Detroit Red Wings arrive in Stockholm, have light skate, lighthearted fun

The Detroit Red Wings arrived in Sweden and immediately headed to a rink.

The team's social media accounts had pictures of players coming off the airplane Sunday in Stockholm, where the Wings play a pair of games against Atlantic Division rivals later in the week: Thursday against the Ottawa Senators, and Friday against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

"We just got in, so it's pretty tough," Dylan Larkin told media in Sweden. "We're trying to get our bodies moving, get acclimated as quick as we can.

"I thought it was a productive skate. We have a day off tomorrow, which will be nice to see the city a little bit and recover from the flight. It's good to be here."

Meatballs, fika and four points: Detroit Red Wings ready to embrace trip to Sweden

One video posted on the team's account on X (formerly known as Twitter) showed Justin Holl and Christian Fischer running in skates to catch a golf cart to take them to the bus. As they plopped down, Fischer kicked up his left leg in a pose. Another video showed Lucas Raymond, the only Swede on the Wings, also running to catch a cart.

"It's going to be a good time," Raymond said. "Sweden is a great country, I love Sweden. I'm excited to be here and get to show the guys some Swedish stuff."

Coach Derek Lalonde, who visited Stockholm in 2019 as an assistant coach with the Tampa Bay Lightning, has said he hopes players make the most of the experience without losing focus on what is most important.

"The guys will have some time on the front end to experience the city a little bit, and then we get two practices," he said. "In today's NHL, getting back-to-back practices, no matter where you are, is hard to do. So I think it works out well for us going forward."

Larkin echoed those thoughts.

"We're here for two games," he said. "We have some time off, but the main objective is two divisional games, during the season. It's nice we're not here in the beginning and trying to figure it out. We're ready to play and it will be good for fans over here to see games like that, mid-season games.

"There are four big points available for us in our division."

The mini news conference took place in English and Swedish; Larkin smiled when he recognized a question for Raymond involving what else he would encourage Larkin to experience besides fika, the enormously popular Swedish tradition of having a cup of coffee and a piece of pastry.

"I'm excited," Raymond said. "Like Dylan said, we're here to play two big games, but at the same time, it's obviously a little bit more special for me, being able to have friends and family watch me live."

Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her @helenestjames.

Her latest book, “On the Clock: Behind the Scenes with the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL Draft,” is available from  Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Red Wings arrive in Stockholm, Sweden, for NHL Global Series