Paul Maurice sure loves coaching in Finland, and not just because of the food

It’s hard to imagine the Florida Panthers’ week in Finland going much better than it did.

The sightseeing. The saunas. The smoked salmon.

And, oh yeah, the hockey.

Florida will head back west on Sunday with a pair of well-earned wins in the bank, earning four points during their NHL Global Series matchups with the Dallas Stars.

While it was the same teams playing both days, the games couldn’t have looked and felt more different.

Fortunately for Cats fans, the Panthers are built to find ways to win in all kinds of situations and circumstances.

Let’s get to our final takeaways from Finland:

TWO VERY DIFFERENT GLOBAL GAMES

Friday’s opener in Tampere saw the Panthers and Stars play a bit of a wide-open game with more rush chances and overall end-to-end action than either team likes to see.

After spending a few days off and traveling overseas, enjoying Finland and all it had to offer, it wasn’t terribly surprising to see a non-traditional game in the Global Series opener.

And even though both teams were playing for a second consecutive day on Saturday, Dallas and Florida had enough gas in the tank to play a grittier, more traditionally styled game for the two squads playing it.

“Completely different style of hockey tonight than last night,” said Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice. “I thought we recovered well after the second. It just builds faith, constantly reinforcing what we're trying to do. Being able to play a different style of game is critically important. To recognize that everybody's got their own game, right? ‘We’ve got to play our game.’ You've heard of a million times. But in the National Hockey League, there's another team on the ice, and that changes the way your game looks. Lots of motion last game, with quite a bit more open ice, and this one's a bit more of a grinder, probably more true to the style of both teams. I liked the way we handled it.”

BIG NIGHT FOR SPENCER

Panthers goaltender Spencer Knight had another strong game between the pipes while playing in a less than advantageous situation.

Florida has 14 sets of back-to-back games on their schedule this season, and odds are that Knight will play in most, if not all of them.

It’s the life of a backup goalie, being asked to play in situations that can prove to be extremely challenging and less than ideal.

Knight finished Saturday’s game with 23 saves, including stops on six of the seven high danger shots Dallas sent his way.

“We’ll get him a start one of these days that’s not a back-to-back,” Maurice said. “He was really, really strong in one of his early starts, a really important part of that one, and he was strong again tonight, so now he gets to share in the joy a little bit.”

MO’S SUCCESS ABROAD

Believe it or not, this was Maurice’s third time coaching a pair of NHL games in Finland, and he’s done it behind the bench of three different teams.

First, he came with the Carolina Hurricanes to Helsinki in 2010 for a pair of games against the Minnesota Wild in what the league called the Premiere Series.

Carolina won both games.

Eight years later, Maurice and his Winnipeg Jets traveled to Helsinki to face the Panthers, splitting the two-game set against the Barkov-led Cats.

Then there was this trip, where Maurice, Barkov and co. took both games against Dallas.

For those not keeping track, that’s a solid 5-1-0 record for Maurice when playing in Finland, with the only loss, funnily enough, coming to Barkov and the Panthers.

“I know that when they run me out of this league, and that could happen at any time, I'm coming to Finland to see if I can get a coaching job, because my record is ridiculous over here, right?” Maurice said. “I’m just have to bring Tuomo Ruutu because he’s 4-0. So my record is not as good as Rudy's, but the two of us are coming back strictly for the smoked herring and the hockey.”

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