Global Series Finland blog: Kraken's Catton on atmosphere

The Seattle Kraken and Carolina Hurricanes have taken a break from their North American portion of the NHL schedule to play two games at Veikkaus Arena in Helsinki for the 2026 NHL Global Series Finland. The Hurricanes defeated the Kraken 4-1 in the first game Thursday. The teams play again Saturday (1 p.m. ET; HHN, Prime Video, CARNHL, KONG, KING, NHLN, SN1).

Kraken forward Berkly Catton will keep 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 experience in Finland. Catton's third entry discusses his experience playing in Finland for the first time and what the Kraken need to improve Saturday.

The atmosphere from the start of the game was pretty cool. Coming out for warmups was awesome. It was very energetic. You could feel it. It was really fun. That's kind of a special memory I guess, I'll have from here is that first warmup in my first game here.

You could definitely sense how special it was for our players from Finland, Kaapo Kakko, Ville Ottavainen and Jani Nyman. The Finnish fans love their hockey, so for them to kind of see the NHL and, obviously, Kaapo, and then the guys from Finland on their team too was pretty cool to watch.

Unfortunately, right from the start of the game, we were kind of chasing it. The Hurricanes were kind of on top of us all night. So, we've got a lot to learn from that game, and we'll do that when we practice tomorrow and then wash it and come ready to go on Saturday night.

The Hurricanes are, obviously, a good hockey team and, if you would ask any of our guys, we didn't love our game tonight. They were going. They were ready. So, we'll take a lesson there from them. That team won the Stanley Cup last season, so that's just where we need to improve.

Credit to our goalie Philipp Grubauer. He kept us in the game. He's been unreal this year and stood on his head again tonight. We would rather he not have to make that many saves, but he did. So, credit to him, but we, obviously, need to be better.

Although the game, obviously, was not great for us, the atmosphere and the fans were, and, honestly, the Seattle fans coming here, too. We saw some of them walking around the city. We've said, "Hi," and had some conversations with them.

So, that's been one of the good things. We really appreciate that, them making the trip from Seattle. You could hear how loud they were, so that was pretty special, too. That means a lot to us seeing all those fans here.