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Carolina Hurricanes center Seth Jarvis has asserted himself as one of the NHL’s biggest characters over the last couple of seasons, and his story about meeting the President of Finland without even realizing it is a prime example.

According to a recent article from The Hockey News, Jarvis took a trip to Finland for teammate Sebastian Aho’s wedding, but he also got a tour from another teammate, Finnish forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi.

On the trip, they were on their way through an airport in Helsinki, where Jarvis thought he was just saying hi to a big hockey fan.

“When we got off the plane, everyone was standing there talking to this guy,” Jarvis recalled. “I walk up to them and they introduce me and he goes, ‘Oh, I’m Alex,’ and I say, ‘Oh, I’m Seth.’ We took a picture and I’m like whatever, maybe he’s a big fan.”

That turned out to be Alexander Stubb — the Finnish president — a fact he learned only after the meeting when he was informed by former Canes goalie Antti Raanta’s wife.

Hurricanes forward Seth Jarvis met the president of Finaland, but didn’t realize it until afterward. (Getty Images)

“I was like, ‘Oh, f–k,'” Jarvis explained. “I thought it was just some hockey fan or someone that they know, but no! The president was a really cool guy though.”

I’m not going to sit here and pretend I could pick the president of Finland out of a crowd. Probably not even a police lineup. The only two I ever knew were the one who liked to party and the one who looked like Conan O’Brien. Both were women and now that I think about it, they may have been prime ministers, not even presidents.

This is to say that that’s an easy mistake to make if you’re on a whistlestop tour of a country you’re unfamiliar with.

Jarvis and the Canes will get their regular season underway on October 11 with the first game of a home-and-home series against the Tampa Bay Lightning.