Hey Panthers fans,
These first few days in Finland have been awesome.
The Finns on our team have been showing us around. It’s a new experience for me. I think any time you go to a new city with friends it’s a lot of fun.
We’ve been embracing the culture – eating Finnish food, going to saunas, all that stuff.
On our day off on Wednesday, Lundy planned a great day for us in Helsinki.
We started out at what I guess you would call a sauna island. It was awesome. It was a pretty secluded island, so we had to take a boat there. They had traditional sauna, the kind where it takes like 12 hours to heat up the stones.
After that, we took a little plunge in the cold water of the Baltic Sea. The temperature was pretty close to a cold tub. It was a lot of fun. Everyone did it.
When we got back from doing that, they made us a really nice lunch. It was phenomenal. We had a great time.
Later on, Lundy had a nice dinner planned for us, too. It was a full-day event. We ate some salmon, potatoes and salad. It was all really good.
It’s crazy how big guys like Lundy, Barky, Luosty and Mikks are over here. We’re having such a great time seeing where they’re from, their culture and where they grew up. Having them here with us makes this experience so much better. They’re having a great time.
But as the tourists, we might actually be having more fun than them.
Looking ahead to our two games against the Stars, it’s going to be a battle. I think it’s going to pretty easy to get up for these Global Series games in Tampere. Dallas is a really good team. We’re really looking forward to it.
I think it’s going to come down to which team has the best Finns, and I think we do.
See you back in South Florida,
Carter Verhaeghe
*As told to FloridaPanthers.com's Jameson Olive
