The Florida Panthers finally return to Amerant Bank Arena after a road trip that covered five games in eleven days across two continents.

According to airmilescalculator.comthey have traveled approximately 10,600 miles.

More importantly, the trip featured three victories in New York State and two more in Finland, where Florida’s four Finnish players took center stage.

For the Panthers, everything had to go well.

This is not the case with the Stars.

The Panthers have five straight road wins (even though Game 2 in Finland was technically a home game) and points in nine of the last ten games.

Both matches in Finland were dominated by Finnish players.

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Fortunately for the local fans, Sasha Barkov returned from injury one game before the road trip.

Barkov managed one goal and four assists in his hometown of Tampere.

Before being drafted by the Panthers in 2013, he played two seasons for Tappara, the Tampere-based Liiga team, of which he is now a co-owner.

Barkov is an icon in Finland.

Florida’s four Finnish-born players — Barkov, Anton Lundell, Eetu LuostarinenAnd Niko Mikkola combined for nine points.

A Finnish player scored nine of Florida’s ten goals in Tampere.

Sam Reinhartwho is not Finnish, scored six goals on the trip – putting them even, on the power play, shorthanded and into an empty net.

Reinhart is the only NHL player to record two multi-goal games outside of North America.

Evan Rodrigues set a record of sorts with the fastest goal at the start of a match outside of North America, scoring 28 seconds into the first match in Finland.

Other fun things from the road: Mackie Samoskevich scored his first two NHL goals; AJ Greer scored his first goal as a Panther, and Thomas Nosek got his first point with Florida.

“It’s been great” Paul-Maurice said. “This is the longest five-game road trip in NHL history, right?

Barkov said: “It was a great week for us. First, we were in New York for a week. To Buffalo – and then I came here. I had a good week here with the team. Obviously we had really good chemistry before, but it’s like spending a lot of time together and doing different activities like going to the sauna, going to dinners and eating Finnish food together – for some guys it’s the first times – that obviously makes your chemistry. better in the team.

“The icing on the cake was those two very tough games we played against Dallas and winning both games. It was incredible. That says a lot about our team.

Lots of good memories, but the Panthers are now home and get back to work to defend their title.

This is no easy task given the scale of celebrations over the past four months and the usual time difference associated with foreign travel.

With a 9-3-1 record, the Panthers left Finland second in the NHL, behind the Winnipeg Jets.

They will now enjoy a five-game homestand and eight of the next ten at Sunrise.

The next two home games are against the struggling Nashville Predators and Philadelphia Flyers.

That will be followed by an unusual two-game home set against the improved New Jersey Devils.

They can’t afford to get complacent regardless of the outcome of these games because Winnipeg will come to town next.

The next game will take place with the same Jets in Winnipeg.

It’s been a nice season so far.

Now the real work begins.

ON DECK: GAME 14

NASHVILLE PREDATORS AGAINST THE FLORIDA PANTHERS