That night, TPS was hosting the Växjö Lakers in a pre-season game at the Gatorade Center. The hotel the Lakers were staying at was directly adjacent to the square where the attacks took place.

“We got to the arena and obviously everyone was very concerned, worried about loved ones and friends, trying to contact everyone they know to make sure they were okay. We were unsure if we were going to play or not, but eventually, we got the approval from the police and everybody thought it was a good idea that we played and paid our respects before the game. So there was a moment of silence before the start and everybody – both teams and the fans – felt it. It was an emotional night and it was tough to play a hockey game.”

Perrin has now played more than half of his professional career in Finland, so he has a real connection to the country and is more than just an outside observer to this kind of thing.

“My family and I have made Finland our home away from home. We enjoy life in Finland and our kids are thriving here,” the Laval, Quebec native explained. Éric, his wife and two children split the off-seasons between Montreal and Florida.

Looking ahead to the CHL

After playing for four other Finnish clubs, Perrin is now entering his third season with TPS. He arrived in 2015 when the team was near the bottom of the league, but since then the team has climbed to finish 2nd in the regular season last year. This year, Kalle Kaskinen, who is a mere 19 months older than Perrin, takes over behind the team’s bench.

“Everything’s looking very good for TPS,” he said. “We have a new coaching staff but we have a lot of the same players as we’ve had for the past two or three years, so everybody knows each other and that makes things easier at the start of the season,” he said of other veterans on the team like Henrik Tallinder, Toni Kallio, Ilkka Pikkarainen and Jonne Virtanen, who along with Perrin form the team’s leadership core. “The guys are skating very well, we’re learning the system that the new coach is trying to implement, and I think things are progressing at a very good rate.

“We’re feeling very good as a team heading into the CHL games.”

This Thursday, TPS play their first Group F game in Hradec Králové, Czech Republic against Mountfield HK, and then move on to Bern, Switzerland on Saturday. A veteran of international club hockey, Perrin was a member of the JYP Jyväskylä team that won the European Trophy in 2013/14. Since then, he’s seen the evolution of the competition into the Champions Hockey League, into which, starting this season, teams must earn their places on the ice.

“When I talk to players on other teams, I get the feeling that we all think the same thing – that the CHL is a good tournament for many reasons,” he says. “First of all, it’s at the start of the season and gives us a chance to travel as a team, which is a great bonding opportunity. Also, it’s nice to see new teams, new cities and new countries that you wouldn’t otherwise see.”

Make no mistake though, TPS’s upcoming trip to Central Europe will be more than just a pre-season sightseeing tour and team-building exercise. The Finns pride themselves on having one of Europe’s best hockey leagues, which they proved in the first two CHL seasons. Last season, however, they faltered a bit. No Finnish clubs made it to the Quarter-Finals, whereas two Swiss teams and one Czech club did.

“I think anybody would be lying if he said we don’t have the pride to show that we want to be a top team in all of Europe, or that our league is the best league in Europe,” said Perrin. “I think everybody knows that these are good leagues, but if you beat them, you can maybe say that yours is better, especially if you beat the champions of that league. If you can go far in the CHL or even win the whole thing, that really says something about your team. That really gives you bragging rights.”

“I don’t know much about the Czech team,” he said about Mountfield, “but Czech teams are always good so that should be a tough one to start and we’ll have to be ready. And then I’m really looking forward to the game in Bern – I know the city and the organization and I have great memories of playing there in the 2005/06 season. From a personal standpoint, it’s always nice to go back to a place where you used to play, and for our team, it’s a good challenge because we know that Bern won everything in Switzerland last year. They’ve got great fans there and a great support system and they’re really tough to beat in their own building.

“They also have a Finnish coach who is very popular here,” he said about SC Bern bench boss Kari Jalonen, who played for TPS from 1988 to 1993 and then returned as a coach from 1998 to 2003. Bern visits Turku the following Thursday, 31 August.

TPS's last two group-stage games will come against the Nottingham Panthers in early October.

“That’ll be something new for me. I’ve never played against a British team before, but I think we have one player who has. Everyone’s going to expect us to win, but we’ve gotta be careful because they’ve got some good players and we’ve heard the clubs over there are very well-run with top-notch facilities and strong fan support, and we know they’re taking it seriously, so that will be interesting for sure.”

Stanley Cup champion and lifelong friend

At 41 years of age, Perrin was the oldest player in the CHL last season and will likely hold that distinction this season as well. He’s also one of three players projected to play in the competition who have won the Stanley Cup before. Brynäs IF’s Daniel Paille won the Cup with the Boston Bruins in 2011 and EV Zug’s Victor Stalberg won with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2013. Perrin’s Cup came as a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning, although he spent the bulk of the season in the minors before being called up with four games left in the regular season.

“At the time, I thought I was just going to play a couple games and then go back to the minors,” he recalled. “The coach at the time, John Tortorella, told me there was a spot for me on the team if I earned it, but it was going to be a different role than I had in the AHL, where I was a scorer. Obviously, I was completely okay with that.

“I ended up playing all four games, and nobody said anything to me, and all of a sudden I was in the starting lineup for the first round of the playoffs. Everything happened so fast. I had just played my first NHL game, then just a couple weeks later my first playoff game, and there was really no time to think – I just had to focus on what I had to do.”

Perrin ended up playing in 12 of the Lightning's playoff games that year, and although he didn't dress for the finals against the Calgary Flames, he did get a chance to play some second-round games against the Montreal Canadiens. “That was another dream come true for me, playing in front of my family in my hometown against the team I grew up loving.

“It was a crazy, crazy experience for me, that whole thing,” he said of the 2004 Stanley Cup run. “Everybody always made me feel like I was a part of it.”

One of those players was Martin St-Louis, the leading scorer in the NHL that 2003/04 season. But Perrin and St-Louis had known each other almost 20 years at that point, and had played together for over 10.

“We lived in Regina, Saskatchewan for three years because my father was a policeman, and we moved back to Montreal when I was 10 years old, and that’s when I first stepped into the same locker room as Marty," he relived. "From then on, we always played together on the same line, through minor hockey, junior, college, and even our first year of pro in Cleveland.”

Perrin and St-Louis both excelled at the University of Vermont, where they played together from 1993 to 1997. Both were small in stature, with Perrin holding a slight height advantage of 175 cm to St-Louis's 173.

“Physically we were both small, speedy players but we had our distinctive styles. Marty was more of a dynamic player and explosive skater, and I was more straight up and down. In college, I scored more goals, but obviously he’s shown that he can score goals too.”

Despite their scoring prowess at the college level, neither player was drafted. Eventually, St-Louis signed with the Calgary Flames and embarked on a career where he scored 1033 points in the NHL. Perrin had 104 points in 245 games with Tampa Bay and the Atlanta Thrashers. 

“We still keep in touch,” Perrin said of his old friend. “He still calls from time to time to see what’s going on.”

Europe and the future

Perrin is on his third tour of duty in Europe. The first was from 2000 to 2003 and was exclusively in Finland. Then after being back in North America for two seasons and winning a Stanley Cup, he went to Switzerland in 2005/06 after the NHL's strange Collective Bargaining Agreement following the lockout of 2004/05 made it more financially advantageous for him to play in Europe than the AHL.

He said of the decision at the time: “That was late in my career. I was close to turning 30 at the time, and I said, ‘I have to think of my family.’”

Apparently, it wasn’t too late in his career, as 12 years later he’s now getting ready to embark on his 21st season as a pro. And while is still as enthusiastic about playing as he always has been, he also knows he can't play forever, but his experience can be an asset to this TPS team.

“I’ve experienced a lot, and I think that’s helped me grow and be helpful for these young players coming in. I think I have a lot to offer this team, and I think it will help me after my playing career is over, helping to develop young players.”

As for exactly what he'll get into when he's done playing, Perrin said that “coaching is always an option back home or in Europe if it's the right situation. Mainly, I would like to be in player development back in North America.”

That doesn't necessarily mean that 2017/18 will be his last season as a player, though. That decision will come later.

“As of now, I will discuss my situation with my wife after the holidays and then make a decision on my future. Lots of factors come to play when making that decision.”