It was a long flight here after leaving New Jersey at around 10 p.m. last night. I hung out for probably the first three hours and then slept the rest of the way and was up for the last half hour. I was able to sleep a bit, so I was good.
We had a lot of room to move around, so I made sure to move around the plane, stretch a little bit, talk to the guys, just kind of hang out. After a couple hours, once the lights turned off, took out the iPad and watched some TV before bed.
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I just started watching "Succession." It is a good show. Then I like to fall asleep watching "Friends" or "The Office" or something like that.
It is kind of funny, this is not my first trip here. I was here during the spring representing the United States in the World Championship.
We were in Helsinki for the first two games and then we were in Tampere for the rest of the tournament, so it's good to have a little bit of familiarity with what's going on.
When I came with Team USA, I didn't really do much exploring in Helsinki during the few days when we were here. I was so tired; I didn't want to do anything. Now, I am excited to do some stuff here today and tomorrow. We'll have some time and explore the city a little bit and then we go to Tampere, which I thought was a great city with a lot to do and, obviously, the arena is first class.
When I came here in the spring, we had like a three-hour wait in the hotel lobby for our rooms. Fell asleep for like 45 minutes. I felt horrible. We had a 30-minute meeting about systems, and I was trying to just slap myself to stay awake. And then we had practice the first day and it was good to get going a little bit but it was a long, long day. It'll be nice to kind of stay off the ice today and just kind of take it all in and be around the guys.
The opportunity to be able to play in an NHL game in Europe is pretty cool and something I'll remember for a long time. I'm looking forward to just hanging out with the guys and getting closer with the group. Obviously, we all have good relationships, but it's nice to kind of continue to build that bond.
It's nice just to pick the brains of some of the veteran players. In New York, Jakub Voracek took a couple of us out to dinner and just kind of hearing some of the stories he's been through and just some of the stuff that he has experienced was amazing. It's pretty cool for a young guy like me just to be able to kind of hear those things and obviously get to know him a little more.
It is also cool that we are playing here in the hometowns of Patrik Laine and Joonas Korpisalo. On the bus, I heard 'Korpi' say that we passed his high school. That's cool and I am happy for those guys.
For me, the first couple of weeks of the season have been good. It's kind of been a whirlwind. I didn't play the first three games and kind of used that almost as a reset -- mentally, physically -- after a long training camp. Honestly, I think that benefited me a little bit just to kind of come back fresh when I did and then played three full games and felt comfortable and continued to gain more confidence each game before I got injured (upper body) last week.
I should be back by tomorrow or Wednesday, and it'll be really exciting for me and just trying to take it in day by day and just enjoy kind of being in the moment.
