EDMONTON -- When I signed with the Edmonton Oilers as a free agent July 1, I was sitting on my patio at home in Landshut, Germany, with my parents, my sister and my girlfriend.
We were talking about Edmonton about a half-hour later when all of a sudden somebody -- I think it was my dad, Manfred -- remembered something.
"Hey, don't you guys play in Germany?" he said.
"Yeah, right," I said. "We're going to Cologne for preseason."
Until then, it didn't sink in that I would have this opportunity.
Cologne is in the west about a six-hour drive from Landshut, which is near Munich in the south. It's not my hometown, like it is for my teammate Leon Draisaitl. The culture's a little different. But it doesn't make too big of a difference. It's still Germany, my home country.
Leon and I are getting really excited to play in front of family and friends. I've got about 15 people coming to the game. I know the team is getting really excited too. It's going to be a good team bonding experience, and we can't wait to get going. We fly out after we play the Calgary Flames in a preseason game at Rogers Place on Saturday afternoon and arrive in Cologne on Sunday morning.
I played for Germany at Laxness Arena in the 2017 IIHF World Championship. It's a big building with a great atmosphere. I know people over there are getting really fired up for this. Lots of those fans never get to see an NHL team play. They never get to come over here to see a game.
Hockey-wise, we get to play a German team. They have lots of import players there, so I'm sure some of our players are going to have buddies over there. So it's going to be a cool experience for them.
Culture-wise, it's just way different. I've heard guys talk about it. They're getting excited about the old buildings downtown, the big churches, which I think we're going to visit. Just everything around it is so different from North America. We'll see what my teammates think about that.
We'll see what they think of the food too. Only the good stuff. I think Leon has set something up in a brew house or something. They usually have all the German specialties and obviously beer, so I think that should be good.
