Some little bits and pieces around the Penguins as they take in Sweden this week.
Erik Karlsson sets the stage on what to expect during the games.
Those opponents were out having a good time for themselves.
It’s an interesting nugget that Europe will mark the third different continent where Penguins vs. Predators games have been held, especially since that’s a fairly random rivalry to be taking all over the world (memories of the 2017 Stanley Cup final aside).
The Pens and Preds opened the 2000-01 season over in Japan, interestingly enough the NHL put regular season games in Tokyo in 1997, 1998 and these 2000 games where in Saitama (somewhat outside of Tokyo) around the time of the 1998 Nagano Olympics. The NHL hasn’t been back to Japan since 2000.
The Pens/Preds international rivalry sits at 1-1-0, each team traded 3-1 wins in Japan. In a fitting twist following the Czech’s ‘98 Olympic goal (and the Pens’ Prague West days) all the goal scorers for Pittsburgh were Czech natives. Jan Hrdina scored a goal in each game, Robert Lang and Martin Straka also scored for the Pens. Jaromir Jagr assisted on three of the four goals.
Pittsburgh played in Finland and Sweden in 2008, splitting two games with the Ottawa Senators. The Predators have more recent overseas experiences, they won two games against San Jose in Germany and Czechia in 2022.
Josh Getzoff clarified a point for ice dimensions of this weekend’s games:
Good to know the rink size will be the NHL standard 200 feet long by 85 feet wide. The traditional European rink size is 197 feet by 98.5 feet wide (60m x 30m). Hockey’s main international body, the IIHF, is transitioning more towards standardizing the NHL dimensions, the upcoming 2026 Olympics in Italy will be played on the NHL-sized rink.
The Penguins were off the ice today, they’ll be back on the ice for a practice at 11:30am local time tomorrow (5:30am back at home in Pittsburgh) before the first game on Friday. Until then, they’ll enjoy the sights and the spa.