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NHL to kick off season in Prague, Helsinki and Stockholm
Feb 9, 2010, 19:22 GMT
Prague - Three European capitals - Prague, Helsinki and Stockholm - are to host the National Hockey League's opening games in early October, organizers of the Prague-based games said Tuesday.
The NHL is set to kick off its regular season in Europe for the fourth time, after first moving the openers to London in 2007.
Prague is to host two opening games between the Boston Bruins and Phoenix Coyotes on October 9-10, said Karel Tejkal, a spokesman for Ceska sportovni, the organizing firm in the Czech Republic.
The Carolina Hurricanes and Minnesota Wild are set to launch the season in the Finnish capital on October 7-8, while The Columbus Blue Jackets and San Jose Sharks are to play each other in Stockholm on October 8-9.
The top US and Canadian league is moving its opening games to Prague for the second time, after the New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning played in the Czech capital in 2008.
The opener was then sold out within 24 hours, despite the Czech Republic's former NHL megastar, Jaromir Jagr, leaving the Rangers a few months earlier for the Russian league team Avangard Omsk.
The Czech organizers said they again preferred to bring teams heavy on Czech players. Seven Czechs, including Petr Prucha, Radim Vrbata, David Krejci and Robert Lang, play for the teams that are slated to start the season in Prague.
In the future, the organizers hope to lure the Washington Capitals to the Czech capital.
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