A dead serious Rantanen calls out Lehkonen's Dad in awkward post-game interview

In case you missed it last night, the Colorado Avalanche managed to squeak past the Calgary Flames by a score of 6-5 in a very entertaining hockey game. 

Avs leaders Mikko Rantanen, Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar lead the way for the Avs, with MacKinnon and Makar each putting up a goal and assist, with Rantanen putting up an impressive three point performance. For Rantanen, it was perhaps his best performance of the season and that's saying a lot for a guy who is on pace to eclipse the 100 point plateau for a second season in a row. So far this campaign he has managed 13 goals and 34 points in 28 games. 

And if it looked like Rantanen has a little extra motivation out there this season, you can thank teammate Artturi Lehkonen, or more acurately, Lehkonen's father Ismo Lehkonen. You see, Ismo Lehkonen is a well respected analyst in his native Finland and last week he was asked for his opinion on the Rantanen's somewhat slow start to the season. Here's what he had to say last week for Finnish publication YLE (Translated from Finnish):

Could it be that Miko has hit a wall for a while? He didn't have a very good summer. There was a lot of cross-travel, he had to be in Helsinki and other places. He must have subconsciously driven himself down after difficult years, but maybe his training was not done in quite the same way as before.

- Ismo Lehkonen

While that may not sound terribly critical, it's clear from Rantanen's response last night that Lehkonen hit a nerve.

Check out Rantanen's post-game interview last night where he calls out Lehkonen for 'making things up' and 'talking shit' last week:

Love that!

It remains to be seen how this affects things between Rantanen and teammate Artturi Lehkonen, but honestly I can't see a problem. Both players are professionals who have been around the game long enough to know how important motivation can be, no matter the source.

If there's one thing I love it's seeing professional athletes let their guard down a bit to show their true feelings. Kudos, Mikko. Give 'em Hell, bud.