In a highly anticipated return to his native Finland, Aleksander Barkov made his way back to the ice just in time to play with the Florida Panthers in the NHL Global Series last week.
Barkov, the Panthers captain who led the team to its first Stanley Cup last season, suffered a brutal feet-first crash into the end boards against the Ottawa Senators early in the season, resulting in a lower-body injury. He missed a total of eight games, leaving fans and teammates anxiously awaiting his return. But coach Paul Maurice, in a press conference last week, said he was optimistic that Barkov would be healthy in time to play the NHL Global Series in Finland, and he delivered.
In the first game against the Dallas Stars, Barkov had one goal and three assists. Along with fellow star center Sam Reinhart, who scored two goals with one assist, Barkov led the Panthers to a 6-4 victory over Dallas. The Panthers also won their second game against the Stars, 4-2, the following day.
Barkov wasn’t the only star, though. Every Finnish player on the Panthers, in fact, scored at least one goal in the series. Anton Lundell, another Finnish center, was one of them, scoring in the first game on Friday.
After the sweep, Lundell expressed gratitude for the ability to play in his home country, adding that “as a Fin, you know, growing up playing . . . to be able to come back and play in front of basically everybody you know has been awesome. Obviously for us, the biggest thing has been to walk away with two wins.”
Alexander Stubb, the president of Finland, even visited the Panthers in their locker room, which Barkov said meant a lot to him. “The president of the country, of my country, where I was born and where I grew up? It’s always an honor,” he added.
However, Maurice, who held a final press conference after the second game, said that he doesn’t know if the wins are the most important thing. He said that participating in the Global Series can be a bit of a gamble. Trying to fit it into the middle of an NHL regular season can be hectic, and has the potential to kill or build momentum for his first-place team.
He believes it was a good opportunity for his players, for sure, but he also challenged them to build on it through the remainder of the season.
“The most important thing is the connections you can make in an unusual space… if we [did the same thing] everyday, the connections wouldn’t nearly be as strong as if we had them in different contexts,” Maurice said. “If we can go to a different place and have a different interaction with each other, they will be stronger. That’s the value of doing something unusual like this. A road trip across different continents is hard, and we found a way to be successful in that, so that builds the faith.”
The Panthers will continue their race to another Stanley Cup on Thursday, when they take on the Nashville Predators back at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise.
