Christmas is a time of food, family and tradition no matter where in the world you are.
But when you live and work on the other side of the planet, the NHL's holiday break — which is just three days long — doesn't really afford you enough time to go home for the holidays.
So for the Carolina Hurricanes' European entourage, Christmas time is a bit different than what perhaps it traditionally would be.
Some of the guys are lucky, like Jesperi Kotkaniemi whose family flew into town for the holidays, including his grandparents who saw him play in NHL for the first time Tuesday against the Vegas Golden Knights.
But for a lot of the guys, Christmas is more so spent with friends rather than family.
“My brother is playing hockey as well, so he’s always away and I’m always away," said Andrei Svechnikov. "My dad would be in Russia and my mom would be with me. So there’s not tradition right now, but hopefully one day we get together. It would be nice because it’s been a while since we’ve all been together for Christmas or New Year.”
“Just rest," said Martin Necas on his Christmas plans. "Enjoy the few days without hockey. Kind of reset the mindset and spend it with your closest. No family this year though. Just me and my girlfriend.”
For most of these players though, even before they reached the NHL, they had already started to get used to spending this time of year away from family due to the World Juniors, which takes place from mid-December to early January.
“I played three World Juniors where it’s always during Christmas time," Necas said. "I was kind of used to always being away. I feel like it’s not a big deal once you get used to it.”
While family might not always be accessible around the holidays, there's a lot of comfort to be found for the guys that have their fellow countrymen as teammates.
“Just cook nice dinner, try to chill," said Sebastian Aho on his Christmas plans. "My girlfriend and [Teuvo Teravainen] are probably going to be over for dinner and then later on all the Finns are coming to my house. Just try to relax and enjoy each other’s company and do pretty much typical Christmas stuff.”
For many of the team's Euro players, a lot of the traditional celebrating takes place on the 24th of December. Finland, Sweden and the Czech Republic all recognize Christmas Eve as the bigger day of the holiday and the time when people eat big meals and exchange gifts.
“The 24th is the big day for us," Aho said "Basically it’s early dinner and then open the presents at night.
"Santa usually comes, but probably will skip our house this time because there’s no kids. Obviously the last couple of years [Antti Raanta]’s kids have been in the house so that was always a pretty fun one."
However, while the NHL's holiday break works for most, it doesn't really line up with the traditional holiday time for the Canes' Russian trio.
The celebration of Christmas falls on Jan. 7 for many Russians due to the Julian calendar which is used by the Eastern Orthodox Church.
But there is also a similar, secular holiday, Novy God, which takes place around New Years and has similar traditions to that of a Western Christmas.
“Our Christmas is after New Years, but New Years is probably the biggest celebration," said Andrei Svechnikov. "From the 31st to the 1st, everyone sits down and has so much food with all the family like what people do in America. You would make the Russian food, so much of the Russian food and exchange the surprises. Those kinds of stuff."
"It’s obviously a big celebration for the country, for us," said Dmitry Orlov. "We always have the tradition to spend it with your family or friends. Have a big meal. Opening presents. Just keep watching old movies. Traditional, funny movies. All families do it. It’s an important day and you want to enjoy it and remember it and have fun. Same thing for us, just different types of days and kind of different culture a little bit."
A lot of the time, the NHL schedule won't line up for Russians to properly celebrate, but luckily Carolina has both Dec. 31st and Jan. 1 off this season and the trio of Orlov, Svechnikov and Pyotr Kochetkov plan to spend that time together at Orlov's house.
"It sucks when you have a game the day of the 31st so you’re kind of not able to do it," Orlov said. "But last couple of years, it was at home so it was nice to get the day off the next day so we can sit there longer, speak a little longer, tell funny stories. It’s all just great memories of when you’re sitting with the friends or family.”
While there are a lot of individual traditions, something that is both quite similar but still unique is the Christmas feast.
For the Finns, the traditional Christmas dinner or Joulupöytä is popularly composed of ham, fish such as salmon and herring, root vegetable based casseroles and various other dishes.
"We try to make it as Finnish as possible here," Aho said. "So some fish stuff, usually goes around ham and all kinds of stuff. Weird food for you guys probably that you wouldn’t know."
For the Russians?
“A few jellies, salads, sometimes it's meat with potatoes of different styles," Orlov said. "It all depends on what you want to eat. Desserts obviously too as well. Russian foods. Sometimes caviar or a glass of champagne."
And the Czech?
"We have a traditional Czech dinner," Necas said. "It’s kind of like potato salad with chicken schnitzel. In Czech they do fish, but I do chicken schnitzel.”
So while each tradition has it's own unique characteristics, there's a lot of similarities among them too.
And while Christmas time can be tough for those that can't be around their families, the Canes' European players have found their own little pieces of home here and with each other.
"Just try to find good people around you, relax and eat some good food," Aho said.