When a swarm of young hockey fans wearing Pittsburgh Penguins toques all took out their phones to take a photo with Sidney Crosby outside a hotel in Sweden, you know the NHL is doing a decent job of growing the game outside of North America.
The first of two NHL Global Series games between the Penguins And Nashville Predators took place on Friday at the Avicii Arena in Stockholm, Sweden, with the second match starting on Sunday. And the hype is palpable. Former NHL goaltender Glenn Healy was among those signing autographs for fans outside the hotel, and not only did spectators flock to the rink for the game, but they also cheered on the Predators in practice SATURDAY. (Thanks to Valtteri Karjula for sharing his Global Series experience on The Hockey News community forum.)
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Friday’s 2-1 overtime victory for Nashville featured thrilling action, with Sweden’s Filip Forsberg tying the game late in front of nearly 13,000 spectators.
This last part of the league’s Global Series comes at a time when the NHL is expanding its European presence in opening of an office in Zurich, Switzerland.
It will be a treat for Swedish fans to see Penguins stars Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Swedes Erik Karlsson and Predators star Filip Forsberg live and in person, the truth is there is plenty of room for growth in the league’s plan to grow the game outside of North America.
As THN.comby Avry Lewis-McDougall I wrote about this not too long agothe NHL could possibly combine its trips to Europe with outdoor games in places like London, England’s Wembley Stadium and Stockholm’s Strawberry Arena. The prospect of playing in front of 50,000 to 90,000 European fans in an outdoor game would undoubtedly be financial music to the NHL’s ears, and the visual grandeur of an outdoor stadium hosting an NHL game or two is something the league and its sponsors would bend over backwards to be a part of.
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That said, another option for the NHL to increase its presence would be to host week-long games, say four or five games over a seven-day period. To do this, you will need to involve several teams. While the logistics are tricky, the benefits of having a full week of games should absolutely put additional games on the league’s radar.
By Haljestam-Imagn Images
Regardless, the NHL needs to look at every possible avenue to capitalize on fan interest overseas.
One day, it should make sense for the league to move beyond Sweden, Finland and Czechia for regular season games. In 2008, more than 17,000 fans filled London’s O2 Arena to watch matches between Los Angeles Kings And Anaheim Ducks, and from 1997 to 2000 the NHL played games in Japan. With a rink being built in Milan, Italy, for the Olympics, it might make sense to travel there for the Global Series, or perhaps play other games in Asia.
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But for now, putting down deeper roots in countries like the UK and Scandinavia is the most logical move for its entertainment product. So there may be additional baby steps for the NHL, but everything about the NHL in Europe is positive, which means more hockey-related revenue for the players and the league to share among themselves.
Imagining that the NHL will ever have a full-time team outside of North America is a pipe dream at the moment. But the fact that the league now has a permanent office is a testament to the growth of the sport.
And while it will be exciting for the Swedes to host some of the best players on the planet this weekend, even better days could soon be upon us for European hockey fans and players.
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