Global Series puts Sweden in hockey spotlight

GOTHENBURG, Sweden -- The boy was excited. Here, right here in his hometown, were two Sweden-born members of the Edmonton Oilers: defensemen Oscar Klefbom and Adam Larsson. They were having lunch and filming a segment for Oilers TV after practice Friday at Cyrano, a bistro near the arena.

Wearing an Oilers shirt, holding an Oilers hat, 8-year-old Isak Axelsson had a question.
"Do you know where Connor McDavid is?" Axelsson asked.

Klefbom and Larsson laughed.
"I get this question a lot," Klefbom told Axelsson. "I actually don't know where he is right now."
"That's OK," the boy said.
"It's not the first time," Larsson said.
Klefbom and Larsson signed Axelsson's hat, then Klefbom lifted him up and sat him in between them for a photo. They spoke to each other in Swedish and smiled.

"If we would play in my hometown, it would be, 'Hey, Oscar, where's Connor?'" said Klefbom, who grew up about three hours away in Hammaro, near Karlstad. "That's just the way it is. I would be the same, so I don't blame them."
The Oilers and New Jersey Devils will open their seasons at Scandinavium on Saturday (1 p.m. ET; NHLN, SN, MSG+, NHL.TV), as part of the
2018 NHL Global Series
, for this reason.
The native players get to play in front of family, friends and fans in their home country. Their teammates, and fans in other countries, get to see them in their own environment and learn more about their backgrounds.
RELATED: [Global Series game preview]
Aside from their countrymen on the two teams, the fans here get to see elite players from across the hockey world. McDavid and Devils forward Taylor Hall, the past two winners of the Hart Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player, are on the banners around town and the side of the arena advertising the event even though each is from Canada.
Klefbom said he was surprised the NHL selected the Oilers to play here. He thought the League would send, say, the Nashville Predators because of players like Viktor Arvidsson, Mattias Ekholm, Filip Forsberg and Calle Jarnkrok, each of whom is a big draw in Sweden.
"[Larsson and I are] not that big of a deal over here in Sweden," Klefbom said. "But obviously we have a different guy on our team who draws a crowd. It's not going to be a problem to fill the arena."
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Klefbom and Larsson ordered pizzas for the group.
"There's nothing like Swedish pizza," Klefbom said.

There's nothing exotic about it. It's thin crust, but you can get thin crust in North America. It can have toppings like shrimp and pesto, but you can get that in North America too.
But it's like Swedish meatballs from his grandmother, the last thing Klefbom eats before he leaves for the NHL season, the thing he craves and tries to replicate in Edmonton, the thing he has to have as soon as he gets home in the offseason.
Or it's like kebabs or Swedish candy, which Klefbom walked three minutes to the grocery store to get Thursday but said he would have walked three hours to get if necessary.
"It doesn't matter if you try to get the same ingredients or whatever," Klefbom said. "It just tastes different over here."
It's home.
Imagine you're Klefbom or Larsson. Klefbom left home when he was 20 to play in North America. Larsson left Skelleftea in northern Sweden, more than 12 hours from here by car, when he was 19.
They went from playing on the bigger international ice surface to playing on the smaller North American ice surface, from living near family and friends to living overseas, from eating their favorite, familiar foods to things that weren't quite the same. They went from speaking Swedish to speaking English.
Even though children in Sweden learn English in school, even though they hear it on TV and in movies, it's not the same as speaking it every day to communicate and show your personality to your teammates.
"It's tough," Klefbom said. "Sometimes you want to say so much and you want to be the funny guy, but you don't know how to express yourself. The other guys probably think you're the most boring guy in the world. It's kind of frustrating sometimes, especially in the early years. It's kind of frustrating not to be able to reach out to the guys the way you want to."
Klefbom's family comes to Edmonton to see him once or twice a season, at Christmas and the Stanley Cup Playoffs, if the Oilers make it. His father, Hakan, watches each game, but rarely live. If the Oilers are at home, the games start at 3 a.m. local time.

Now the family gets to watch him live at home.
"It's a lot of emotion and a lot of feelings to be here," Klefbom said. "It definitely feels so weird to have the guys, the team, here. They're not supposed to be here."
He laughed.
"Just to come here and go back to the roots kind of, it's definitely something special for sure," he said.
Larsson's family also comes to Edmonton to see him once or twice a season.
"People work during the season," Larsson said. "They don't get time off from work. They don't have the time to go to Edmonton. It's a long, long trip. Expensive too."
The trip from Skelleftea to here is at least shorter. Larsson has about 30 people coming Saturday, including some friends who have never had the chance to see him play an NHL game live, even though this is his eighth season in the League.
"It's going to be a fun day for everyone," Larsson said.
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When Klefbom and Larsson were Axelsson's age, they weren't NHL fans. They didn't have the same chance.
In 2000-01, 44 Sweden-born players appeared in an NHL game. In 2001-02, 49 did. At that time, there were Sweden-born stars in the League, and teams were coming to Sweden for preseason games against local professional teams.
Still, it was hard to watch NHL games live late at night, especially for kids, and there wasn't the online streaming or social media there is today. The NHL was still years away from playing a regular-season game in Sweden.
"I did not follow the NHL too much to be honest with you," Larsson said. "When you're a kid, you're kind of looking up to the local hockey players. Or that's what I did, at least."
That's what Klefbom did too.
"If someone asked me when I was younger, 'If you could dream a little, where do you see yourself in a couple years?' it was not the NHL," Klefbom said. "It was Farjestad, my hometown team."
The NHL, Klefbom said, "was so far away."
Now it is much closer in many ways.

The NHL played regular-season games in Stockholm in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2017, and it will play one in Gothenburg for the first time Saturday. The Internet allows people to watch games on demand and stay connected via social media 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Last season, 88 Sweden-born players appeared in an NHL game.
"It's crazy how fast the League has just exploded over here," Klefbom said.
It's easier for kids like Axelsson to dream of being the next Klefbom, Larsson or McDavid.
"Nowadays it's so easy to watch highlights and games and whatever it might be," Klefbom said. "Obviously a guy like Connor, you don't see that [in person] that often. If you have a chance to see it over here, I'm pretty sure most people want to take that chance. I would if I was a fan and had a chance to see Connor play. I would for sure go to the game."