Visiting the place where Jari Kurri started playing ice hockey

When 9-year-old Jari Kurri moved to this apartment in Vaarala, Vantaa, in 1969, the residential area had begun to expand after the wars thanks to the Fazer chocolate factory, drawing many employees to the neighborhood.

Kurri's new home was in a newly built wooden-house suburb. A lot of terraced houses were built in the area, and some of them are protected to this day—I even verified the correct terraced house with two of Jari's childhood friends. In his previous home in Vuosaari, Helsinki, Jari had already started track and field.

Ice hockey came into Jari's life full force right on the rink shown in the picture. Jari's father and other neighborhood fathers flooded this small ice rink every winter. In the winter, Jari and other local kids played ice hockey on the rink, and in the summer, soccer.

Just 11 years later, in 1980, Jari Kurri moved to Edmonton and scored his first NHL goal there. He won 5 Stanley Cups in his career and is still the fourth-highest scoring European player in NHL history.

But let's return to Vaarala for a moment. I left my car for service nearby, which is why I'm walking here and passing the time. Jari Kurri's childhood isn't really visible here otherwise, except that many contemporaries—now elderly people—still live in the houses. The rink has been named Jari Kurri Rink on Google Maps.

From my own childhood (born in 1989), I remember Jari Kurri's first biography. It's a wonderful experience to get to breathe the same air that Kurri once did here. The church built in the 1960s is also still standing. Now, only the orange bushes surrounding Jari Kurri Rink and the color of the house remind us of the Oilers dynasty.

I'll head back to the auto repair shop to pick up my car.