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Saunas, reindeer and hockey: Stars and Panthers enjoy their time in Finland before the two-game series

Saunas, reindeer and hockey: Stars and Panthers enjoy their time in Finland before the two-game series

When Florida coach Paul Maurice first traveled to Finland, he didn’t know much about the country’s great love of hockey.

He learned. Fast.

“I think one of the real benefits, kind of a side benefit for the NHL coaches and players coming through is that you fully realize that the game is not actually owned by Canada and the United States,” said Maurice. “When you grow up and don’t go, you think that, right? “Nobody loves the game more than us.” When you come here, they love the game as much as we do. It’s a nation of people who love the game.”

Finland, a country of about 5.5 million people, is home to about 5% of the NHL’s players this season. If you spread the number of NHL players across a country’s population, Finland sends about as many players to the league per capita as Canada and Sweden – and at a rate that’s way, way ahead of the United States and Russia.

And on Friday and Saturday, the beautiful Nordic country will celebrate seven of those players – four from Florida, three from Dallas – when the Stars and the Stanley Cup champion Panthers play two games in Tampere.

“I was looking forward to it,” said the Panthers captain and native of Tamper Aleksander Barkov said, “For a very long time.”

Dallas goalkeeper Jake Oettinger feels this very special atmosphere when he plays in his native Minnesota. For the Finns in these games – Miro Heiskanen, Roope Hintz And Esa Lindell for the stars; Barkow, Eetu Luostarinen, Niko Mikkola And Anton Lundell for the Panthers – he knows it will be different.

“It’s like Christmas for them,” Oettinger said. “I know how special it is when I get to play in Minnesota, and for these guys it’s even more special because they’ve never done this before. It’s pretty cool for them.”

The NHL has played 19 games in Finland so far – nine regular season games and 10 preseason games. For those teams it’s a marathon trip, for the Stars it’s a nine-hour flight from Dallas and for the Panthers it’s a 7 1/2-hour flight from Buffalo (where Florida last played).

Nobody complains. The teams are clearly relishing this opportunity.

Bill Zito, the Panthers’ president of hockey operations and general manager, once played in Finland and had a long list of places he wanted to see again this week. He was asked what he hoped the trip would bring to the non-Finnish players.

“An appreciation of how wonderful Finland is,” Zito said. “Just everything about it. You just smile. It’s a great place.”

The Panthers and Stars have absorbed (in some cases literally) much of the culture that Finland has to offer. The country is very proud of its saunas, which Stars trainer Peter DeBoer joked offered some a chance to sweat out the Finnish beer drunk on the first night or two of the trip.

Some players jumped into the sea, a sort of ultimate cold plunge. Maurice said he would try to eat all the smoked fish he could find, Zito said he planned to buy as much chocolate as he could get his hands on. The Panthers got their fill of salmon soup – something Lundell had been bragging about for weeks – and there was another delicacy they also enjoyed.

That would be reindeer.

“I just hope it wasn’t Rudolph,” Stars says Matt Duchene said.

Stars added to front Tyler Seguin: “The beginning scared me, but it tastes pretty good.”

Food was an important part of the story in the early days of this journey. A Finnish newspaper had the headline “Suomen herkut maistuivat” – translated: “Finnish delicacies tasted great” – under a photo of Barkov giving his teammates Matthew Tkachuk his first impression of Finland on the trip.

“A dessert that Barky has to explain; He said it was like a cake he ate in school,” Tkachuk said. “That was good.”

Another bonus for the Finnish fans: they got two pretty good teams from this deal. The Panthers are off to a 7-3-1 start and the Stars are 7-2-0, with many picking both to advance to the Stanley Cup Final next spring. Tickets sold out quickly and the Finnish players on both sides will have plenty of people they know in the stands on both Friday and Saturday.

“I’m really excited,” Tkachuk said. “I think I’m most happy for the Finns in the team. What a cool opportunity for them. …That’s first and foremost. Hockey will come second here.”

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AP NHL: