Kraken Dig Deep In Finland ‘Cave’ Practice  

HELSINKI, Finland – Kraken captain Jordan Eberle admitted the experience of practicing in a cave 121 feet below ground was indeed another memorable experience in a trip unique to his 17-year NHL career. 

The practice facility at the Veikkaus Arena, where the Kraken will play Thursday and Saturday against the Carolina Hurricanes as part of the NHL Global Series, is quite unlike most similar global hockey venues. While the main arena has a turbulent recent history worthy of some foreign intrigue novels, its practice facility was literally blasted through bedrock with dynamite to be ready for the 1999 World Figure Skating Championships and today doubles as a civil defense shelter. 

“I mean, there’s rock coming down the elevator into like a cave,” Eberle said. “The roof was pretty low.” 

That made for good jokes with 6-foot-9 Kraken forward Curtis Douglas, the NHL’s tallest player. 

“We were saying, ‘Doug, you have to duck’ to make sure he didn’t hit his head,” Eberle said. “But yeah, it's been great. I mean this is my 17th year in the show. I've never done anything like this. I was looking forward to this opportunity.”

Like a lot what of what goes on this part of the world, the origins of keeping a practice facility this deep below ground stem partly from Finland’s turbulent history with neighboring Russia, dating back to intense fighting during World War II and long prior. Finnish cities endured severe bombing during the war and in the aftermath of all the fighting, the nation designed one of the more comprehensive civil protection systems on the planet. 

Initially, it was protecting the populace from aerial bombing. But it expanded during the Cold War to cover a possible nuclear attack and later, after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine, to protect civilians from fallout caused by a nuclear accident.  

There are now roughly 50,000 civil defense shelters capable of holding 4.8 million people in a nation of about 5.7 million. In Helsinki alone, 5,500 civil defense shelters can hold 995,000 people in a city of only 700,000.  

All buildings with a surface area greater than 1,200 square meters – about 12,900 square feet — are required to build their own below ground bunkers.  

When Veikkaus Arena, then known as Hartwall Arena, first opened in 1997 it was contractually required to build a separate on-site training rink for the upcoming world figure skating event two years later. With a limited above ground footprint to do this, it was decided to put the practice rink underground where it could also meet the civil defense bunker requirement. 

Sports venues commonly have ongoing activities inside such bunkers on a regular basis. In fact, Helsinki has what many describe as a unique underground city carrying out all types of activity daily within such dual-use bunkers. They are allowed to be used for regular civilian activities year round, but get inspected annually to ensure they can convert to a civil defense shelter within 72 hours if the need arises.  

At Veikkaus Arena, a long ramp, with stairs, can be used to walk through the bored-out rock walls and ceiling to the subterranean rink. Or, visitors can also take an elevator. Once at the below-ground practice venue, home to the Jokerit squad of Finland’s top Liiga professional circuit and affectionately dubbed “The Cave” there are large ventilation tubes running across the ceiling but otherwise it’s just rock all around that’s been blasted through. 

Jokerit even has full locker room facilities in the below-ground environment.

The above ground 15,500-seat facility, where Jokerit plays home games, was never quite as attention-grabbing as what’s beneath the surface until very recently. That’s when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, which created problems for the arena’s owners. 

Russian oligarchs Roman Rotenberg and Gennady Timchenko had owned the arena since summer 2013. 

Timchenko, who amassed a fortune through oil trading, has been named by the US as a member of President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle. He has frequently been photographed playing hockey alongside Putin and other members of the Russian elite, including the Rotenberg family. 

Rotenberg is vice president of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation, general manager of the Russian national team and a prominent "second-generation" member of the Rotenberg family — one of the wealthiest and most politically connected dynasties in Russia.  

The invasion of Ukraine inflamed Finnish-Russian tensions all over again. The arena’s last events were a January 2022 hockey game and a televised Finnish sports gala before it closed due to the European Union and U.S. imposing sanctions over Russia’s invasion.  

It had been boycotted by the entertainment industry, while banks and insurance companies refused to provide essential services. The Hartwall beverage company, which owned the naming rights, severed ties not wanting to be associated with the Russian owners.  

In September 2024, the arena’s electricity, heating and water were cut off because of unpaid bills as the owners struggled to operate the business while under sanctions. 

In November 2024, the city said it would start a forced takeover of the venue, which had reportedly been left with bad smell because of non use. A Finnish real estate and asset management company, Trevian, finalized a deal to buy the arena from the Russians in February 2025. 

It reopened 13 months ago.  

Jokerit had played there from its 1997 opening through to the 2022 closure, having moved to the Russian based Kontinental Hockey League in 2014. After the Russian invasion, the team left the KHL in 2023 and played in the Finnish second tier pro Mestis using smaller Helsinki Ice Hall for home games until the reopening of their prior venue. 

By then, their re-entry to Finnish pro hockey complete, they were allowed back into top-tier Liiga where they now play. 

And now, for the first time since 2018, Helsinki is back hosting the NHL Global Series. And hosting NHL players for practices in a subterranean cave. 

“I mean, you could tell the guys were all jumpy, getting out there for the first time,” Kraken defenseman Brandon Montour said of the setup. “It’s pretty cool. A pretty cool arena there. And then obviously seeing  the Jokerit locker room and getting to meet those guys quick, it was a cool atmosphere that you only get to experience a few times here.”