"It's been a roller coaster since we won gold," Andersson said. "We had a couple days with the team doing fun stuff. We visited a lot of cool places in Sweden," including stops in Stockholm and a visit with Carl XVI Gustaf, the King of Sweden.
"It was unbelievable," Andersson added. "It's a big thing here to win a World Championship. It's huge. It's the soccer championship and the hockey championship as the biggest things back home. It was fun that we won the gold back-to-back."
As the second-youngest player on Sweden's national team, Andersson learned from some of the best players in the NHL during his time with the squad. He got to know players such as Filip Forsberg, Patric Hornqvist, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and captain Mikael Backlund, absorbing anything he could during his month in Denmark.
"It was a lot of fun watching them," he said. "You try and soak everything in. You try to watch their game and what they do on and off the ice."
Of course, he also spent time with fellow Rangers center Mika Zibanejad, as evidenced by some social media posts during and after the event.
"We're very close friends," Andersson said. "He's taken very good care of me, showing me around and what to do and what not to do. I try and follow him on and off the ice."
Rangers General Manager Jeff Gorton said the experience gained by Andersson and fellow first-rounder Filip Chytil, who represented the Czech Republic at the tournament, was "invaluable" for their development.
"The fact that Lias played with some really good players early on in that tournament, I think will really help him" down the road, Gorton said.
Andersson got a taste of life in the NHL over the season's final two weeks when he scored a goal and added an assist in seven games for the Rangers.
Any experience in the NHL is of course beneficial, but Andersson said it was hard for him to gauge exactly how he played during the short stint, and rather than look back, he's looking ahead to next season.
"I don't think about those seven games," he said. "I look forward to next year."
Andersson, who had five goals and nine assists for 14 points in 25 games with Hartford after arriving in North America midway through the season, said he wants to improve his play all over the ice and be more comfortable with the puck to "be a player you can trust in every situation."
After such a busy year, Andersson is happy to be back home in Sweden with family and friends. The plan now is for him to return to New York to train during the summer, beginning with development camp later this month. After that, he's unsure what his summer training schedule will be.
He's already looking ahead to next season, but he's still enjoying the success he and his countrymen accomplished in Copenhagen.
"When you win these tournaments, you become close friends with everyone," he said. "I was with a lot of good players and a lot of good people. It's something I'm going to remember for the rest of my life."
