Global Series game in home country special to Kraken’s Kakko despite loss

HELSINKI – Kaapo Kakko said he had “around 20” family members and friends waiting for him at Veikkaus Arena on Thursday.

“I haven’t seen them, yet,” Kakko said after the Seattle Kraken’s 4-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes put a bit of a damper on his reunion with those who made the 90-minute drive from his hometown of Turku to Helsinki to see him play in 2026 NHL Global Series Finland.

Still, it was an experience the 24-year-old forward had been waiting for since the NHL announced in March that the Kraken would play two games against the Hurricanes in his home country, making it convenient for some, like his grandparents, who had never made the trip to North America to see him play during his eight seasons in the NHL.

“It will be good to see them,” Kakko said of his loved ones. “I’ve seen just a couple of them before the game, and all the rest of (them) after. So, hopefully they had fun. They wanted us to win also, but …”

Kakko didn’t complete the thought, but his disappointment was evident. The Kraken (9-7-1) had hoped they could measure up to the challenge of playing the Hurricanes (15-3-2), but they received a lesson in why the Carolina won the Stanley Cup last season and how far they themselves have to go to reach that level.

The Hurricanes had the Kraken on their heels from the start and jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the opening 12:50, with a failed goalie interference challenge by the Kraken on the first goal leading to a power play and the second goal. Seattle spent the rest of the night chasing Carolina and never came close to catching up.

By the end of the night, the Hurricanes had a 30-13 advantage in shots on goal and whopping 86-37 edge in shot attempts. At least Frederick Gaudreau’s goal with 6:45 remaining prevented them from being shut out, but only the strong play of Seattle goalie Philipp Grubauer kept the final score from being more lopsided.

“It could have been way worse,” Kakko said.

Kakko also had to watch fellow countryman Sebastian Aho score twice for Carolina and be named the player of the game.

“He played great, a couple goals,” Kakko said. “The whole team played great, so good for him.”

Although it wasn’t nearly how Kakko or his two teammates from Finland, forward Jani Nyman and defenseman Ville Ottavainen envisioned the night going, there were still some moments that they probably will be able to appreciate more after their raw emotions about the result fade.

There was the warm greeting from the crowd when they took the ice for warmups and the pride they felt singing along with their brethren to Finland’s spirited national anthem. Kakko was in the spotlight the most, receiving a loud ovation from the crowd when he was announced as the final player in the Kraken’s starting lineup.

Then, he lined up across from Aho to take the ceremonial opening face-off with Pekka Rinne, who became the first goalie from Finland to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame on Monday, dropping the puck.

“Yeah, something special,” Kakko said. “You know, the start, that was something we usually don’t have, the national anthem (from Finland), things like that. The game was not what we wanted, but (that was) nice for me.”

Kakko’s teammates who are not from Finland also could appreciate what the moment meant to them. They only wished they had played better in support of them.

“The Finnish fans love their hockey,” Kraken forward Berkly Catton said. “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.”

Normally not the most talkative player, Kakko felt the responsibility leading to the NHL Global Series to do more interviews with the media and share his thoughts about what it meant to him to these games in Finland.

“It’s been a lot,” he said. “I’m not the guy who likes to do these things too much, you know. But I was ready for this. I knew this week is going to be something different and also special.”

The Kraken still have an opportunity to salvage more positives from this trip. They will get another chance against the Hurricanes here on Saturday (1 p.m. ET; HHN, Prime Video, CARNHL, KONG, KING, NHLN, SN1) but know they will need to be much better.

“They’re a good hockey team,” Kraken coach Lane Lambert said. “I just think there’s another level we can get to and we didn’t get to. So, we’d better dust ourselves off here. We’ve got an off day in terms of a non-game day tomorrow. We’ll look at some things, and we’ve got to be better. There’s no question we can play a better hockey game than we did.

“Disappointed that we didn’t.”