Kiprusoff Announces Probable Retirement in Precisely the Ambiguous Way we all Expected

SB Nation user Maija Vilppo passed along a link to an article on a Finnish news website earlier this morning in which Finnish team head coach Erkka Westerlund says Miikka Kiprusoff is “finishing up his career.”

Westerlund asked Kiprusoff about the possibility of him playing goal for Finland in Sochi next February, and when the list of players likely to join the Suomi was revealed and Kiprusoff was not on it, people in Finland likely began to draw their own conclusions.

Kiprusoff, whose impending decision not to return to the NHL next season has been widely anticipated, told Westerlund that “if the Flames have not announced his retirement publicly [by this time], [Westerlund] can tell the decision [to the media].”

So there we have it. The Flames' best goalie in franchise history likely just announced the end of his NHL playing career in exactly the way we all expected it to happen; without any pomp and circumstance, and probably with a little shrug of his shoulders and a deadpan expression on his face.

Of course the Flames have yet to post anything about Kiprusoff’s decision on their website, possibly because the organization is attempting to convince him not to retire in order to accept a trade to the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Still with me here?

How the Blue Jackets, who still could not make the playoffs this season with Vezina winner Sergei Bobrovsky stopping pucks for them, would be any more successful in luring Kipper away from his family and probable retirement than the Leafs were back in March, I don’t know.

Perhaps Jarmo Kekalianen possesses stronger powers of persuasion (minus any language barrier) than Dave Nonis.

by Hayley Mutch