New Swedes thrive in the Minnesota Wild
New York. New Swedes seem to be having fun in the Minnesota Wild.
In tonight’s win over San Jose, for example, Marcus Johansson and John Klingberg scored two points each.
– Yes, we’ve all come along well here and it’s really interesting that a lot of us are from Sweden, top scorer ‘Mojo’ tells Sportbladet after the 5-2 win at Sharktank.
He was decent with blue-yellow features in the Minnesota Wild even before last week’s Big Three fortunes. Longtime loyalists Jonas Broden and Joel Eriksson-Ek – who has since gone from undercover to one of the league’s hottest cage-keepers – are joined in the fall by goalkeeper Philip Gustafsson.
But just before the trading deadline, General Manager Bill Guerin caught a real Swedish fever and also traded Marcus Johansson, Oscar Sundqvist, Gustav Nyquist (still injured) and not least John Klinberg.
He won four out of five matches
So now it’s a modern version of the late 20th century Detroit Red Wings found in what was always called the Swedish countryside of America.
– Yeah, the gang seems to be all Swedish, haha. Although it’s really fun that there are so many of us there, says Markus Johansson over the phone from San Jose.
– I myself have played here before and had a good time until then, so I’m glad I got the training here.
Things are going well too. Since the Great Swedish Invasion, the Wild have won four out of their five matches and cemented themselves at the top of the central table a fairly safe distance from teams chasing down the line.
– Just tonight, here in San Jose, maybe we didn’t play well, but we won and if you win a lot, the whole team gains confidence, says ‘Mojo’.
Klingberg’s top scorer again
who, like compatriot John Klingberg, accounted for two points against the Sharks, among others in the form of a goal that he led with a shot from Klingberg himself.
– Yeah, I don’t score that kind of goal often, so it was fun, he says.
– Klingberg is a very skilled offensive defender who is very good with the puck, and we will get a lot of use out of him in the future.
Erik Carlsson assisted on one of the home team’s goals, bringing him to a total of 84 points – one point shy of Sweden’s Victor Hedman’s consecutive scoring record.