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That same weekend, the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs was played in North America. A different game of hockey featuring NHL talents was played in a large parking lot on the streets of Nairobi, Kenya.
Twenty-four-year-old Calgary Flames defender Oliver Kylington and 39-year-old Johnny Oduya, who played 850 games in the NHL in 2006-18, were in East African countries playing roller hockey with local and Kenyan ice lions, the only country team to play organized hockey.
The pair of defenders also donated equipment through sponsors, visited neighborhoods and met with locals.
In planning the weekend, Kylington and Oduya partnered with the Ice Lions, who play in a country with only one ice rink. It is located in a hotel but has been closed for over a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Ice Lions are made up mainly of adult men, and they compete in games within the team and also bring in foreign players.
We brought these plastic discs and they fired and the guys went down, blocking shots without equipment, Kylington said from Nairobi. I never saw a Swedish child do that. Were like, what’s going on here?
It’s almost like watching the Stanley Cup final, said Stockholm-born Oduya, who won the Stanley Cup with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2013 and 2015.
They play on the street on Sunday for three hours. Its fascinating.
Kylington and Oduya have known each other since Kylingtons ’father introduced them when they were about eight years old. Oduya became Kylington’s big brother, who has many common experiences as a hockey Swede with an African heritage. Kylingtons ’mother is from Eritrea, an East African country, while Oduyas’s father is from the Kenyan Luo tribes.
Since the meeting, they have continued to train and vacation together over the years. Now they are trying to grow the sport together on the continent of their ancestors.
Kylington said it has been peace of mind to meet people and see their passion for hockey.
This was the first time hed had been to Africa since he was 10 years old.
It’s been really humble to see where the kids playing here have grown up, he said. You get a lot of perspective. You quickly find that you don’t take things for granted.
Recently, Oduya created a sports brand called Atunya, a word from the Luo tribe that means ruthless.
So, like the action of a lion, Oduya said, I wanted to tie it up and try to open a pretty separate game of what hockey is.
Three years ago, the Ice Lions were flown to Toronto to play the first organized games and met Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby and Colorado Avalanche Star Center Nathan MacKinnon. The video documenting the trip went viral.
Now NHL players are coming to them.
They made a huge show, said Ice Lions coach, Canadian diplomat Tim Colby. They brought tons of gear and jerseys. Things like that are really inspiring to the team.
He was also impressed with how Oduya and Kylington really wanted to learn about country life and culture. Kylington did much of the footwork in arranging donations and logistics.
Oliver asked a lot of questions about life here, Colby said. Neither of them wanted to leave.
Colby has seen with his own eyes the power of hockey in shaping life and the impact that people like Kylington and Oduya are involved in developing sports in Kenya. It allows participants to dream big not only in sports but also in other areas of their lives.
Players only see the world differently when they start playing, he said. The world is no longer just Nairobi. It is not where they live. Suddenly they have a chance to go somewhere international, at least you have a chance to think that way.
Chances are Kylington, Oduya and Colby will find themselves in the same Nairobi car park for a puck drop in the near future.
Although their first trip to Kenya was short, Oduya and Kylington plan to return in a year to bring even more equipment, play more games and integrate into the culture.
Their ultimate goal is to introduce Africans to hockey as a tool for both exercise and social mobility.
It’s their way of coming to the field, staying out of trouble and doing positive things, Oduya said.
For both, it has meant even more.
I would say it has been the best trip of my life so far, Kylington said.
I take a lot with me. It has been amazing. It’s so hard to say. For me as an adult, when I return to Africa, you will understand more about the things in life. You can see what people are really fighting and how hockey can bring them joy. It’s amazing and amazing to see that passion just loves the game.
You are touched emotionally differently when you are there, Oduya said. In some ways it’s challenging to visit, but they have so much enthusiasm. The children we meet have a way of thinking about possibilities.
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