City of Novi becomes “Little Sweden”
Thanks to the influx of European players on the Red Wings team, players have flocked to the city of Novi. The Swedish players seem particularly drawn to the area as all but one of the seven Swedes live in the Novi city limits. Henrik Zetterberg is the only Swede to live elsewhere. He resides in West Bloomfield.
In Metro Detroit, six of the team’s seven Swedish players live within five miles of each other in Novi, prompting coach Mike Babcock to recently dub the suburb “Little Sweden.”
The concentration is no accident. It gives the foreign-born players comfort to live near each other where they can speak Swedish and where their wives, girlfriends and kids can socialize during the team’s long and frequent road trips.
“For me, I picked Novi because my wife wanted to live close to some countrymen,” winger Mikael Samuelsson said. “You’ve got to have a convenient situation for the family and it helps the guys here too. It helps me relax when I’m on the road. I know they’re having a good time.”
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