Marc-Andre Fleury made me do it – the (weird) Story of a Weekend in May 25

If I would have to name my favorite player I have seen playing for “my” Pittsburgh Penguins, this name would definitely be on the top of the list: Marc-Andre Fleury. When the Canadian goalkeeper and NHL icon recently finished his career at the Minnesota Wild, I was really sad that I just did not make it any more seeing him on the ice.

The more, I was excited to hear that – right at the end of his magnificent professional time on ice – he is doing something for the very first time of his life: playing for Team Canada. The announcement was just a few days before the IIHF World Championships 2025 started in Stockholm in Sweden and Herning in Denmark. It was one of these moments in my life in which I knew: I have to do it. I have to see him. It took me a couple of hours to plan and book a trip to Stockholm (where the Canadian team plays), despite I already had other plans. I felt it is a nice way to praise Marc-Andre Fleury in a typical Flyctory.com way: with a trip report (this time, in one post).

 

Marc-Andre Fleury in Stockholm – The Trip

One of the key issues I had was: one the one hand, my job did not really allow me to travel over to Sweden during the week. Apart from that, all three potential weekends were already blocked. On 9th and 10th May 2025, I had already Rock of Ages tickets for the Bremen shows, the weekend thereafter featured my farewell from the German cast in my favorite musical in Duisburg. For the potential semifinal and final days (if Canada would make it there…), I already had booked a trip to Türkiye. Thus, I felt that the only chance was to skip one of the Rock of Ages shows and go for a rather unusual routing.

Here is my travel plan for the three days:

Friday, 9th May 2025

11:34-14:15	ICE 202	Düsseldorf – Bremen	train
19:30 – 22:15 (approx)		Rock of Ages show, Metronom Theater Bremen
23:17-00:14	ICE 514	Bremen-Hamburg	train

I planned spending the night at IntercityHotel Hamburg-Barmbek in Hamburg.

 

Saturday, 10th May 2025

06:20-07:20	SK 648	Hamburg (HAM) – Copenhagen (CPH)	flight
09:00-09:15	SK 1416	Copenhagen (CPH) – Stockholm (ARN)	flight
12:30-15:30		Slovenia – Canada (IIHF WC)	Avicii Arena

I went for the Clarion Hotel Arlanda, due to the early morning flight on Sunday. I shared this hotel with you in a review already.

 

Sunday, 11th May 2025

07:30-09:30

EW 9213

Stockholm (ARN) – Dusseldorf (DUS)

flight

I would have loved to see Canada’s second match on Sunday as well. However, neither any of the late evening flights nor Monday early morning really worked out well. So I had to go for the short one-match trip.

 

Marc-Andre Fleury in Stockholm – Day 1

My trip to Bremen started comparably late, so that I could do quite a lot of Flyctory.com stuff before heading to Dusseldorf. My car was parked close to Dusseldorf Airport’s (DUS) train station for two reasons. First of all, as I would return there on Sunday – and secondly because parking there is that much cheaper, compared to the Main Station Garage. From there, it is just a short trip (into the wrong direction) to Dusseldorf Main Station, where I had a short stay at the German Rail Lounge The trip to Bremen was relaxed and I could work on Blake Shelton’s and Truck Stop’s album reviews. he people next to me had quite a lot of beer and were really loud – but I did not care that much.

 

Rocking in Bremen

After arriving in Bremen, I spent a few hours in the DB Lounge / German Rail Lounge there. The rather small lounge has been recently renovated and was a really nice workplace to do quite a lot of Flyctory.com stuff. After storing my luggage in the rail station lockers and having a sandwich, it was time to head to Metropol Theater, where I had seen Rock of Ages in 2023 already. Neither my favorite venue nor my favorite show that evening – but I loved seeing birthday girl Stephanie Löblich as Regina on stage.

 

Sleeping In Hamburg

After a birthday hug, it was time to head back to the train station, where my train to Hamburg finally left with some delay due to construction work. Just a few hours of sleep at the IntercityHotel Hamburg Barmbek (my first stay there, but too short for a review).

 

Marc-Andre Fleury in Stockholm – Day 2

After just some two hours of sleep, it was time to head on – maybe one of the most expansive hotel stays in regards of Euros per minute I ever had 🙂 The commuter rail to Hamburg Airport (HAM) conveniently departs close to the hotel and so I had to wait longer for the train than it took me to get to the platform. The first SAS flight of the day was operated by Braathens Regional Airlines in one of their ATR-72. Quite interesting how people react on boarding the plane through the rear, when they are not used to it. I really love that kind of flying. It feels so rural, so original. And the comfort with the Swedish airline is really nice, especially in the rear of the cabin.

Even though we were quite ahead of schedule, the transfer in Copenhagen was quite a rush. One reason for that was that some people took ages for unboarding and that the bus dropped us at a rather unfortunate (for me) position of the terminal.

 

Off To Stockholm

I reached the SAS Connect service to Stockholm (ARN), a bit of sweaty, but happy. We landed in Sweden in time. In order to safe time, I put my suitcase into the luggage locker instead of bringing it to the hotel. I also went for the Arlanda Express, even though that added a bit to my travel expenses. Not sure if my decision to bring a backpack to Avicii Arena was a good one. I thought that I might be able to deposit some merch and food for the evening there. Sweden has a strict no bag rule for major events – so, maybe, using the luggage depot at the arena was a 100 SEK waste of money.

Whatever – I arrived at the Globen (I still feel this is the more appropriate name…) at a bit more than two hours before the match. Perfect timing. I had some time spending at the adjacent mall. My hope to grab some merchandise there like a Fleury Canada jersey (why the hell can’t you buy them? I am sure many would have loved it) went down quickly, but I enjoyed meeting some people there already. And: they got advertisement for the Pittsburgh Penguins match in November 2025 – likely, the next time I am at Avicii Arena.

 

The Main Event

Now, it was time to head into the arena. The gate opening of Avicii Arena was a bit of bumpy. The Latvian team was still practicing on the ice and I had time to explore the arena, including the seats I will be having for the November 2025 matches. Grabbing a bite was more or less a fail – I talked about that in my Avicii Arena review. The people more and more gathered around the gate to the ice through which the Canadian team would step into the arena for the warm-up.

I was quite amazed how many Penguins jerseys were there in Stockholm. I obviously was not the only one, who wanted to see “our players” Marc-Andre and Sidney Crosby on the ice. While Sid as the Canadian captain played in the second line, Marc-Andre was the back-up only. The more I loved to see him warming up. I have to admit it was really touching to me and I had some tears. The pictures of the warm-up are not the best, but I love to share the snaps with you.

The Game

The pre-game show was quite cool. The announcer incorrectly first stated Fleury as the starting goalie, but my hope to see him active on the ice did not turn into reality. Canada dominated the match, but struggled with Slovenian goalie Lukas Horak – I just don’t understand that this guy did not get the luxury watch as the best player of his team at the end. The match had some funny moments as well. Crosby, for example, first ignored the handshake with the Robert Sabolic at the beginning and even did not shake hands with the referees. He was obviously not used to international habits. Mascot Beaty was partially more entertaining than the match itself, but overall, I really loved my time at Avicii Arena. You also saw the respect the Slovenian players paid Marc-Andre Fleury at the end of the match. At the post-game handshake, the Canadian back-up was by the the player who got the most accomplishments by the opponents.

 

Fan Zone

After the match I went to the Fan Zone. The lines at security was long and I initially struggled whether I should go for it at all. However, Stockholm did an amazing job as I said in the stadium review before. I simply hanging out with so many people celebrating sports. Swedish and Austrian fans were waiting for the next match, but there were people from many other nations as well – including Germans, even though our national team plays the tournament. My episode at the 2025 IIHF Men’s Worlds was short, but absolutely heartwarming and incredible.

 

Back To Arlanda

I initially thought about doing some sightseeing in Stockholm, like visiting the Old Town Gamla Stan, but I felt too exhausted. I thus headed back to the main station and boarded the Arlanda Express back to the Stockholm Airport (ARN). Even the rail lounge (which is rather a waiting room without catering featured the Hockeyfest, how the World Championships are marketed in Stockholm. While I had good connections on my way to Avicii Arena, I just missed the metro at Globen station as well as the Arlanda Express, so that the trip was a bit longer than before. After grabbing my suitcase, I just went into my hotel room at the very convenient Clarion Hotel Arlanda Airport with some snacks and did some work (including a majority of the picture work of this post) for my blog.

 

Marc-Andre Fleury in Stockholm – Day 3

I did not sleep overwhelmingly well – but at least it was a bit more than the night before. The Clarion Hotel Arlanda serves breakfast from 4:00, which I feel is lovely for a terminal hotel. However, I wanted to try something new and headed right into the terminal. After a lady stared at the screen all the time while I was printing my boarding pass, I headed straight to Fast Lane. Despite the airport was surprisingly crowded for a Sunday morning, security went very smooth. After grabbing some supply for my nicotine addict, a.k.a. snus, I headed straight into the American Express Lounge in Stockholm. I had recently decided to finally go for an American Express Platinum Card – this stay felt like a nice benefit now.

The flight of the day was a Eurowings direct service to Dusseldorf (DUS), operated by Eurowings Europe. I had the same routing and operation two weeks earlier, when I was at the Swedish Floorball Finals. Thus, I knew that the walk to C Gates is a bit of lengthy. The walk along the constructions of the airport upgrades is really bothering – especially as quite some of the walkways towards the gate are not working. The flight was a really nice one, though. I had a nice chat with my seat neighbor. And, travelling with hand luggage only, I was really fast at the place where this trip started, Dusseldorf Airport (DUS) train station.

 

Marc-Andre Fleury in Stockholm – A Short Reprise

When Marc-Andre Fleury stepped off the ice after the match and headed to the cabin, I felt a bit of heartbroken and happy in parallel. This guy has been such an idol and such an enjoyment for quite a bunch of the time since I follow my Pittsburgh Penguins. Not having the opportunity any more having him on the ice is simply sad. On the other hand, I felt happy and proud having said thanks and farewell to him. At least in a certain way. He might not have taken a single look at me nor will ever read this post. Overall, doing this was a financially and physically massive effort (with all the stuff booked that short notice). But it was absolutely worth it.

Finally, there won’t be too many trip in my life which combine two things which are such a big part of my life, Rock of Ages and the ice hockey team from Steel City. Thus, it was amazing.

 

 

Trip Report Inceptions

Here are the starting postings of each Trip Report I posted in here so far

 

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