Josh Manson is writing a blog for NHL.com while the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche are in Finland this week for the 2022 NHL Global Series. The Avalanche play the Columbus Blue Jackets in an NHL regular-season game at Nokia Arena in Tampere on Friday (2 pm ET; NHLN, SN, ALT, BSOH). They play again Saturday.
Today, in his second installment, the veteran defenseman writes about his first impressions of Finland, including the food, and being back on the ice after a couple of days away.
We went out for dinner last night after we got settled and it was a bit different.
First impressions? The food we had last night was awesome. I was a little nervous about the salmon soup but it was good. And so was the reindeer.
We’re only one day in but so far everything’s been great. The hotel, everything. And no, I never envisioned myself ever eating reindeer. It was sauteed so it didn’t taste different from anything else. I expected it to be gamey, but it wasn’t gamey at all.
[RELATED: 2022 NHL Global Series Finland coverage]
We walked a little bit to dinner last night. Seemed like a cool feeling downtown there, just like the cobblestone streets and stuff. I love that Old European feel.
My sleep was great last night, too. I tried to get four hours in the plane to acclimatize myself, so it worked out well, especially with us getting back on the ice today. It was nice to get back out there. It had been a little bit, it felt like, since we had been on the ice with the travel and stuff. It was nice to get our feet back underneath us a bit.
The municipal rink we practiced at was cool. It was like the rinks I played on while growing up in my hometown of Prince Albert (Saskatchewan).
Like I said, we hadn’t been on the ice since Saturday, so it was nice being out there for a little bit. It was nice to just kind of mess around with the guys and the ice was still in decent condition after more than an hour, which says a lot.
We’re going to do a sauna later today and a lot of the guys are fired up for that. I think we are jumping right into the Baltic [Sea]. I’ve jumped from the sauna into a cold tub before, but nothing like this. I mean, this is going to be a new experience for sure.
We will see how it goes. We have the day off tomorrow before we go to Tampere, so we have the chance to do some other stuff.
It should be a lot of fun.
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