Florida Panthers Arrive in Anton Lundell’s Home City of Helsinki to Kick Off Global Series

Anton Lundell will take the reigns on showing his Florida Panthers around Helsinki before they head to “Barkov City” for a two-game set with the Dallas Stars.

The Florida Panthers have arrived in Helsinki to kick off the festivities ahead of the NHL’s Global Series in Finland.

Anton Lundell, a Helsinki native, will take the reigns on showing his teammates around his hometown before they head off to Aleksander Barkov’s old stomping grounds of Tampere (otherwise known as “Barkov City”) for the two-game set against the Dallas Stars on Nov. 1 and 2.

Needless to say, the 23-year-old forward is excited to see some familiar faces throughout the weekend.

“I will probably know most of the people in the arena,” Anton Lundell said. “I feel like it’s a big deal.”

Lundell knows firsthand how much the NHL’s trips overseas mean to the fans and the younger hockey players in the cities they visit.

When he was younger, he made the trip to go watch the Panthers take on the Winnipeg Jets in the Global Series back in 2018 and was captivated by it.

The two teams split those two games, with the Jets winning the first one, 4-2, behind a hat trick from Finnish star Patrik Laine, before the Panthers won the next game by the same score the following day.

“It was really exciting hockey there,” said Paul Maurice, who coached the Jets during that trip to Finland and will now lead the Panthers on this one. “We were talking about it on the ice. He was watching Barkov and Laine go head-to-head. What an exciting an inspiring thing for a young man, and then now he’s playing with one and against the other.”

Six years later, he will take the ice as a player on this stage alongside Barkov and the team he was in the stands watching.

“I don’t think people realize how big it is for the NHL to come play in Finland,” Lundell said. “Finland’s number one sport is hockey. The fans are great, they are very passionate and they can’t wait for the games for sure.”

Lundell will handle putting the agenda together for the team’s stay in Helsinki, and while he did not want to spoil anything with his teammates hanging around in the locker room prior to their flight from Buffalo to Finland on Monday, he did have a few things planned.

“I’m going to take them to the sauna and try some traditional Finnish foods and show them around town a little bit,” Lundell said. “It’s going to be fun.”