This weekend, the NHL is hosting its fourth annual Hockey Day in Finland celebration.
It should come as no surprise that the Florida Panthers will be at the center of those celebrations.
Florida, when healthy, boasts one of the more Finnish-heavy rosters in the NHL. It’s why the Panthers were featured by the NHL in last season’s Global Series games against the Dallas Stars in Tampere.
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The Hockey Day in Finland festival takes place on Friday and Saturday in Kuopio.
As part of the festival, there is an NHL alumni game featuring several Finnish legends, including a pair of 5-time Stanley Cup winners in Jari Kurri and one-time Panther Esa Tikkanen, as well as Jere Lehtinen, Valtteri Filppula, Kimmo Timonen and Ossi Vaananen.
All the fun will culminate with a watch party of the primetime national broadcast of Saturday’s game between the Panthers and New York Islanders.
You can bet there will be a ton of Sasha Barkov jerseys at the festival, but it wouldn’t be surprising at all to see Anton Lundell, Eetu Luostarinen, Niko Mikkola or even Tuomo Ruutu or Olli Jokinen represented by some of the hockey-crazed fans in Finland.
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Fun fact: Only two NHL franchises have had more Finnish nationals play for them than the Panthers’ 24. They are Dallas/Minnesota (34) and Edmonton (29).
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Photo caption: Dec 21, 2022; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Florida Panthers center Eetu Luostarinen (27) celebrates his goal against the New Jersey Devils with center Anton Lundell (15) during the second period at FLA Live Arena. (Jasen Vinlove-Imagn Images)
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