The Life of an International NY Islanders Die-Hard: Sweden

It's not easy to come across a nation of people as passionate about hockey as the Swedes. While parts of the country fight frigid temperatures and very little sunlight during the winter months, the cold weather allows for more hockey to be played. From Bobby Nystrom and Stefan Persson to Andur Kallurs and Kenny Jonsson, the Swedish NY Islanders of yesteryear have paved the way for current Islanders Sebastian Aho, Simon Holmstrom, and Pierre Engvall.

In the city of Gothenburg, not far from the northern tip of Denmark, lies a group of passionate Islanders fans. A city of 580,000, less than half that of Nassau County, is home to #NYISE - a Swedish Islanders supporters group founded ten years ago founded by Magnus Cedergren Larsson and Benny Ferdinandsson.

"We decided to create a hashtag for the Swedish Islanders fans, so we called it #NYISE," said Cedergren Larsson on how the group came about. "When we later that year started up a Swedish Islanders fans group on Facebook, we didn’t know what to call it, so we just kept the hashtag as the name of that group. We have discussed through the years to rename it because it’s kind of hard to find if you don’t know what to search for, but the name has stuck to the members, so we’ve never changed it. Today we are 231 members."