\u201cI think Felicia was overwhelmed by everything yesterday, but so, so happy to meet Oscar and\u00a0seeing\u00a0the guys on the ice during practice,\u201d said Patricia\u00a0Tuesday afternoon.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cNika\u00a0is still over the moon getting to meet Oscar and that she was able to talk to him. That meant everything to her.\u00a0Now Nika\u00a0is just so ready for it to be Saturday\u00a0already!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fisker\u00a0Molgaard Humbled by the Support\u00a0<\/p>\n
For his part, Fisker Molgaard was happy\u00a0to meet the family and\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0even change out of his skates or practice gear before heading back out to\u00a0the\u00a0rink\u00a0to meet\u00a0them.\u00a0The\u00a02023 second-round draft choice\u00a0was touched by the\u00a0family\u00a0traveling to the Pacific Northwest with him in mind.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0a quarter-hour\u00a0none of the parties on hand will forget.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe appreciate everything\u00a0and how Oscar\u00a0went above and beyond for the\u00a0girls to meet him,\u201d said Patricia. \u201cThat means so much to us.\u00a0He\u00a0was just so nice and welcoming toward them.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0made their whole\u00a0vacation. It will\u00a0be\u00a0one thing they will keep with them forever.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
No doubt, the Danish get-together will be discussed with both girls\u2019 hockey teammates back in Copenhagen. And\u00a0the\u00a0same\u00a0for dad\u2019s adult hockey squad.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cRasmus always wanted to play hockey growing up,\u201d said Patricia about her husband, whose cousin is married to 34-year-old Team Denmark defenseman\u00a0Jesper Jensen. \u00a0\u201cBut\u00a0Rasmus\u2019\u00a0mom was like,\u00a0\u2018No,\u00a0that’s\u00a0too dangerous.\u00a0You’re\u00a0not allowed to do that.\u2019\u00a0Then when we\u00a0had\u00a0two girls,\u00a0he thought, \u2018Go for it\u2019 for both the girls and him. Nika has been playing since she was five years old. Felicia started at three-and-a-half.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Denmark Hockey Participation Growing\u00a0<\/p>\n
There are an estimated 8,000 registered hockey players in Denmark with 25 to 30 percent females.\u00a0\u00a0Molgaard and his Team Denmark mates have fueled an increase in participation with recent successes in international competition, most especially an all-time best fourth-place finish at last spring\u2019s International Ice Hockey Federation Men\u2019s World Championship highlighted by a quarterfinal upset over Team Canada.\u00a0One further proof case: Younger Felicia\u2019s age group has significantly more girls than older sister Nika\u2019s level.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fittingly for the Kraken organization, Denmark\u2019s first big jump in hockey participation occurred in\u00a02002 and 2003 when former\u00a0near-1,000-game\u00a0NHLer and current Kraken player development consultant Frans Nielsen was part of the first-ever Danish team to advance to the top tier of international men\u2019s hockey competition. Nielsen\u00a0was\u00a0named to the IIHF Hall of Fame last spring, concurrent with Fisker Molgaard (with whom Nielsen\u00a0worked\u00a0extensively\u00a0upon being drafted by Seattle) and the Danes advancing to the\u00a0medal round for the first time.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Early NHL Impressions All Positive\u00a0<\/p>\n
For his part, Molgaard has played in six Kraken games this season, including Tuesday\u2019s 3-0 loss against Edmonton. He has contributed a couple of assists on key goals in wins along with solid play in all three zones. This is effectively his fourth pro hockey season given he logged three years in Sweden\u2019s top professional league \u2013 and his poise on the ice shows it. That\u2019s both for Seattle and American Hockey League affiliate\u00a0Coachella Valley (10 goals, 22 assists for 32 points in 46 games\u00a0as an AHL rookie, tied at 12th\u00a0most points among rookies).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI think Felicia was overwhelmed by everything yesterday, but so, so happy to meet Oscar and\u00a0seeing\u00a0the guys on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":535156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5130],"tags":[5,4188,4,2686,234,5318],"class_list":{"0":"post-535155","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-seattle-kraken","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-kraken","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-seattle","12":"tag-seattle-kraken","13":"tag-seattlekraken"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116330826865984077","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/535156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}