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Exit interview with W. Salming
#1

It is again that time of the year when William Salming is available to chat with the print media. Finnish two-way winger, Quebec City Citadelles alumni and soon to be Seattle Argonauts rookie talked with us about his last junior season. Salming won the Four Star Cup with the Citadelles but also his second World Junior Championships gold medal in a row with Team Finland. He also played his second IIHF tournament in a lion jersey.

Reporter: We are happy that you found time to chat with us shortly, William. As always, our readers love your fun, nice, exciting, wonderful, amazing, unbelievable, awesome, marvelous, fascinating, fantastic, incredible, stunning, surprising, brilliant, cool, enjoyable, pleasant, superb, sensational, terrific, outstanding, phenomenal, tremendous, chilly, unreal and exotic personality.

Salming: No problem. I like to do these interviews once in a season. I have one week holiday now before new season begins so this is perfect time to do the interview even though I still need to have some practise sessions to develop my weaknesses.

Reporter: Let's talk about first about Quebec City. How was the regular season this time?

Salming: We were little worse in regular season but even better team in playoffs than last season but that is what I actually predicted in our Discord chat right after the last season ended to a disappointment. I wrote like this: "Thank you for this season. We will again remember this disappointing and sad feeling when next season begins and it will help us to play maybe little worse in regular season but even better playoffs because this is something what we don't want to experience third time."  We collected 107 points on a season before but this time we collected only 98 points. It still brought us second place in the standings after Kelowna. Individually I had pretty similar regular season. I scored 42 points in 66 games. On a positive side I had 18 goals which was personal best and also plus-minus rating of +31. I am also proud about my takeaway-giveaway ratio +27 (40-13). I had actually only two giveaways after 30 games or so but couldn't keep the amount of giveaways under ten in the end but that wasn't a big deal.

On season 57 I had 47 points and plus-minus of +30 so like I said regular season was pretty similar. I scored goals little bit more but had fewer assists. The biggest difference was that I didn't play anymore with Jst Maro who had been my centre mainly three first seasons. This time I played with another Argonauts prospect Zdenko Beranek (who got dealt to Calgary a couple day ago by the way). On earlier seasons we didn't find same kind of chemistry than me and Maro had but I was very happy that this season was different and we played together better than ever. In the playoffs another two-way winger Kev Kevens was important part of our line which played against opponent's best lines and tried to shut them down. We did pretty good job in my opinion.

Reporter: Yes, let's move on to playoffs. You got a first round bye and then played against Colorado in quarter-finals. You had some troubles in that series like Kelowna had also in its series. Both of you top seed teams were 3-2 down but managed to win those series in the end on game seven.

Salming: That is true. We had some problems with our standard of play early on but I was very confident all the time that we will turn the series. For example before game six I tweeted like this: "We might be in a hole right now but don't worry fans. We are not going to lose three games in a row. We are also not going to lose game seven at home. That's why I can guarantee to you that we will turn the series against Raptors. Just be patient and support us." We were dominant in game six on the road but also on game seven at home against Colorado with goal difference 8-2.

That momentum carried also through the semifinals and finals because after my tweet we won ten games and lost only twice (once against both Kelowna in the semis and Armada in the finals). Even though we lost game one against Kelowna, we then won four in a row. In the finals we won both of our first two home games 4-1 and after those games I was pretty confident that we are going to win the title. Game three was tight but we won it too 0-2. Armada managed to win game four on overtime if I remember correct but in the end it was a good thing so we got the chance to win the series in front of our home audience and fans. Game five was wild and we scored six goals against zero. One of our playoff heroes goalie Mat Smith didn't allowed any goals.

The victory was a result from a good work that GM duo Evok and Faelax had done four seasons. They have created an winning environment and culture which is demanding but also rewarding. We took things seriously but also didn't forget to have fun while being on ice. I am also proud about my teammates and how they were able to were at their best when everything mattered in the playoffs. Especially Tres Sombreros had great playoff run with 16 points in 17 games. Koskinen had one point less and our captain Maximov lead the defence with 12 points. Personally I had 2+8=10 points in 17 matches. Plus-minus was +11 so again I did my job as a two-way reliable winger. I tried to help the team to win by playing responsible hockey and together with Kevens we were great PK duo too. I played on average 1:22 on SH per night and only ten seconds on power-play but I was fine with it because I already had first line role on even strength so it was better to let other guys play PP minutes and I got some rest during those moments before grinding again.

To win a Four Star Cup is a dream come true. When I joined to Quebec City as a free agent my only goal was to get used to professional junior hockey after playing some amateur junior hockey in Finland. I began my career on the 4th line with Maro and Caspari. Slowly but surely my role grew season after season and on my final junior season we finally won the cup which became an objective especially on seasons three and four. I don't know if there is anything more I could add. It has been a pleasure to represent so professional organisation as Quebec City Citadelles has been.

Reporter: For sure. After winning the cup with Citadelles, you had again some international duties like always. You represented Finland on both IIHF and WJC level.

Salming: Yes I did. It was my second IIHF tournament. On my debut tourney I played on 4th line and got about eight minutes ice-time per game and little bit PK minutes. This time I was happy to see that I got some more responsibility. Of course I played again on bottom lines but this time on some games I played even 12-13 minutes even though average time of ice was about nine minutes in the whole tournament. I collected three assists in twelve games. Last time I had two assists so I guess I improved a little bit. However, I am still waiting to score my debut IIHF goal. Hopefully that happens next year.

When it comes to our overall performance, it was unacceptable. We won only one of our twelve round robin matches. We really need to learn from that and to make sure that kind of catastrophe won't happen ever again. It was humiliating and I couldn't read any local newspapers in a week because I knew reporters and people back in Finland weren't happy how we played. Pre-season was promising because we won Team Ireland and lost a tight match for the Swedes but then in the actual tournament nothing worked unfortunately.

Reporter: But WJC was again a success for you guys?

Salming: Yeah, glad it was. We entered the tournament as a defending champions. Because we had so many good forwards, some of them needed to play on defence. I was one of the guys who played as a defender whole tournament due to my defensive-minded two-way game. I was OK with it because I had already won the gold medal on S57 so this time I just enjoyed the tournament without any pressures. Round robin went well. We were second best team after DACH. I had 1+6=7 points in 12 games and plus-minus rating of +6. I played 18 minutes per night and on average 2:41 on power-play because I was part of the first unit and also thanks to that was able to get so many assists. As a rookie defender defence rating of 72 was pretty good on round robin.

In the playoffs we played first against UCORCAL. My future Argonauts teammate mr. Podcalzone did this best with two goals but in the end we won 6-4. We lead four times but always UCORCAL tied the games unless Jarmo Kekalainen scored the game-winning goal in the third period. It was very tight game but we showed why we were defending champions. It was also a relief to get a chance to end junior career on medal round. In the semi-finals we had a rematch with Team Sweden. We beat them in the WJC final last time with a dominant effort. This time game was much closer. Sweden won shots 30-24 but we scored one more goal so the result was 3-2 in our favour. Seppänen (2+0) - Kekalainen (0+2) duo were on fire but also Ragnar-Alexandre Ragnarsson-Tremblay had a great game in net.

Last evening we played then in a second consecutive World Junior Championships final. The game was crazy. Our coach told us we are going to play with defensive tactics. All players sold his words. We sacrified our bodies and in the end it gave us a historic second gold medal in a row. Shots were 9-42 but goals 3-1. Ragnarsson-Tremblay played again like a monster in the net. The game was tied 1-1 after 40 minutes. Robert Black scored the opening late in the first. I assisted that goal with Speedwagon. DACH tied the game in the second thanks to Ponaire. In the third period we once again proved that our standard and level of play are high. Seppänen scored the game-winning goal at 43:36 from the assist of Torretta. Mäkinen Jr. scored the third and final goal from the assists of Kekalainen and Barengrub. Of course, our goalie got all three stars but I was pretty proud to be picked third best player in that gold medal match. I got one star nomination probably because I had one assist, plus-minus of +2, and TOI of 21:22. It was a perfect way to end the junior career. That is all I can say. 

Two gold medals in a row is an unbelievable achievement because Finland's latest solo gold medal in juniors was from season seven until we ended the long drought last season and now we took second gold medal in a row. Historic stuff. I would like thank our coaching staff and also all members of the winning team. There are too many names so I am not going to name everyone of them so I just say a collective thank you. Hopefully our golden junior generation can help also bring some success to Finland on IIHF level in the near future. We have some talented youngsters entering SHL at the moment and I am excited to continue our journey together on IIHF events.

Reporter: I guess we are finished. Any final thoughts?

Salming: Well, like I said I will have a short holiday now but I will still workout twice in a day. I will fly to Seattle later on this week to attend pre-season camp. After winning everything in the juniors, I will still travel to Seattle with a humble mindset because now I need to start prove my value to a new team again and grind my way towards bigger role from the third line. At the same time I still enjoy a lot that kind of challenge and it just gives me more motivation. I will probably play only 5v5 hockey on the beginning without special teams time and just try to help the team to win and achieve a playoff spot by playing responsible two-way hockey. My personal goal is to try to play my small minutes without giving up goals to an opponent and then let our TOP6 guys to score crucial goals to the other end. I learned a lot from my time in Quebec City and I am forever grateful about all the aspects and tips I got to my game from there. Now it is time to bring those elements also to the bigger arenas in the SHL.

Reporter: Thank you very much about this interview, William. I wish you a good rookie season in the Seattle.

Salming: Thank you very much.

Words: 2222

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#2

Fly my little owl, proud of your amazing career in quebec and exited to see tou in seattle!

Citadelles Citadelles Citadelles Citadelles Citadelles

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#3

Salming is truely fun, nice, exciting, wonderful, amazing, unbelievable, awesome, marvelous, fascinating, fantastic, incredible, stunning, surprising, brilliant, cool, enjoyable, pleasant, superb, sensational, terrific, outstanding, phenomenal, tremendous, chilly, unreal and exotic <3

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#4

Seattle time baby Argonauts

Thanks Wasty, Carpy, JSS, TurdFerguson, Geekusoid and Awesomecakes for the sigs!
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#5

04-13-2021, 10:39 AMMatteo Wrote: Salming is truely fun, nice, exciting, wonderful, amazing, unbelievable, awesome, marvelous, fascinating, fantastic, incredible, stunning, surprising, brilliant, cool, enjoyable, pleasant, superb, sensational, terrific, outstanding, phenomenal, tremendous, chilly, unreal and exotic <3

#SalmingIsFNEWAUAMFFISSBCEPSSTOPTCUE

Make it trend, people

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Thanks to @enigmatic, @Matteo, @sulovilen, @zeagle1, and @TheOPSquid for all the sigs!
Czechia Malamutes Rage Czechia
Canada Citadelles pride syndicate
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#6

Citadelles Citadelles Citadelles

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#7

Argonauts Argonauts Argonauts

Excited to have you on board for what should be the first of many great seasons in the SHL!

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#8

Excited to see you playing in Seattle, Salming and Beeg Yoshi are gonna be household names down the line baby Argonauts

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#9

Sad hoot



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#10

I'm sure that Pod's excited to be teammates this season with Salming! Potential linemates maybe as well! Argonauts

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#11

:acquirethesire:

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