The Colorado Avalanche will head to a land far, far away for a pair of games next season. For captain Gabriel Landeskog however, they will still be home games.
On Friday, the NHL announced that the Avalanche and Ottawa Senators will be heading to Stockholm, Sweden for a pair of games as part of the 2017 SAP NHL Global Series. The games will be held in the Ericsson Globe on Friday, Nov. 10, and Saturday, Nov. 11.
This will mark the sixth time that the NHL has headed to Europe during the regular season, and the first since 2011. In total, these will be the 21st and 22nd games played on the continent.
Both Landeskog and Senators captain Erik Karlsson hail from Sweden. Landeskog is from Stockholm, while Karlsson hails from Landsbro.
“We have more Swedish players than ever in the NHL, and we are extremely pleased that the 2017 SAP NHL Global Series will allow us to showcase a number of those players, with their NHL teams, in their homeland,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement. “The return of regular-season NHL games to the international stage will provide yet another highlight for our Centennial celebration.”
In addition to the captains of the Avalanche and Senators, several other players on the squads hail from Sweden. The Avalanche have defenseman Anton Lindholm (Skelleftea) and center Carl Soderberg (Malmo); while the Senators boast defenseman Fredrik Claesson (Stockholm) and winger Viktor Stalberg (Gothenburg).
The teams also have a historical connection to Sweden, as legends Peter Forsberg (Avalanche) and Daniel Alfredsson (Senators) hail from the Scandinavian nation.
