This is what the two-game trip to Finland means to Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov

Right before the 2009-2010 season began, the Florida Panthers made a trip to Finland to play a pair of preseason games against a couple of the country’s local teams.

A young Aleksander Barkov, just 14 years old at the time, was in the stands watching for the first game, a Panthers 3-2 overtime loss against Barkov’s hometown team Tappara.

“I’ll never forget that,” the quiet Barkov reminisced.

Little did he know that memory would come full circle so quickly.

Nine short years later, Barkov and the Florida Panthers set to begin a two-game set against the Winnipeg Jets in Helsinki, Finland, as part of the NHL Global Series. The games are set for 2 p.m. Thursday and Friday. The Panthers have been in Finland since Sunday.

“I’m excited to play NHL games in front of the home country fans and my old friends and family,” Barkov said. “It’s going to be awesome for me, for sure.”

He and the Panthers are also hoping Barkov’s homecoming results in a pair of much needed wins after starting the year 2-4-3 and finding themselves tied with the Los Angeles Kings with an NHL-worst 7 points.

Barkov, the second overall pick in the 2013 NHL Draft, is in the early going of his sixth year in the NHL and his first as the Panthers’ captain. He is tied for third on the team with eight points, scoring two goals and dishing out six assists.

“It’s been great to see Barkov in Finland. He might be quiet, but he’s a presence in our room,” forward Troy Brouwer told reporters in Finland.

Returning to his home country has also given Barkov a chance to break out of his normally reserved shell, if only for a few days.

He told reporters he spent the Panthers’ off day Monday went back to his family’s summer house, visited a sauna, jumped in a lake and got a home-cooked meal from his mom.

On Tuesday night, he and fellow Finnish player Patrik Laine, a 20-year-old right winger for the Jets who was drafted second overall in 2016, shared multiple plates of hot wings while they reminisced about being back home.

“We talked about it of course,” Barkov said, jokingly adding that both he and Laine felt the game should have been played in their hometown of Tampere. “It’s great for both of us and you all, too, and all the Finnish people. It’s going to be awesome.”

This is the second year of the NHL Global Series, an effort by the league to have NHL teams play regular-season games outside of North America. In 2017, the Ottawa Senators and Colorado Avalanche played two games in Stockholm, Sweden. The Edmonton Oilers and New Jersey Devils played in Gothenburg, Sweden, on Oct. 6, with each team also playing an exhibition contest against local teams prior to the matchup.

This story was originally published October 31, 2018 at 11:28 AM.