Pekka Rinne doesn’t have to be here but he is, standing in a hallway at Centennial Sportsplex, after practice, after interviews with reporters, after a team meeting, after a shower and before whatever sensible lunch he’s about to pick at, trying to help one lingering writer understand how he changed his game at age 35.
Also, why. At age 35, after the postseason of his career, which he started with two road shutouts of the Chicago Blackhawks and finished two games shy of the Stanley Cup … why change anything after that? The answer helps explain why he’s going to win the Vezina Trophy and why in two months he could stand alone among icons in Nashville’s short professional sports history.