Returning across the pond with fond memories of Stockholm
Both teams now head back across the Atlantic to North America tonight, with the Penguins returning to Pittsburgh on Friday for back-to-back games against the Minnesota Wild and Saturday against the Seattle Kraken.
The Preds, meanwhile, are back in Nashville on Saturday against the Colorado avalanche.
Although both teams have a week to recover from this trip and the resulting jet lag, the memories of Stockholm will remain for everyone.
“It’s pretty awesome to get this opportunity,” the Penguins defenseman said Erik Karlssoncalled the second star of the game. “I have been in the league for seventeen years and have played four games here [in Sweden].
“The NHL is obviously mainly in North America, but we have a lot of players from different countries watching that now. So to be here and give people the opportunity to see it live is something I would look back on as an eight-year-old boy.”
The Predators’ Forsberg agreed, despite the loss.
“It was so much fun,” he said. “I’ve had both my grandparents here… I’ve had family that you only see for a week or two in the summer and they’ve watched their first NHL games.
“I ate more meatballs than anyone on this team ever imagined, and I don’t think we’ll see another meatball, but it was incredible.”
Crosby, who, as he discovered this week in Sweden, is celebrated and bullied wherever he goes, said of the back-to-back sellouts at the Avicii Arena: “Obviously when you see the turnout, you see how excited people are just to see games here.
“As players, it’s been 17 years since we (the Penguins) have been here, I’m sure this will become a little more common.
“And when you get an atmosphere like that, when you get guys coming home and playing, you’re talking about growing the game. It doesn’t really get any better than opportunities like this.”
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