When 18 year old Mikael Talo was drafted 7th overall by the Kelowna Knights, the last thing on his mind was having to find a place to live. Luckily, Kelowna has no shortage of fellow Finns to open their homes to him, and a couple of days after moving to town, Mikke Laukkanen, the team’s ex-backup goalie, had texted him with an offer. Sophia Talbot of Man Advantage had the chance to sit down with both of them at their apartment on the eve of the start of the preseason to talk to the new roommates about their living situation, and about the upcoming season.
[Interviewer: How did this come about then, you living with Mikke?]
‘Yeah, the team put me up in the Hilton for a couple of days, just while I was adjusting to the city,’ the seemingly always grinning Talo says, ‘And then Lauks came back into town, and he basically wouldn’t take no for an answer, so what could I do?’
‘Mik’s kind of a pain in the [behind],’ Laukkanen says, with a smirk, ‘but I wasn’t going to abandon him to a season of hotel rooms, we get enough of that on the road.’ He pauses. ‘Plus, having someone else around to let Arnold out in the morning means I get to have a lie-in on off days.’
Arnold is Laukkanen’s Great Dane, bought his rookie season with his first paycheck from the Knights.
‘He’s just like the dog I had growing up,’ Laukkanen says. ‘I missed having a dog in America, and I couldn’t bring Aatu with me, so I got a puppy. He’s great, he keeps me company. I dunno whether Mik will be as good company, to be honest with you, Arnold’s pretty awesome.’
Laukkanen, coming off a reasonable rookie season as the Kelowna back-up, celebrated the news that he was to be the new starter for the upcoming season by putting down a sizable down payment on an apartment in Smith Creek, which included a games room, a rooftop yard, and, most importantly, a spare bedroom.
‘Yeah, it’s pretty small,’ Talo jokes. ‘But I guess it’ll do, and he cooks, so it’s just like being back home and living with my mom.’
‘Not that I can get him to eat anything but Reese’s Puffs for breakfast,’ Laukkanen grumbles, with a smile. ‘Our nutritionist has fits about his sweet tooth.’
‘Lauks eats Lucky Charms,’ Talo retorts. ‘He pretends to be super healthy, but I found his cereal stash two days in, like I don’t know where all his secret hiding places are.’
The two friends have known each other for several years, having played together on their national under 16 and under 18 teams, and playing against each other in the Finnish junior program. They also have a childhood connection, with SM-Liiga Alumni Viljami Laukkanen (Laukkanen’s uncle) and Joonas Talo (Talo’s father) having played together for over ten years.
‘Our families actually knew each other growing up,’ Talo says. ‘My dad played with his uncle, so we grew up in the same locker room, I think we met when we were maybe five or six? So yeah, we’ve known each other a long time, I’m excited to play on the same team with him again, it’s been a while.’
‘Playing with Mik’s gonna be pretty great,’ Laukkanen says. ‘He’s scored some pretty good goals on me in the past, so it’s gonna be fun seeing him frustrate other goalies in the league.’
‘Yeah, I guess I got a couple good goals on him back in Finland,’ Talo agrees. ‘He’s a great goalie though, it’s gonna be fun having a little more freedom on the ice because I know I can trust him to make the big saves when we need him to.’
When asked about what it’s like living with a goalie, especially one like Laukkanen, who has admitted on his twitter that he’s “weird, even for a goalie”, all Talo could do was laugh.
‘We were roommates for our most recent U18 tournament a couple of years ago’ he says. ‘I survived sharing a small hotel room with him, so think I can handle living in a whole apartment with him. He’s not so bad, once you get used to the coloured food thing.’
[Interviewer: The-- coloured food thing?]
Talo starts laughing again.
‘He won’t eat red food on game days, it looks like a goal light. People always laugh when you tell them goalies are weird, but they never realise just how weird.’
Laukkanen protests, shamefaced. ‘It’s not that weird!’ He claims. ‘I’ve heard of weirder superstitions.’
‘Oh really? Like what?’ Talo asks, elbowing him. Laukkanen flicks an ice cube at him in response.
‘Like someone who has to tap three times before coming into a new building,’ Laukkanen says, and Talo throws the ice cube back.
‘Plus, he sings in the shower,’ Laukkanen adds. ‘Really, it’s me that has to put up with him, instead of the other way around. I never would have agreed to this if I’d known Rihanna was going to wake me up every morning.’
[Interviewer: Mikael, how are you finding the city?]
‘Kelowna’s great,’ Talo says. ‘The people are awesome, really friendly, and they love their hockey team a lot. It reminds me of being back home, with the amount that people care about it. Playing here in the showcase this offseason was great, I really feel like I got a taste of how it felt to play hockey in this city. I’m excited to play for the team, and bring a championship back to the city again.'
The two youngsters have no intentions of living it up in downtown Kelowna though, as both Talo and Laukkanen both admit to being quiet, happy to stay in instead of going out like most young hockey players.
‘Lauks is a card shark,’ Talo says, to laughter from Laukkanen. ‘He won five hundred dollars off me before I realised why no one else on the team will play him for money, but we play a lot of Xbox too, and I beat him almost every time.’
‘I didn’t play a lot of Xbox growing up,’ Lauks says. ‘I guess Mik had a lot more free time growing up than I did.’
In addition to video and card games, Laukkanen passes the time by listening to audiobooks, as struggles with dyslexia make it difficult for him to sit down with a book. ‘I hope it doesn’t annoy Mik too much,’ he says, ‘but if it does, I’ll just wait for him to fall asleep, he sleeps about twenty hours a day, unless he’s playing hockey.’
‘Now that Lauks is getting old, he forgets that teenagers need more sleep,’ Talo says, nudging him again. ‘I nap with Arnold a lot of the time, he’s a good nap buddy. Way cuddlier than Lauks, anyway.’
‘You say that now,’ Laukkanen teases. ‘He was scared of Arnold when he first met him, even though Arnold is the dumbest, friendliest dog. Now they spoon, when they think I’m not around.’
‘I wasn’t scared, I was justifiably wary,’ Talo argues. ‘The dog weighs more than you do. And we don’t spoon.’
‘ You totally do. Mik likes cats,’ Laukkanen says, with distaste. ‘He doesn’t see that they’re evil.’
Talo opens his mouth to argue immediately, and you get the feeling that this is an argument they’ve had many times, and it’s just business as usual in the Laukkanen-Talo household.
Watching the two of them together, it’s easy to see why they get on so well, and have been friends for so long. They argue like an old married couple, but neither of them have stopped smiling since the interview began.
‘I was really lucky to get drafted here,’ Talo says, as the meeting is wrapping up. ‘Not many guys get to say they get to play the next three years with one of their best friends. It’s gonna be a lot of fun.’
‘Mik’s honestly one of the best guys I know,’ Laukkanen adds. ‘I wouldn’t want anyone else to be my roommate.’
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