NHL Premier 2010 Heads to Three European Cities

The NHL started playing games in Europe in 2007, sending the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings to London.

They sent four teams to Europe, including Sidney Crosby's Pittsburgh Penguins, in 2008, and they followed that up with four more teams playing there to open this season. Among them was Detroit, a team full of Swedish imports, who got to play in their home country against St. Louis.

Next season's foray into Europe will expand once again, with six teams set to play in three different cities, giving 18 players the chance to play on home soil.

The 2010 Compuware NHL Premier will kick off Thursday, Oct. 7, when the Minnesota Wild face the Carolina Hurricanes in Helsinki, Finland. They will play a second game the next day.

Also on Friday, Oct. 8, Columbus and San Jose will start a two-game series in Stockholm, Sweden. The other games will be in Prague, Czech Republic. Boston and Phoenix will play two games there starting on Oct. 9.

For the Hurricanes and Wild, it will be the chance for three players on each team to play at home, so to speak. The Wild have goalie Nicklas Backstrom, captain Mikko Koivu, and forward Antti Miettinen on their roster. Carolina employs three Finnish players, too (forwards Tuomo Ruuto, Jussi Jokinen, and defenseman Joni Pitkanen).

Columbus could have up to four players on their roster from Sweden, including 2010 Olympians Fredrik Modin and Samuel Pahlsson.

Five current Phoenix players hail from the Czech Republic, including Olympian Zbynek Michalek. Fellow Czech Olympian David Krejci plays for Boston.

The league is excited about the opportunity to return to Europe.

"The 2010 Compuware NHL Premiere Games, featuring six participating clubs this year, represents our continued commitment to growing hockey outside of North America, further displaying the talent of the NHL players internationally," said Mike Ouellet, NHLPA Chief of Business Affairs. "Fans in Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic will have the opportunity to watch some of their own home-grown players competing in these regular season NHL games, which will certainly be a great experience for everyone involved."

Playing regular-season games on weekday afternoons (U.S. time) is probably not a good way to build a television audience in the States, but it's likely these games will attract more attention than they ever would in the home venues of the participating teams.

Not only that, but the league continues to try to grow and market the game globally, something important to them from a business standpoint. For the NHL, the poor timing of these games in the United States is a small price to pay for what they hope it brings them long-term.