Claesson believes playing in Stockholm will be special for all of the Swedish players on the Senators and Avalanche. That includes Senators defensemen Erik Karlsson (Landsbro), Johnny Oduya (Stockholm) and Andreas Englund (Stockholm), and Avalanche center Carl Soderberg (Malmo) and defenseman Anton Lindholm (Skelleftea).
"It's great for us," Claesson said. "My grandmothers have never seen me play in the NHL and they're too old to fly [to North America], so now they can go and see the games here and I can meet them after and we can have dinner. I think it's great for youth hockey here in Sweden, too, that kids can see what kind of level it is and how hard you have to work to get to the NHL, so I think it's good for everyone."
The Senators were one of four NHL teams who traveled to Europe to play in the Bridgestone NHL Premiere 2008. After playing an exhibition game against Frolunda of the Swedish Elite League, the Senators opened their regular season by splitting two games against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Ericsson Globe.
This will be the first time the Avalanche play a regular-season game in Europe, but they participated in the 2001 NHL Challenge Series and defeated Brynas IF of the Swedish Elite League 5-3 in an exhibition game in Stockholm.
Landeskog, the Avalanche captain, first played at "The Globe" as a child. Going back there as an NHL player will be surreal.
"We used to have gold-medal games of our [youth] tournaments here, and to be able to play in front of my family and friends and my hometown, my old classmates, it will be cool," Landeskog said. "And then on the other hand, getting to show my [Avalanche] teammates around, show them where I'm from, that will be neat. I see most of their hometowns when we're [in North America]."
Claesson expects the Swedish fans to provide an electric atmosphere with their usual enthusiasm.
"In Sweden, they sing a lot," he said. "I don't know if they have any chants or anything like that for Ottawa or Colorado, but I think it's going to be loud and it's going to be good."