The Buffalo Sabres and New Jersey Devils are set to face off in the 2024 NHL Global Series Czechia presented by Fastenal, starting the regular season with two games at O2 Arena in Prague on Oct. 4 and 5. Before they get to Prague, the Sabres are making a stop in Munich for the 2024 NHL Global Series Challenge Germany presented by Fastenal. They will continue their training camp and play an exhibition game against EHC Red Bull Munchen at SAP Garden on Friday.
Sabres defenseman Owen Power will be keeping a blog with NHL.com throughout the Global Series, giving fans a taste of what life is like on the ground as they go through the Global Series experience. Power's second entry comes Wednesday after the Sabres' practice at SAP Garden.
MUNICH -- We had a long flight, close to eight hours, but we landed here just before 11 a.m. local time and got to the hotel before 1 p.m. Then we were on the ice here at around 3 for an upbeat, high-energy practice.
So, yeah, I'm pretty tired right about now.
The building here looks great from what I've seen. It's brand new and it's pretty cool that we get to open it with the first event Friday.
We got right after it in practice. I think everyone was pretty tired but when you are that tired, I feel like you have to bring the energy not necessarily physically but definitely mentally. It was a little lighter of a practice but I thought the guys did a good job being ready to go and getting their bodies moving after being on a flight for eight hours and sleeping four or five of them.
I told you in my last entry that I was going to have no trouble sleeping on the flight, and I didn't. The only hiccup was they took a little longer than usual to bring the dinner out so that's why I got somewhere between 4-5 hours instead of 5-6 hours of sleep.
Now that we're done with practice, I'm looking forward to walking around the city. I got a little taste of it driving in from the airport to the hotel on the bus. It looks like a typical European-style city, but I saw a lot of people walking around in their Oktoberfest outfits, the lederhosen. That's definitely different.
There isn't too much on the agenda for Wednesday night. In fact, what I may do after leaving the arena and finishing this entry is go back to my hotel room to lay in bed for a little bit. But I can't sleep. I have to stay up to get my body clock on the right time zone. So I'll do my best and probably just go for dinner with the guys, hang with them.
You hear about Schnitzel all the time, so I definitely want to try that. Same with sauerkraut. To be honest, I'll try food at any of the restaurants here. If I'm here, I should be eating German food.
