Ducks honor Selanne's 600th goal, stellar career

MORE NHL INSIDER STORIES › Selanne kept his remarks brief, describing the "unbelievable" feeling of having scored the big goal in front of a home crowd on March 21 against a former club, the Colorado Avalanche. 

As he finished his remarks and posed for photos, he was serenaded by chants of "One more year!" Selanne turns 40 on July 3 and has stated recently that he'll take time after the season to contemplate whether he'll return or retire.

Kurri and Selanne met when a young Teemu attended Kurri's off-season hockey camp.

"He came to my hockey school," Kurri said. "We had a (mutual friend) who put us together. I had heard of him before, but I had never met him. We started to spend some time together, do some training together, during the offseason. We became good friends."

Selanne, 17 at the time he first met his childhood idol, was impressed with Kurri's wheels, and introduced himself through their mutual love of sports cars.

"Good car," Selanne claims were his first words to Kurri. 

Selanne laughs when he remembers that Kurri found out too late that he wasn't supposed to be driving.

"I didn't even have a driver's license," he said, "but I asked him if I could borrow the car and take a spin and he realized ‘he's 17.'" 

"I told him, ‘Take it easy, don't spoil my tires,'" Kurri remembered. "Later on I heard that it was a hard time for my car." 

Kurri joked that 600 goals and a Stanley Cup later, things are different.

"Now, I need to borrow his car," Kurri said. "Times (have) changed."

While in town for the ceremony, Kurri is staying at Selanne's family home. Selanne jokes that his legendary friend gets the "master suite" when he's in town.

A big fan of auto racing and car collecting, Selanne counts a Ferrari Enzo as his favorite.  Make no mistake, though, he won't be bumming a ride from Kurri during his visit.

"I'm not going to go with him," Selanne said. "I have to take control. Here we have six lanes and (in Finland) we have one or two. Got to be safe."

Selanne's ability to quietly find open ice year in and year out is no joke, however, and the Finnish Flash said his elite ability to do so can be taught by observing greats like Kurri.

"It's one thing you learn at an early age," Selanne said of his stealth quality. "Following guys like Jari and other great players, how are they going to handle different situations and how are they going to find the open (areas) and be the right guy in the right place. Those are the things you can learn from the great players, and I learned that at an early age. Follow that and good things usually happen."