Since the NHL trade deadline, a handful of Minnesota Wild players have joked that Swedish should be the new official language of the locker room.
It makes sense considering the Wild have eight Swedish players on their current roster: Jonas Brodin (Karlstad), Joel Eriksson Ek (Karlstad), Filip Gustavsson (Skelleftea), Marcus Johansson (Landskrona), John Klingberg (Gothenburg), Gustav Nyquist (Halmstad), Oskar Sundqvist (Boden) and Jesper Wallstedt (Vasteras).
No doubt the Swedes were thrilled with the announcement on Wednesday that the Wild would be among the teams participating in the 2023 NHL Global Series in Sweden. In addition to the Wild, the Detroit Red Wings, Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs also will be in attendance.
Logistically, the Wild will be the road team against the Senators on Nov. 18 at 10 a.m. CT (5 p.m. in Sweden), and the home team against the Maple Leafs on Nov. 19 at 7 a.m. CT (2 p.m. in Sweden). All games will be played at Avicii Arena in Stockholm.
This marks the second time the Wild are set to play a game in Europe. They participated in the 2010 NHL Premiere in Finland, playing a pair of games against the Carolina Hurricanes at Hartwall Arena in Helsinki.
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Struggles with special teams
After struggling on special teams last playoffs against the St. Louis Blues, it hasn’t gotten much better for the Wild this playoffs against the Dallas Stars.
Not taking into account the games on Wednesday night, among the 16 playoff teams, the Wild rank No. 10 in power play percentage (20 percent) and No. 14 in penalty kill percentage (59 percent). In comparison, the Stars rank No. 3 in power play percentage (41 percent) and No. 7 in penalty kill percentage (80 percent).
That’s proven to be the difference with the Wild now on the brink of elimination heading into Game 6 on Friday night at Xcel Energy Center.
Pavelski plans to travel
After missing the past week while in concussion protocol, Stars winger Joe Pavelski is planning to travel with his teammates to St. Paul for the upcoming game.
Will he be in the lineup for the Stars as they attempt to eliminate the Wild from the playoffs?
“I would call him a game-time decision right now,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “He’s getting better every day.”
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