For Canes' Aho, winning more important than goals and points

The Carolina Hurricanes are trying awfully hard to turn Sebastian Aho into a star.

Not that Aho needs a lot of help, promotionally or otherwise.

The kid can play. He’s proven that. The Finnish forward has made his second NHL season better than his first, even if he shies away from talking about such personal achievements as goals, assists and point streaks.

“It’s hard to think about your own game when the team loses,” Aho said this week. ”That’s one thing I really want to change. I can’t be satisfied with my own game when the team is losing.”

Aho, 20, is all about winning. It hurts him that the Hurricanes will again be on the outside looking in when the Stanley Cup playoffs begin in a few weeks. He’s too intensely competitive, smashing his stick against the net after one loss this season.

As a 17-year-old in Finland, he scored on a breakaway in overtime to win a league championship for Karpat. Centering a line with Patrik Laine and Jesse Puljujarvi, he helped Finland win gold medals in the 2016 World Junior Championship.

And win it in Helsinki. Talk about getting teen rock-star treatment. They couldn’t walk the streets without being mobbed.

It’s still that way at times back home, Aho said. Everyone knows who he is, especially in Oulu, his hometown.

But Aho is beginning to be recognized around Raleigh, he said.

“This year more and more,” he said. “Pictures, autographs sometimes. But not that much. It’s not disturbing or anything.”

The Hurricanes and Fox Sports Carolinas, in an effort to provide more exposure for Aho, went into a fullcourt publicity press for the New York Rangers game on Saturday at PNC Arena, calling it a Sebastian Aho "showcase" game.

Aho was mic’d up and had a camera following his every move throughout the 2-1 loss. He was shown in a sitdown interview taped before the game. TV analyst Tripp Tracy broke down some Aho plays with a telestrator throughout the game. Photos of Aho, old and new, were shown. Teammates and friends from Finland shared stories about him..

Whew, all that for one player.

Asked before the game if it made him a bit uncomfortable given his penchant for being a “team guy,” Aho said, “I mean, that’s their job and I just want to do mine. I just want to play my game. I really don’t think about that or any other media, either. I know that’s their job and they try to do their job as well as they can and I just try to do mine as well as I can.”

Aho was minus-2 in the loss to to Rangers, turning the puck over on a second-period power play that resulted in a shorthanded goal by Kevin Hayes that was the difference.

Aho said after the game that the added attention was "not a big deal" and not a distraction, saying, "It's part of the business, to work with the media.."

Aho was a second-round draft pick by the Hurricanes in 2015, making the team’s scouting staff look pretty wise. As a rookie last season, he did not score in the first 13 games, then had 24 goals in the last 69, finishing with 49 points.

Aho expected a better scoring start this season, only to go the first 15 games without a goal. Often playing on a line with fellow Finn Teuvo Teravainen, being used on the wing and at center, Aho has 28 goals and 36 assists and recently had a personal-best nine-game point streak.

“My first year I didn’t play well and didn’t make any plays early in the season,” he said. “This year, I just didn’t score but I still made plays. It’s crazy in hockey. Once you get the first one, you right away get the second one and it’s way easier. The net looks way bigger.”

Laine, who quickly has become one of the NHL’s scoring stars with the Winnipeg Jets, said Aho might be the smartest player he has had as a teammate, noting, “His head is like a computer.”

Harri Aho, Sebastian’s father and the Karpat general manager, said that has always been one of his son’s strengths.

“Sebastian's hockey IQ has been there from the younger years,” Harri Aho said in an email. “He has not been the biggest player ever and he needed to use his head. In Finland people called him professor of hockey.”

Listed at 5-11 and 172 pounds, Aho plays a stronger game than those measurables would suggest. He’s proven to be durable, although a big hit from Calgary’s Mark Giordano in the Jan. 14 game at PNC Arena left him with a concussion and a knee injury. Aho missed four games (the Canes were 2-2), scoring four goals in his first six games after his return.

Harri Aho, referring to the concussion, said it was “of course unfortunate and unpleasant, but it happens in hockey. I was really happy that he recovered so well and fast from that injury.”

Harri Aho, a former defenseman, watches all the Canes games live online, Sebastian said, even with a seven-hour time difference. Harry texts his thoughts after the game and the two often talk the next day, although not always about hockey.

“I can see improvement in his physical game and steadiness throughout the second season in NHL,” Harri Aho said. “Compete level has been good and he has learned a lot how to play successfully in NHL."

This story was originally published March 31, 2018 at 10:51 PM with the headline "For Canes' Aho, winning more important than goals and points."