as journalist, also two U20 World Champs (2004, 2008) and one

U18 World Champs (2007). Covered also NHL games in Toronto, Montreal, Buffalo and Vancouver.

Board member in Finnish hockey writers association since September 2008.

Here in Cologne I'm working for our radio stations and for second biggest newspaper in Finland (Ilta-Sanomat) and their weekly sports magazine (Veikkaaja).