Global Series blog: A.J. Greer

The Dallas Stars and Florida Panthers have taken a break from their North American portion of the NHL schedule to play two games at Nokia Arena in Tampere for the 2024 NHL Global Series Finland presented by Fastenal. The games were Friday and Saturday.

Panthers forward A.J. Greer kept a blog this week with NHL.com throughout the Global Series, giving fans a taste of what life is like on the ground as they go through the experience in Finland. Greer’s final entry was written after he scored the tiebreaking goal in the third period in a 4-2 win for the Panthers in the second game on Saturday.

TAMPERE, Finland -- This was such a great week. Getting those four points by winning the two games was so important for us, but we also got a chance to bond off the ice.

We were up 2-0, they come back to tie it 2-2 and they kind of got the momentum. In those moments, you need to jell as a team and get back to what you do best. That does come from chemistry. That does come from wanting to fight for each other and do those good things.

That’s exactly what we did.

As a fourth line, getting a goal is always great. We need to capitalize on the opportunities that we get. I thought it was just a great face-off win by Tomas Nosek and I had to shoot it through bodies to get it to go in short side.

You’re always searching for that first goal with a new team. Sometimes it feels a little harder to get than others, but to score that first goal in this big of a game, especially against one of the better teams in the League, is always a great feeling. Getting a win is also a great feeling after scoring a goal.

I was really happy.

I was surprised when I was selected as the player of the game. Everybody talked about how they gave a nice Rolex watch to Aleksander Barkov when he was selected as the player of the game on Friday, and everyone was curious to see what the gift would be today.

The guys were kind of joking around that I might get it. I didn’t even think about it, but it was a nice bounce for me because I got a great watch. It’s unbelievable actually. It’s crazy. I don’t have words for it.

What a week.

After the game, the President of Finland Alexander Stubb and his father Goran Stubb, who is the former NHL Director of European Scouting, came to the locker room and congratulated us, welcomed us to Finland and thanked us for coming out here. The Finnish people that we were around everywhere were so nice, whether that was at the restaurants, when I went to the mall or I went to the market.

I picked up some Finnish candy and I asked the person at the store what is traditional Finnish candy, and he spent 10 minutes with me and talked to me about the traditions. The people here are just so great. They’re welcoming and they’re just very passionate about Finland in general.

This was the second Nordic country that I’ve visited. I’ve also been to Sweden, and this was just another amazing experience.

It’s very rewarding to have the NHL set this up for us because these are kind of the cool moments that you remember for the rest of your life.