Pre-game Vancouver
Mikael Samuelsson had his fellow Swedes and former teammates Andreas Lilja, Henrik Zetterberg, Tomas Holmstrom and Nick Lidstrom over to his house Monday night for, as he put it, "a cup of coffee and some Swedish other stuff."
This isn't going to be one of those bitter reunion games, no matter how many times Samuelsson said he wanted "to show them something," during the game. Samuelsson understood that the Wings were up against the salary cap and weren't going to get him $7.5 million over three years like the Canucks did.
But, he did leave a team with a large group of Swedes, a team he scored 20-plus goals for the past four seasons and a team he helped win the Cup for.
"Of course it is special to play against them," he said. "I was part of that team and we got a Cup. That stays in your heart."
That said, he got off a pretty good line about the Wings' early struggles. "Well, they are missing a lot of key players. No, I am kidding. I have no idea why they are struggling. I just hope they keep struggling."
The Canucks are one beat-up hockey team. They lost forward Kyle Wellwood (toe) on Sunday. He joins Daniel Sedin (broken foot), Pavol Demitra (shoulder), Rick Rypien (groin), Sami Salo (knee)and Jannik Hansen (broken hand) on the injured list. They just got former Wing Mathieu Schneider back on Sunday.
Quick story: So Lilja and Samuelsson are close friends. Lilja is in Samuelsson's wedding this past summer in Sweden. Samuelsson is supposed to be this big-time boules player. I have no idea what boules is, sounds like a cross between bocci ball and croquet, but Sammy is supposed to be real good. Well, on Sammy's wedding day, Lilja beats him. How do you beat a guy at his game on his wedding day? "I had to," Lilja said. "I had never played him before. I had to beat him."
The scratches tonight, if you haven't heard -- Helm, Eaves, Meech.
