With NHL players back in the Olympics after last appearing in 2014, Los Angeles Kings forward Adrian Kempe was one of many players who got their first chance to represent their country on the biggest stage. Now back from Milan, he had a chance to put his opportunity into perspective.
Kempe’s Sweden team failed to medal, but he still spoke positively about the experience.
“Great experience for me,” he said. “Didn’t really know what to expect going into the tournament with everything going on around it and in the village and everything. But [I] had a great time. Really enjoyed the two weeks.”
Although only a few sports besides hockey were held in Milan, Kempe still appreciated the opportunity to be around a range of athletes at such a major competition. He said that outside of playing in the games, his favorite part of his time in Italy was getting to see a city during an Olympics.
“It just felt like everybody was there for one thing, and that was the Olympics,” he explained. “So it was really cool to see [and] just experience that, and just see how big everything just becomes in a couple of weeks. Just changes [the] entire city. So I think that experience was awesome.”
Like all Kings players, however, Kempe had a damper put on his Olympics when fellow Kings forward and Team Switzerland member Kevin Fiala suffered a brutal lower-body injury that will keep him out for at least the rest of the regular season.
Fiala was one of the team’s highest scorers this season, and his teammates are grappling with the loss on both a professional and personal level.
“He’s such a big part of this team, and especially going into [the] final stretch of this season,” Kempe said. “He’s a big key player to our team, and obviously it’s really sad to see him go down like that. I wish him all the best in his recovery coming back, and hopefully we can make the best out of it for him for the rest of the season.”
Today was Kempe’s first practice with newly-acquired star Artemi Panarin, and the two played together on the same line while also sharing time on the power play. Like many of his teammates and coaches before him, Kempe praised Panarin’s offensive talent and playmaking ability and expressed excitement about getting to play with him.
Kempe did provide one unique angle to the newest King, and once again it came from the Olympics. During the tournament, Kempe talked to fellow Swede and Panarin’s now-former New York Rangers teammate Mika Zibanejad about what to expect.
“All he had to say was good things about him,” Kempe said. “And obviously it’s a little bit different, because he’s a righty and I’m a lefty and Mika’s a center and I’m a right wing, so it’s a little bit different. But [I’ll] try to watch some video of him, and try to watch some video of other guys that have success playing with him, what they do, where they play, and all that kind of stuff.”
“[I’m] just trying to catch up to where the team is at right now. Just had a couple days off, so [my] body’s feeling good, mind is rested. So I’m ready to go, and hopefully we can just have a good finish [to] the year.”
