Minnesota Wild Prospect Granlund Immortalized On Postage Stamp
Minnesota Wild prospect, and current rock star to the Finnish people, Mikael Granlund has been immortalized on a postage stamp in Finland. The stamp is part of the celebration for Finland winning the 2011 IIHF World Championships, only the country’s second ever Worlds crown. The stamp shows the image of Granlund moments after he slammed the puck home on his amazing lacrosse style goal against Russia in the semifinals.
Bryan Vickroy
Finland has been celebrating since May 15 after defeating their rivals Sweden to reclaim the world championship for the first time since 1995. A big contributor to the success of this squad has been the 19 year old Mikael Granlund. Granlund scored one of the greatest goals in hockey history against Russian goaltender Konstantin Barulin in the semifinals of the tournament, taking a tight game and opening it up for the Finns. Video of the goal is available below. Finland then defeated Sweden 6-1 in the championship game. From the ice in Slovakia to the streets of Helsinki, the party was on. In fact, the trophy was actually dented the first day. Finnish coach Pasi Nurminen actually stumbled deboarding the plane when the team landed back home. The fall caused him to fall head first into the trophy, leaving a dent in it.
Today, the postal service in Finland released a stamp showing the spectacular goal by Granlund. The stamp is to commemorate the 2011 Worlds victory, as well as an historic moment in Finland’s hockey history. While putting something like this on a stamp might seem a little strange, it’s not the first time a Scandinavian country has created a stamp from a goal. In 1995, Sweden created a stamp out of the shootout goal scored by Petr Forsberg to help them win Olympic gold at the previous years games. While these aren’t the only sports stamps to ever be made, expect that the Granlund stamp is just another piece of the long history of these two hockey hungry countries. Within hours, the stamp was sold out and had people waiting and placing orders for the next batch to arrive in early June.
As for Finland’s newest favorite son, Granlund, he will remain in Finland for one more season. Granlund and the Minnesota Wild have both announce that he will remain playing in Finland for one more year. While Wild fans and management would love to have the gifted playmaker on their roster right now, Granlund is using the year to get bigger and stronger, finish up school, and fulfill his mandatory six month military commitment before he comes to the United States full time. So while you may not be able to see him for this coming year, Granlund has already stamped his place into hockey history.
Bryan Vickroy has an addiction to hockey, and is willing to partake in all its forms. He is skating extra shifts for The Sports Bank, covering the Minnesota Wild, the NHL, and NCAA hockey all year long. Look for new articles throughout the week. He can be followed on Twitter at @bryanvickroy. If you’d prefer to speak in more than 140 characters at a time to him, he can be reached at bryan.vickroy@gmail.com .