"Usually when you're in the press box, you forget how fast the game is," Lindquist said as Air Canada Centre's twin ice-resurfacing machines came out for their first of several runs. He quickly leaned over the boards to scoop up a meal voucher that had fluttered to the ice, lest it be chewed to shreds.
"Being at ice level, you realize how fast this game is and how skilled these players are. To do what they do at this speed; well, it's humbling to see how good they are at their craft.
"It's also fun to see what guys are most active on the bench; cheering on teammates, talking to teammates, making tactical adjustments. It's fun for me to watch how active [Team Sweden's] Erik Karlsson is as a leader. He lets the team know when they need to play better, but every break he'll discuss something with a player or two, whether it's the Sedins, [Nicklas] Backstrom, {Filip] Forsberg, or the fourth-line guys. Every break, he'll discuss minor details with someone."
If you think Team Canada's Connor McDavid is impressive on television or from your arena seat, Lindquist would like to bring you down to ice level when the phenom rockets by.
"I've seen a lot of championships and seen a lot of great players," he said. "But watching McDavid at ice level, at full stride, I don't know if I can compare that to anything. He just blew my mind. The stride he has, how fluid and how fast it is … it's like he's gliding but he's flying."
Lindquist, long and lanky and "a bad hockey player in my youth," was now ready to get busy, swinging his leg over the boards to his place between the benches. I noticed a tear in the seam of his pants at his left pocket. A couple of days earlier, a fellow Swede, Ottawa Senators legend Daniel Alfredsson, was joking about a similar tear in the same place on his right pocket.
"Mats Zuccarello [of Team Europe] actually heard me rip them," Lindquist said, laughing. "He told me, 'Hey, you'd better start working out in the summertime.'"
