TAMPERE, Finland -- This is a night I will remember forever.
To hear all of the Finnish players introduced, how loud it got and then to hear our own anthem and how cool that was, with the United States anthem; it wasn’t the typical start for a game. But it was a night to remember in every way. It’s something that I won’t forget.
It’s not the score we wanted, but we have to bounce back tomorrow.
I didn’t know that me and Miro Heiskanen and Roope Hintz would all start the game together. That was really nice. When I saw that Florida was going to put all their Finns out, Aleksander Barkov, Anton Lundell, Eetu Luostarinen and Niko Mikkola, then I assumed we were going to do the same. It was pretty cool to have all the Finns out there like that for the introductions and the start of the game.
Plus, Jere Lehtinen and Teppo Numminen, huge guys in Finnish hockey dropped the puck. I think the whole thing was very good.
The goal, of course, was memorable. It was my first goal of the season, and I don’t score a lot, so every goal is great to have. They are all to be remembered and today was most definitely a special one. It was kind of a tap-in after that sick pass from ‘Robo.’ I was more nervous that I was going to miss this one. I was hoping he saw me going there and he did.
We play again tomorrow and I’m glad. I think the game will be a lot easier. There were so many emotions before this game, before the puck dropped. We need to be better tomorrow. We know that. We need to be more upset tomorrow and get to our game as fast as we can.
We have to do the basic things. We have to win battles, we have to execute, put passes on the tape. We have to work as a five-man unit out there. We have to be better on special teams. We just have to be better at everything, I would say, and we will be, I hope.
