Florida Panthers captain Aleksander Sasha Barkov speaks after it was officially announced his team would be going to play in his hometown of Tampere, Finland, during the 2024-25 NHL season.
This will be the Panthers’ third trip to Finland.
Barkov saw Florida play in Tampere as a teen when it was there for a preseason game in 2009; Florida returned to Helsinki in 2018.
Current Panthers Eetu Luostarinen and Anton Lundell are also from Finland.
The Panthers will play the Dallas Stars in Tampere — and Florida is in Dallas tonight.
Florida is coming off a 5-1 win over the Calgary Flames in Sunrise on Saturday, March 9, 2024.
Vladimir Tarasenko joined the Panthers on Thursday — and scored twice with an assist on Saturday.
Florida also got goals from Sasha Barkov, Sam Bennett and Kevin Stenlund. Gus Forsling had two assists.
Anthony Stolarz made 34 saves in the win. Florida has won seven of eight and 17 of its past 20.
The Panthers did lose Aaron Ekblad and Evan Rodrigues to injury during the game. Coach Paul Maurice said both would be evaluated on Sunday.
Florida is back on the road Tuesday in Dallas and Thursday at Carolina.
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VIDEO COURTESY @FlaPanthers
3 Comments
Man I'm happy for Barkov.
Welcome home Sasha, muista käydä kauppahallissa ukkojen kanssa mörköllä.
This will be fun