Global Series Finland blog: Jesperi Kotkaniemi

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 games are Thursday (12 p.m. ET; HHN, Prime Video, CARNHL, KONG, NHLN, SN+, TVAS) and Saturday (1 p.m. ET; HHN, Prime Video, CARNHL, KONG, KING, NHLN, SN1).

Hurricanes forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi 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. Kotkaniemi's second entry discusses the night the Hurricanes had after arriving Monday, the sauna visit Tuesday after practice and what lies ahead for him in the first game.

After practice yesterday, we got the guys together for a team dinner. It was casual. We went to a place here in town called Fat Tony's. It was a great time. Kind of a basic sports bar with some good food. We played some darts with the guys and some of the other games they had there. It was a lot of fun, but it was a long day and we had practice Tuesday. 

We skated this morning at the arena, going to "The Cave" again and then we had the rest of the day to ourselves. 

Sebastian Aho put together a trip to the sauna this afternoon. We went to a place called Loyly, which is downtown, not too far from the hotel. It's a nice Finnish sauna house with three different saunas and an outdoor cold plunge into the sea.

They had some salmon soup, and some burgers ready for us when we got there. After we ate, we did the sauna. Guys tried it and liked it for the most part. It was pretty fun. It looked like a few guys were a little afraid to go in the water, but they all tried it. In the saunas, some guys said it got a little too hot when Juuso Valimaki started throwing water on the stones. We are used to the heat, but you know, some of the guys had a little rougher time with that one.

Sauna is part of our culture. There is even a sauna in the suite at my home club's rink in Pori. I've been there a couple of times, but I've never watched a game from there.

Tonight we will go to a more traditional Finnish restaurant for dinner. It'll be nice to have more time with the guys and introduce them to some of our cuisine, maybe even reindeer. The guys are excited to try it. Either way, we will have some Finnish goodies.

It's been so much fun because the guys are trying to go in 100 percent and be as local as possible. It feels like everyone's trying to turn into Finnish people. They are listening to Finnish music in the dressing room and trying the food. They just kind of get a feeling of the culture and how the people are here. I think everyone wants to see that part.

My family is coming in either tomorrow or Thursday. They are coming for both games. My mom and dad and my brother and my grandparents too. My grandparents have seen me play once in the NHL when they came over, but they are getting a bit older and it's hard to travel, so this will be great. It will be awesome for them to see us here, catch us one more time. So special for all of us. 

I've never played upstairs in the main arena here, where we will play Thursday. I've only played downstairs a few times in juniors, but this was such a big rink when I was growing up. The national team played there. Now they spilt it with Tampere and the new rink there, but this has been the main rink for who knows how long. 

I always thought I would play with the Finnish national team here but never did yet. I didn't know this was an option, so it'll be pretty cool.

It will be hard to describe it after the game, what it meant to see everyone there and seeing all the Finnish people and hopefully some Finnish jerseys as well there. It'll be pretty cool, that's for sure. I can't wait.