“There’s no direct reading of what I’m aiming for, but I’m trying to be at the top of the goalies in the stats in every league that I play”.

KOVA goalkeeper Axel “MonkeyHeadAF”  Falck, 27, who started playing actively during NHL04, played simulator rally games before his competitive NHL career. However, interest in competitive NHL sparked in the late 2000s.

– The sim racing scene was not very big at the time. The NHL scene has grown steadily all the time, and sometimes around the time of NHL16 I started playing more with competitive teams. Since then I have played 6vs6 games, Falck says. 

 At the same time, he also tried for the first time the goalie`s spot, which went well right from the start. Falck thinks the goalie`s place is best for him and he also wants to stay there.

Falck has a lot of positive things to say about his current team. The players are tough, and everyone has potential to step up in tight games. When teammates get a chance to attack, goals can be scored against anyone. 

– As a goalkeeper, I like to play on this team because our defense is in good shape, Falck praises.

– As soon as I joined this team, I had a good feeling about this group.

If team KOVA does not have own games, Falck may be seen playing for other teams as goalkeeper in training spirit. However, he doesn’t feel that it would be as beneficial as training with his own team.

– Each team has its own style of play, and the goalkeeper must adapt to it. The same thing doesn’t work for everyone, Falck describes.

Before his own games, Falck does not have any special routines, no voodoo dancing or meditating. The most important thing is to be ready.

– It`s all about being ready for games in the best possible way. There is nothing special about that, Falck says.

The new NHL 21 will be released soon, but Falck does not think that it will be much different than the current one. Of course, there will be new stuff in the game that teams need to learn, but more he believes changes will be found when NHL22 is released. 

– We got to try the NHL21 test version for a few days. I think that bigger changes will come when the PlayStation5 and NHL22 are released, Falck says.

As for Falck`s own favorite NHL version, the choice is difficult. For him, every version has had something good and something bad, but compared to his era, the best game has been NHL14.

– Every version is good in their own way, but NHL14 was good for its era. NHL09 was also a big step forward, with a lot of new things coming into it. That’s when the game started to be played in a slightly different style, and it’s memorable, Falck recalls.

Falck`s dream hockey lineup would consist only Finnish players.

– Miikka Kipprusoff as a goalie, Miro Heiskanen in the defence alongside Jere Karalahti. In the offence I would pick Patrik Laine, Sebastian Aho and Teemu Selänne, Falck reflects.

Couple of quick choices:

Selänne or Kurri?
– Selänne
Laine or Aho?
– Aho
Koivu or Koivu?
– Koivu
Juti or Tiki?
– Tiki