Kraken and Hurricanes land in Helsinki, with Finnish players serving as tour guides, translators

SEATTLE (AP) — A renowned Finnish sauna experience. A massive time zone difference.

Even — sorry, Santa — sautéed reindeer.

For Kaapo Kakko, Jani Nyman and Ville Ottavainen, going back home to Finland is about all of those things and more, including, if needed, translating. They're ready to play tour guide for their Seattle Kraken teammates this week in Helsinki as part of the NHL Global Series. The Kraken play defending Stanley Cup champion Carolina Thursday (9 a.m. Seattle time) and again Saturday (10 a.m.).

“I’m excited to be there,” Kakko, the longest-tenured member of the Kraken’s Finnish trio, said of getting to play an NHL game near home.

Seattle, now in its sixth season, is taking its first overseas trip. The team’s only other game in a non-NHL facility was the 2024 Winter Classic in the middle of the baseball diamond at T-Mobile Park, home of the Seattle Mariners.

This will be Carolina’s second set of games outside North America — and both trips have been to Helsinki, where they also played in the 2010 NHL Premiere Series. The Hurricanes will have their own Finnish contingent with three-time All-Star center Sebastian Aho, center Jesperi Kotkaniemi and defenseman Juuso Valimaki.

“I’ve been dreaming about it for 10 years,” Aho said after this year’s pairing was revealed last spring. “When they announce the teams (for these games), you usually don’t see Carolina in there and you’re always like, ‘Bummer.’ But this is worth the wait.”

The Kraken and the Hurricanes will face off inside Veikkaus Arena, Finland’s largest indoor venue with 13,349 seats for hockey.

“It’s a big sport (in Finland), so I hope it’s going to be loud,” said Kakko, a 25-year-old winger from Turku, about 100 miles northwest of Helsinki.

Any idea how many tickets might be needed?

“I don’t have the final head count,” Aho cracked.

Nyman, who has bounced between Seattle and its American Hockey League affiliate in Coachella Valley, said one of the biggest challenges not only for his teammates but even for him and his fellow Finns will be getting their body clocks in sync. The time zones for Seattle and Helsinki are 10 hours apart.

“Every time I go back to Finland, I have time off. But now, we have to get to training and practice and playing on Thursday,” said the 22-year-old winger from Valkeakoski, which is about 90 miles north of Helsinki. “When I go to Finland, you’re so tired, but you try your best all day to wake up. That’s really hard for everyone.”

Ottavainen has been a semi-regular part of the Kraken’s third defensive pairing, playing in 10 of the 16 games so far after spending all of last season in the AHL.

The 24-year-old, who hails from Oulu, located 375 miles north of Helsinki, is looking forward to matching up with Carolina for the first time in his career.

“I skate with Aho in the summer quite a bit," Ottavainen said. “There’s definitely some familiarity, so we’ll see what happens.”

While hockey will be the primary focus for both teams, they’ll have some time for off-ice time exploration.

“I’ve got a few things planned for the boys to just kind of show our culture a little bit,” Aho recently said on NHL.com. “Obviously, there’s not like big surprises. Everyone knows kind of what it’s about, but I think it’s awesome.”

Plus, it's a team-bonding experience.

“We’re already a very close group, but it never hurts to be together and just hang out,” Aho said following a practice after arriving in Helsinki. "Trying to focus on winning Thursday and go from there.”

When they do head out, Nyman is eager to assist his Seattle teammates in any way he can, including the language barrier.

“I’m ready to translate," Nyman said. “The guys are helping me here (with English), so I’m ready to help in Finland.”

Their exploration certainly will include a particularly renowned Finland experience.

“There’s a good sauna place where we’re going to go as a team. That’s something we’re doing for sure,” Kakko said.

Mealtime will be its own adventure. Ottavainen already has clued in his fellow Kraken on some of the gastronomic options.

“They’ve asked about the salmon soup, and we’ve said that’s fire at one place we’re going to — so they kind of questioned that,” he said with a wry smile. “The sautéed reindeer is another thing they’ve asked about. It’s incredible.”

Asked how he would describe sautéed reindeer, Ottavainen replied, “I’ve just said that it’s really good — you’ve got to try it.”

See AP’s full NHL coverage here

Carolina Hurricanes' Sebastian Aho (20) tips the puck past Winnipeg Jets goaltender Stuart Skinner (74) for a goal during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Raleigh, N.C., Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Karl DeBlaker)

Carolina Hurricanes' William Carrier (28) celebrates with Sebastian Aho (20) after scoring a goal during the third period of an NHL hockey game against the New York Islanders Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, in Elmont, N.Y. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Seattle Kraken right wing Kaapo Kakko (84) attempts a shot on goal while defended by Calgary Flames center Mikael Backlund (11) during the third period of an NHL hockey game, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Kevin Ng)

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A final court of appeals in England struck down a centuries-old gay sex ban in Trinidad and Tobago in a ruling on Tuesday that activists around the world celebrated.

The ruling ended a nearly 10-year battle for gay rights in the twin-island nation and cannot be appealed.

“Those laws cannot be regarded as reasonably justifiable in a society that has a proper respect for the rights and freedom of the individual,” said Judge Philip James Sales of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.

In February 2017, Jason Jones filed the case, arguing that so-called “buggery” laws dating from when Trinidad and Tobago was a British colony are unconstitutional. The laws that call for up to five years in prison have not been enforced in recent history, but critics say they still send a message.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Jones said he was celebrating what he called a “stunning victory.”

He described himself as “a very angry gay man” and said he used that anger to power himself through the case as it made its way through the courts for almost a decade.

“Society has treated me worse than a criminal,” he said. “There is a real sense of vindication with this judgment. Finally, the courts are seeing that they need to step up because our politicians are so toothless.”

Jones, who has been openly gay since age 16, left Trinidad and Tobago in 1996 because of what he described as homophobic violence and discrimination. He said he was a singer in church as well as an actor and a dancer.

“Anybody along those lines who was not following the macho rules was treated as a pariah,” he recalled.

He told the AP that he was inspired to speak out after losing friends to HIV/AIDS and after meeting Nina Simone, the American singer, songwriter, composer and civil rights activist, who had traveled to the twin-island nation in 1984 for Carnival. He said he was 19 and spent three weeks with her.

“Nina was the one who said, ‘Jason, get off this rock and go see the world,’” he recalled, calling it a defining, life-changing experience.

Tuesday's ruling was live-streamed, with Sales reading part of the unanimous decision.

“The current understanding of the fundamental individual right to respect for private and family life is that it protects such a core part of human identity, as one’s sexual orientation and the sexual activities carried on in private between consenting adults to give expression to that identity,” Sales said. “Laws which seek to criminalize such activities cannot be justified.”

Jones said he loves his country and is not angry with its people, but rather its laws.

“To discriminate against somebody simply because of who they choose to love is simply ridiculous,” he said by phone, adding that the ruling is a stepping stone in the fight for equality. “Why do people feel they have the right to pass judgment on anybody else?”

Those who opposed Jones include Trinidad and Tobago’s government, the country’s Council of Evangelical Churches and its largest Hindu organization, Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha.

Trinidad's attorney general did not immediately return messages seeking comment. Meanwhile, the Council of Evangelical Churches said it did not have immediate comment.

In April 2018, Trinidad’s High Court found the laws unconstitutional, but a local appeals court partially reversed that ruling in March 2025. Trinidad’s Court of Appeals later allowed Jones to seek a ruling from the Privy Council in England. Trinidad and Tobago is a sovereign republic within the British Commonwealth and still uses London’s Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as its highest court of final appeal. However, the country has pushed for the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice to replace the Privy Council.

Trinidad and Tobago’s government sought a ruling that would uphold the March 2025 ruling. A majority of justices in 2025 found that the High Court erred by allowing judges to change a law. A provision in some Caribbean constitutions protects colonial laws from legal challenges, including in Trinidad and Tobago.

Caribbean nations with so-called buggery laws still on the books include Grenada, Jamaica and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Meanwhile, the Bahamas decriminalized homosexuality in 1991, and the U.K. government repealed such laws in 2001 in Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos Islands. Elsewhere in the Caribbean, judges have recently struck down similar laws in Barbados, Dominica, St. Lucia and Antigua and Barbuda.

Associated Press reporter Anselm Gibbs in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad contributed to this report.

FILE - The national flag of Trinidad and Tobago, is set with the Flags of the Commonwealth countries being hung along The Mall in London, Thursday, April 12, 2018. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, FIle)