Global Series blog: James van Riemsdyk

The Philadelphia Flyers lost 4-3 to Lausanne at Vaudoise Arena in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Monday in the 2019 NHL Global Series Challenge, then open their regular season against the Chicago Blackhawks in the Global Series at O2 Arena in Prague, Czech Republic, on Friday (2 p.m. ET; NHLN, NBCSP, NBCSPCH, NHL.TV).
Flyers forward James van Riemsdyk will detail his experiences on the trip in his own NHL.com blog. Here is van Riemsdyk's second entry:

It's been a fun last couple days in Lausanne. One of the highlights came Sunday when we got to see an authentic Swiss chocolate factory.
I got to test my artistic ability out and made a Flyers logo out of chocolate. We had some chocolates there too, got to try some different kinds. It was fun.
RELATED: [Flyers fall to Lausanne in NHL Global Series Challenge]
It was me, Tyler Pitlick and Gritty at the chocolate factory.
Gritty always makes it interesting for sure
. He had a funny outfit on and was just being ... Gritty.
This morning it was back to business, with the morning skate. That was definitely exciting, coming into a brand new building.
We only skated for a little bit, had a meeting and then got to rest up for the game.
Skating out for warmups was cool. The European style crowds are always pretty cool with all the chants they've got going. It reminds me a lot of playing college hockey, some of their chants, how they have their supporter sections like the student sections. Always makes it a little more interesting and fun.
I haven't played an NHL game over here before so that was something way different. We came out knowing this was our last tune-up before the regular season so there was the excitement of knowing after this it's all for real.

The start of game wasn't the way we wanted, especially the first period. It's obviously a different game as far as some little things on the bigger ice. Lausanne played well, they should get a lot of credit for the game they played, they made a lot of really good plays with the puck, they didn't really throw it away, and they capitalized on their chances. Took us a while to get going and they got off to a good start.
We got down 4-0 but we rallied late to make it 4-3. I think as a team we felt we got our game going a little bit better as the game went on. They played a good game, but we didn't play well enough obviously.
We get right after it tomorrow again with practice, clean up some things hopefully and go from there as we get ready to go for our first one against the Blackhawks.
We'll leave Switzerland tomorrow after practice but so far this trip has been great. It's an experience that's way different than what we're used to in the NHL. It's been fun in the sense of getting out of our own comfort zone, getting to spend some time with the team, that sort of stuff, so you get to know guys a little bit better. Now we just have to use that in the right way.