Ondrej Palat won the Stanley Cup twice. He also won the gold medal for the Czech Republic at the Ice Hockey World Championship.
This week, the forward will check off another box on his career bucket list when the New Jersey Devils take on the Buffalo Sabers in a two-game series in Prague to open the NHL season.
“I have been fortunate enough during my career to realize many of my dreams in hockey,” said Palat. However, I never imagined that I would be able to play an NHL game at home in the Czech Republic.
The NHL International Series games on Friday and Saturday will be the eighth and ninth to be hosted in Prague. Stockholm, Sweden, is the only city outside of North America to get more.
Two more games in the International Series will take place in Tampere, Finland, on November 1 and 2, when the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers take on the Dallas Stars.
Palat said this kind of event abroad is beneficial for team spirit. Five years ago, he was part of the Tampa Bay Lightning when the Florida club swept a two-game series against the Sabers in Stockholm. The Lightning then won the Stanley Cup in 2020, then in 2021.
“With Tampa, our trip to Stockholm was beneficial,” Palat said. We had fun and it showed on the ice, because we played good hockey. We will have to do something (similar). We will have to have fun, while keeping in mind that these matches count in the standings and that we must have a good start to the campaign.
Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic are fertile grounds for the NHL, which has hosted many regular season games there in recent years. If we include Russia, these countries are the main ones to supply European players to the league.
NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said in August that the NHL would like to explore other markets and mentioned Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, among others. London presented two regular season games in 2007, and Berlin one in 2011. Switzerland has never presented an NHL regular season game.
The Devils have played in Europe before; they beat the Edmonton Oilers 5-1 in Gothenburg, Sweden in 2018.
The Sabers played four games on European soil. Before their losses against the Lightning in 2019, they beat the Anaheim Ducks 4-1 in Helsinki and the Los Angeles Kings 4-2 in Berlin in 2011. They also played a preseason game in Munich last week.
Related News :