MILAN — Here in this hotbed of world soccer, at one of the game’s most famed cathedrals known as the San Siro Stadium, two sports celebrated a new partnership in grand style.
What a spectacular stage to do it on.
One day after more than two dozen players completed a saturated schedule of interviews as part of the NHL/NHLPA’s European Player Media tour in Milan, a group of them were awestruck as they were standing on the pitch prior to the opener of the Lega Serie A season for legendary AC Milan and newly promoted Cremonese, the visitors, on Saturday. It was part of the groundbreaking Content Collaboration Partnership between the NHL/NHLPA and Italy’s top soccer league, and it already seems like an ideal marriage.
Just ask any one of Nico Hischier of the New Jersey Devils, Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond of the Detroit Red Wings, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen of the Buffalo Sabres, or William Nylander of the Toronto Maple Leafs, who were all on the verge of being awestruck at being on the playing surface, at this venue, at this time, for this occasion.
“It’s unreal,” said Seider, the German defenseman who grew up cheering for Bayern Munich. “Just seeing how passionate they are about it, seeing what football means in Milan, it’s quite special. Having the experience to see that on the pitch is quite unique and obviously an unforgettable moment.
“There are 80,000 fans in the stands right now. You can feel the energy … They live for coming here, they live for supporting this team. It’s quite special.”
Hischier and Nylander were honored to participate in a jersey swap with two Milan players prior to the game. Hischier, the New Jersey Devils captain, then posed for pictures with the AC Milan mascot which, fittingly, is a devil.
All part of a night none of them will soon forget.
“This is incredible,” Nylander said. “I can’t tell you what it’s like to stand down here. It’s pretty awesome, pretty sweet.
“This is pretty sick. Historic stadium too. Pulling up to the stadium, it’s like ‘Wow, this place is huge.’”
So, it seems, is the popularity of Nylander and the Maple Leafs, even on this side of the Atlantic.
To that end, here’s how, for one brief moment, hockey took center stage in one small pocket of this iconic soccer venue.
The families of Sally Vibilecchia, 49 and David Alonzi, 50, live in Vaughn, Ontario, just north of Toronto, and are huge Maple Leafs fans. They were vacationing in this part of the world and were planning on coming to the game to see AC Milan open its season when one of the group of eight kids saw on Instagram that Nylander would be there.
“So by some chance we ended up sitting here and looking for him. It’s amazing,” Vibilecchia said. “It’s crazy because our purpose was to come to the Milan game, inaugural game. And then we just kind of stumbled onto the fact that Nylander would be here.”
They did more than that. They found him before the game and were able to get photos taken with him.
“He was very nice, (and) said it was very nice to meet us, “ Alonzi said. “We told him we’re big fans of his.”
Hockey fans, in particular Maple Leafs fans, Nylander said, are everywhere. This was just another example.
“It’s insane,” Nylander said. “It’s a huge fan base with incredible fans. And they were so nice to me when they met me up there. Anything you can do to give back to them.
“It’s crazy. Everywhere I go it seems like I always run into Leafs fans and it’s incredible. It shows how big the Leafs are. People all over the world watch the Leafs.”
What Nylander and his fellow NHLers were privileged to see on this night was an upset of David-and-Goliath proportions. It was Cremonese, the underdogs who were given nary a chance to win by the red-and-black-clad pro AC Milan throng, who shocked the hosts and their supporters with a 2-1 victory thanks to a spectacular bicycle-kick goal by Federico Bonazzoli in the 61st minute.
Earlier in the day, the NHLers were given a tour of the training grounds of Inter Milan, AC Milan’s arch rivals. There they were able to watch practice and chat with goalie Jan Sommer, a good friend of Hischier’s from their native Switzerland.
“It was fun to get a look into their world and see what they’re doing and their facilities,” Raymond said of the experience with Inter Milan. “It was fun. It was pretty awesome.”
Raymond said the chance for players to get an inside look at the highest level of soccer prompted some to eagerly stay behind in Italy’s second largest city rather than immediately bolt back to their home countries after the completion of their media responsibilities Friday.
“Just the whole Milan as a city, lots of stuff to do, good restaurants, it attracts a lot of guys to stay,” he said. “And being able to see it down here (on the pitch), it’s awesome.”
Steve Mayer couldn’t agree more.
As the NHL’s President of Content and Events walked out of the San Siro after the game, he wore a huge smile on his face. Why wouldn’t he? What better way could there have been to kick off the relationship between the NHL/NHLPA and Lega Serie A than this?
“Incredible day, incredible experience,” Mayer said. “From the tour of the practice facility to the exchanging of the jerseys before the game, to the enthusiasm of our players to be part of this, it’s just been amazing.
“I can’t wait to see how this grows, including having some of their players do jersey swaps at our games, things like that.”
You can bet the likes of Nylander, Raymond, Hischier and Seider, just to name a few, will be all in when it comes to this new partnership between leagues.
In fact, they already are.
— Eric Marin, Director, Editorial at NHL.com International, contributed to this report
