Hello Panthers fans,

The first days in Finland were great.

The Finns on our team showed us around. It’s a new experience for me. I think it’s always a lot of fun when you travel to a new city with friends.

We embraced the culture – ate Finnish food, went to the sauna, all that stuff.

On our day off on Wednesday, Lundy planned a great day for us in Helsinki.

We started at what you would probably call a sauna island. It was great. Since it was a fairly remote island, we had to go there by boat. They had a traditional sauna where it takes about 12 hours to heat up the stones.

Afterwards we dared to take a short jump into 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 came back from that they made us a really nice lunch. It was phenomenal. We had a great time.

Later Lundy also planned a nice dinner for us. It was an all-day event. We ate salmon, potatoes and salad. Everything was really good.

It’s crazy how big guys like Lundy, Barky, Luosty and Mikks are here. We have so much fun seeing where they come from, what their culture is and where they grew up. Having you here with us makes this experience even better. They have a great time.

But as tourists, we might actually have more fun than they do.

Looking ahead to our two games against the Stars, it’s going to be a battle. I think it will be 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 will come down to which team has the best Finns and I think we have that.

See you again in South Florida,

Carter Verhaeghe

*As told by Jameson Olive of FloridaPanthers.com