After the season ended with Nashville, I had a chance to go to the World Championships in Switzerland to play for Team Finland. It was my first time to play for my country, which was a big honor for me. We played well, but still came up short and finished in fifth place, which was disappointing. Nevertheless it was a great experience and it was nice to play with Koistinen and Pihlstrom and play against Webs (Shea Weber), Hammer (Dan Hamhuis), Mase (Chris Mason), Upy (Scotty Upshall) and Sutes (Ryan Suter).

After the Worlds I went to my hometown Oulu, Finland, took couple weeks off and didn`t do anything other than spend time with my family, girlfriend and friends. After that I went fishing to Northern Sweden with my friends - we were ice fishing in the end of May!! It was great. We were able to ice fish because the lake was in the northernmost part of Sweden and it was up in the mountains. We caught a lot of arctic char. It was good way to relax and get out of the hectic lifestyle we are living.

Now I`ve begun training the last two and half weeks. There are a couple other NHL players in my hometown and bunch of guys who play allround Europe, so we have a good group of guys I skate and do my off ice training with.

Next week I`m going for a vacation to get some sun :) The weather in Finland hasn`t been great - hopefully it gets better soon. I`m also coaching in couple different hockey schools and in July I`m going to the NHLPA meetings in Paris, France. Hopefully at the end of the summer I wil have a chance to go fishing up north one more time. Other than that, I don`t have too many plans for the summer yet. I`m just excited to be home and get some time off hockey, but at the same time I`m really looking forward coming back to Nashville and starting the season, cause last season was waaay too short. I`m confident that we are going to be stronger next season and hopefully ready to reach our ultimate goal: The Stanley Cup!

Have a great summer all you Predators fans and see you soon!

Pekka Rinne
August 2009