Being a west-coast team, the San Jose Sharks are used to logging plenty of frequent flyer miles over the course of a season. This year, however, that total will be especially high.
For the first time in franchise history, the Sharks have been selected to partake in the NHL's European Faceoff program as they will travel to Mannheim, Germany for their final preseason game and then will face the Columbus Blue Jackets on October 8th and 9th to open the regular season with a "home and home" series at the Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden. This invitation is a tremendous opportunity to globalize the brand of Sharks Hockey, but it raises an interesting question.
With so many notable Canadian stars on the Shark roster, how will the fans of the international rival hockey super-power of Sweden accept the San Jose Sharks?
Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau, Dany Heatley, and Dan Boyle all won gold medals with the Canadian Olympic team less than one year ago, while Swedish fans watched their beloved Tre Kronor fall to what should have been a heavily out-matched Slovakian squad. They failed to medal after taking gold over Finland in 2006. Burgeoning stars like Devin ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Patrick Goulding II
Swedish Hospitality: How Will Stockholm Receive the San Jose Sharks?
August 19th, 2010 by Patrick Goulding II Leave a reply »
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