Lalonde spoke from the ring after his Red Wings arrived, then trained at Hovet in Stockholm in preparation for the 2023 NHL World Series in Sweden presented by Fastenal.
Detroit was the only team of the four players present this weekend to arrive in Sweden on Sunday. They will face the Ottawa Senators at Avicii Arena on Thursday (2 p.m. ET; RDS, TSN5, NHLN, BSDET) and the Toronto Maple Leafs on Friday (2 p.m. ET).
And while it’s an opportunity for the Red Wings, Maple Leafs, Senators, Minnesota Wild and NHL to shine on the international stage, Lalonde knows it can mean so much more.
“It’s a very important and emotional city for me,” Lalonde said. “It’s literally on my Stanley Cup ring, the word Stockholm.”
The reason it’s there is because everyone involved with the Lightning felt their trip to town changed their season.
The Lightning had just had a 2018-2019 season which saw them win the Presidents’ Trophy awarded to the best team in the NHL (62-16-4), only to be swept away in the first round of the NHL Association. East of the Stanley Cup playoffs by the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Perhaps with the effects of that sweep still in mind, the Lightning entered the 2019 NHL World Series in Stockholm with a 6-5-2 record on November 7 and certainly weren’t playing like a Stanley Cup hopeful.
“We came here, we were flirting around .500,” Lalonde said. “Pat Maroon proclaimed himself social president, he did some of his best work ever. And it was just an opportunity to get away from our routine in North America here and we really felt like the guys spending time together bonded, and I think we took off from there. »
The Lightning swept the Buffalo Sabers’ two-game series and finished the COVID-19 shortened season 43-21-6. When the season resumed in the bubble in August, the Lightning won the Stanley Cup for the first time since 2004, paving the way for back-to-back championships.
