The Aussies loved watching the NHL players perform in Team Sweden’s 5-1 win against Team Latvia in the quarterfinals Tuesday.
“You just think of some of their NHL careers,” Lynden said. “For me, Erik Karlsson. I’m a ‘D,’ so he’s just so slick out there. … He just looks unbelievable.”
“Yeah,” said Punler, a 30-year-old defenseman. “He was one of their better players last night.”
The Aussies would love to see the NHL play Down Under again, so kids can see the stars and be inspired to follow in their footsteps.
“I think in Australia, people don’t realize that, A, there’s hockey there, and B, it’s actually a sport that Australians quite enjoy,” Lynden Lodge said. “It’s a high-paced, physical game. We have Aussie rules [football], so it’s a bit similar to that, and it’s really an experience.
“You go to a rink when normally it’s 40 degrees [Celsius], so people drink beers and then just start yelling. Maybe they don’t know the rules at the start, but by the end of it, they’re pretty locked in.
“And so you’ll find that people will come to a game and will keep coming to games and get memberships. It’s really just an awareness thing in the first place, and then once you have people come, it’s probably more likely that they’ll keep coming.”