Litter Box Cats, a Florida Panthers community

The NHL announced that six teams will kick off the 2010-11 season overseas. Carolina and Minnesota will play Oct. 7 and 8 in Helsinki, Finland; Columbus and San Jose have a pair in Stockholm, Sweden, Oct. 8 and 9; and Boston and Phoenix will close things out in Prague, Czech Republic, Oct. 9 and 10. Carolina Hurricanes owner Peter Karmanos, whose company Compuware sponsors the overseas events, is set to hold a press conference at 2 p.m. You can watch the live feed at 2 p.m. on the Hurricanes home page.

Steve Gorten is implementing a fascinating and unique feature during the countdown to Opening Day in Helsinki: Each day from now until Sept. 25, I’m going to put up on my blog a fun and/or informational fact about Finland. It’ll help pass the time until then and maybe even offer some tour tips for those planning on going. Good stuff worth keeping an eye on. Thought my obsession with hot tubs was world-class. Alas, I am mistaken.

Not really news, but its' source is interesting. "(Blackhawks' president John) McDonough said, 'Nothing has been finalized. We'll know sometime in the near future,' but the newspaper's source said the Hawks would play in Prague, likely against the Florida Panthers. Vladimír Šafařík, director of Česká sportovní promotional company that hosted the NHL Premiere games in Prague last October said Czech organizers 'have been in talks with the NHL.' "