The Hybrid Game: Linus Karlsson Talks Hockey & Jeeps

Linus Karlsson joins us from our new Pioneer Auto Group Jeep studio to discuss his hockey journey from Sweden to North America and the challenges of adapting to a different style of play. Linus shares insights about his NHL experience while revealing the mental aspects of professional hockey that fans rarely see.

• Linus discusses his new Jeep from Pioneer Auto Group and how it fits his hockey lifestyle
• Comparison of Swedish versus North American hockey styles - bigger European rinks mean more possession, while smaller North American ice demands physicality
• Growing up in a small Swedish town of just 1,500 people that produced three NHL players
• How Erik Karlsson and Johan Franzen from his hometown became his hockey inspirations
• Reflections on international tournaments and the excitement of seeing national teams compete
• Managing the mental challenges of playing professional hockey in a new country
• Working with a mental coach to handle the ups and downs of NHL/AHL transitions
• The importance of having fun and not rushing development as a young hockey player
• Playing multiple sports growing up, particularly soccer until age 14

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Transcript

Welcome to the New Jeep Studio

Speaker 1 0:00

Hey , what's up ? Welcome back to the 254th episode of the Athletes Podcast . You'll see we're in a new studio today . That is thanks to Pioneer Chrysler Auto Group here in the lower mainland of British Columbia . Pioneer Aldergrove hooked me up here with this amazing Jeep Plug-in hybrid , if you haven't noticed . It's environmentally friendly . And today's guest was also hooked up with a Jeep Brand new , thanks to Pioneer Auto Group . And today's guest is also hooked up with a Jeep Brand new , thanks to Pioneer Auto Group . And today's guest is Linus Carlson .

Speaker 1 0:28

Kind of a big deal in the hockey world . If you folks didn't know , we were at the event with Linus Carlson in person at Pioneer Auto Group Chrysler in Mission , where we witnessed him signing some autographs , getting some pictures with some fans and also we were able to give away a couple tickets for some local hockey specifically , our winner this week was jennifer nitroll . So if you have not yet heard , we will be contacting you , jennifer , and you are the winner of two abbotsford canucks tickets . Thank you for being in attendance and for participating and for you folks watching this show , because that's how we continue to grow the Athletes Podcast . We're at 254 episodes as of now , which is crazy , and you folks have been along for the ride . Let me know down below how long you've actually been watching for . That way , we know who the real fans are of the AP . And for the folks who didn't catch us in person at the event or win the tickets , maybe this is your incentive to pay more attention here on the athletes podcast , as we're going to be doing more giveaways , more ways for you to win cool prizes , connect with cool people and ultimately continue learning , which is what we all ultimately like to do here on the athletes podcast end up performing better . We're here to educate , entertain and inspire . That next , we appreciate you being a part of it .

Speaker 1 1:45

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Speaker 1 2:21

This is the 254th episode of the Athletes Podcast featuring Linus Carlsen . Here we go . You're the most decorated racquetball player in us history , world's strongest man , from childhood passion to professional athlete , eight-time ironman champion . So what was it like making your debut in the nhl ? What is your biggest piece of advice for the next generation of athletes , from underdogs to national champions ? This is the athletes where high-performance individuals share their triumphs , defeats and life lessons to educate , entertain and inspire the next generation of

Linus on His New Jeep

Speaker 1 2:56

athletes . Here we go . I almost forget his name . You forget his name .

Speaker 2 3:01

Yeah , yeah , he's the commentator . He's commentating games , so after games , sometimes you have to do that .

Speaker 1 3:11

Okay , some of the requirements right , yeah yeah , is it part of the job ? You got to sign autos , you got to take pictures it's fun yo uh , and it is fun right , yeah , it is that's perks of the job ? Yeah , not just playing hockey .

Speaker 2 3:24

No sometimes you have to do these things , and it's always nice when people come by right , and then you also get hooked up with brand new vehicles . Yeah , that's awesome . Yeah , I really appreciate that . Right , tell me about the Jeep .

Speaker 1 3:37

Europe . Oh , we got . They're gonna wash . Thank you , brother . Awesome , awesome . That's the kind of service you get at Pioneer Auto Group . That's awesome .

Speaker 2 3:56

That's really nice . I'm happy that's uh , it was a really good deal that you helped me out with .

Speaker 1 4:02

Right , I know where it's . Uh , I'm spoiled . This is my first hybrid ever , is it ? And uh , first Jeep Dude , I love it . I can fit all my hockey gear in the back . Oh , that's awesome . I'm a goalie , so you know we're a little crazy sometimes but yeah uh , hey , at least we get hooked up with nice vehicles . What's your favorite part about it ?

Speaker 2 4:20

uh , I think it's just like it's . It's this big like you can have . Like you I travel a lot and , uh , when you get back from sweden you have a lot , and when you get back from Sweden you have a lot of things to bring to the apartment and stuff , so it's really easy to just put it in there and you can fill it pretty quick .

Speaker 1 4:39

Yeah , what's been the biggest adjustment ? Playing in Sweden now over here in North America , what changes the most ?

Swedish vs North American Hockey Differences

Speaker 2 4:47

Of course the rink is so much bigger in sweden , or yeah , uh , so like it's kind of different game , like it's more possession in sweden , like it's hard to get stops and , um , it's a little bit more . You can spend more time in the d zone because like it's hard to close the gap and uh , always , like also , the neutral zone is a little bit like smaller so you can here it's harder to make plays , you , you , you have to dump it in more often than in Sweden . You more like possession and try to skate it in right and always the physicality is always so , so , so a big thing , big difference yeah , yeah , yeah , the .

Speaker 1 5:30

Uh , I grew up watching , you know . Roberto loango , marcus naslin , the sedine twins . That was like the introduction to swedish hockey for me . What was for you ? Who were your inspirations ? Who'd you watch growing up ?

Speaker 2 5:45

uh , eric carlson was uh , he's from my hometown . And also joan franson played for detroit . Yeah , yeah , so those two he's from my hometown . And also Jovan Fransen , who played for Detroit yeah , yeah , so those two are both from my hometown , so I always watch them play . But then you also watch Jesse Deans , you watch Seth Berg . Those guys you watch too when they play for a national team . But if I had to choose players , it's probably France and Erik Karlsson .

Speaker 1 6:14

Yeah , tough to beat Erik Karlsson , and when he's got your last name too . Yeah , exactly , we are from a really really small town .

Speaker 2 6:23

All of us like I think it's like 1,500 people , and so it's kind of crazy that they have like three inch ellers , yeah , that is wild , yeah , it is so .

Speaker 1 6:34

No , of course you look up to them

Swedish Hockey Inspirations

Speaker 1 6:37

what , uh , what was the the biggest adjustment for you ? Obviously you know you come over here to north america , you get drafted . Is there a particular kind of canadian slang that you've been able to get accustomed to , or any favorite words that you like to throw out there ? Now you're Swedish friends ? No , not really actually not . You didn't hear anything like tell me how that four nations felt , with obviously Sweden being involved . You've got so much history behind those teams . What was it like for you watching it ?

Speaker 2 7:08

no , it was fun . It's uh , it's always fun to watch the best players , you know , like uh , uh , no , it was . It was like see how fast the game is when all the all the best players in the world . Uh , it was crazy . It was really fun . And uh , yeah , of course , it's uh unlucky for sweden . They didn't make their finals , but uh . But now I think we I would love to see more of those kind of tournaments Like you see the best playing with each other and against each other . So now that it was like I think I really want to see more of that , like the Olympics and stuff . I think that would be crazy .

Speaker 1 7:47

So much national pride . It's been bottled up for decades .

Speaker 2 7:49

You can see the US ands and canada game . Like the first game , they start fighting each other and it was just like oh right let's go who , uh , who's been the hardest goalie you've ever had to go against ?

Four Nations Tournament Reflections

Speaker 1 8:01

oh ?

Speaker 2 8:02

hardest goalie , that's a good one . Um who do I play against ?

Speaker 1 8:12

Even in practice .

Speaker 2 8:13

Practice , I mean Like there's probably someone over here I played recently , maybe who did I play ? I played Edmonton . I played Nashville Jusisaurus .

Speaker 1 8:28

Yeah , jusisaurus , yeah , good finish .

Speaker 2 8:30

I scored my first on him too . That was pretty good .

Speaker 1 8:32

I was going to say tell me about that first goal . No one that was . Everyone asked you about it , but no one picking up the puck . What happened there ? You give the boys a little heck .

Speaker 2 8:41

Hogs told me I asked the ref and he was like he didn't give care . I got the puck and I didn't really care . I didn't even think about it during the game . But I just saw someone tweet about it after and I was like OK , I didn't really care . But then someone just sent me the tweet and I was like OK , but I think the hogster said he tried to , but then he didn't get the puck and yeah , it was just a fun thing yeah no , it was crazy , it was uh .

Speaker 2 9:15

I waited for that for a couple games , so it was just like nice to see it go in . Yeah , uh , just to get it done . You know , like you always like wondered when did it happen ? Can I just get the first one and then selling it happened get the monkey off the back .

Speaker 1 9:31

Alex burrows , pulling out the old arrow , you know exactly no , that's .

Speaker 1 9:34

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Speaker 1 10:34

Let's get back to the episode . The last question , or one of the last questions . I always bring up traveling a bunch . My buddy Kalen did an internship over in Sweden and one of the things he said you know , dealing with mental health , there can be difficulties playing on the ice , ups and downs going between teams .

Mental Health in Professional Hockey

Speaker 1 10:54

How do you manage that ?

Speaker 2 10:55

Yeah , that's hard . That was probably the hardest thing when you came over here . I actually have a mental coach back in Sweden that I talk to a lot and that's like we work with those kind of things . But , and you like , my first year was kind of a bit harder because now you start learning like how to deal with stuff and you know how everything works . Like my first year didn't really know the call-ups , like who gets call-ups , who , how do you , how do you deserve a call-up ? Or like now you like you , you know how , like how I need to play to get the call up , you know how things work . But yeah , it's different because everyone in the NHL fights for the same thing .

Speaker 2 11:47

Everyone wants to play in the NHL . So it's kind of competition . In practices . It's like every day is a competition like who's going to play up there . Day is a competition like who's gonna play up there . But then also we actually have a really really good group down in Abbotsford , so it's kind of it's really fun to play there too . Like it's not like , oh no , I got sent down . Of course , like you always want to play in the NHL , like you always want to be there and you always get pissed when you get sent down . But we have a really good group down here in Abbotsford too . That's a fun group of guys that I really enjoy to play with too .

Speaker 1 12:30

Yeah , and you know , you get to drive to the rink in a new Jeep . Your coach is Manny Malhotra . Tell me about Manny , because he was a Canucks legend . There you know .

Speaker 2 12:38

No , he's really great . He's intense , like he's . No , I really like Manny . He's a great guy . He played in the NHL , so he knows what everyone's going through and like , yeah , I think he understands you really well . So , no , I'm really enjoying to play under him .

Speaker 1 13:02

And where's one place you want to take your brand new Jeep from Pioneer Auto Group ? I got to ask .

Speaker 2 13:08

Oh I , where do I want to go , like somewhere close to here . Do you mean like wherever , wherever ? I would love to take you to Europe , but I probably can't do that . No , because in Europe every country is so close to each other in Europe , so it would be awesome to just drive around there , see a lot of new countries and see a lot of new cities and , yeah , eat a lot of food . Italy is awesome . What's your go-to food Back in Sweden ?

Speaker 1 13:50

Yeah , if you had one dish what would you eat ?

Speaker 2 13:58

It's kind of like the pizzas in Sweden is kind of different from here . Okay , how so ? That's like we have like the like . Do you know gyros , or what do you call it Gyros ? Yeah , yeah , we have that on the pizza and like a really nice sauce . That's like called kebab pizza . Okay , that's like I wouldbab pizza . Okay , that's like , uh , I would love to have one of those now . Yeah , and then also like the meatballs is always good , but you can cook them here too , like it's not hard to to do not , not not ikea ones .

Speaker 2 14:31

No , not ikea ones , it's have to . You have to make them yourself .

Speaker 1 14:35

Uh , so , like mom was here a couple months ago and she made some meatballs and it was really really good nothing beats mom's meatballs no , exactly uh the way we wrap up every episode , linus , is we ask our guests their biggest piece of advice for the next generation

Advice for Young Athletes

Speaker 1 14:52

of athletes . There was one thing you wish you knew when you were a younger hockey player growing up . What would it be ?

Speaker 2 14:58

um , I think it's no , you don't need to . If you love the game , you don't need to rush uh things like everyone has to . I want to be the first rounder . I have to , I have to play in that team when I'm this young , or uh . But if you love the game , you love the , you love the sport , I think , I think you can go your own way . You know , just because one of the guys plays in that team , it doesn't mean you're not going to be a good player . Just have fun . I think having fun is probably the best advice I can give someone .

Speaker 2 15:38

If you don't think it's fun to play , or then you find something else like you have to find . Have the love of the sports and , yeah , just have fun when you play . That's I think that's the most important thing , because if you don't do that , you don't have the energy to put down the work you have to do , you know . So probably , have fun is probably my best advice .

Speaker 1 16:01

I like it . What other sports did you play growing up Fast ? Last question Any other sports did you play ? Soccer ?

Speaker 2 16:07

I played . I was trying like two , three practice . I played bandy . Have you seen that ? What is that ? It's kind of like a soccer field but it's ice and they play with like a ball and then like a kind of special .

Speaker 1 16:23

Yeah , okay , yeah , I'll do some research to get a bandy athlete on , is it a ?

Speaker 2 16:28

Swedish game . Yeah , it's kind of a Swedish game . I didn't really play games , I just play like three , four practices , but then , like , hockey was always , always my thing do you think they helped you , like playing bandy didn't help ? No , no , not really , it was just like three practices , so it wasn't like really helping , I was just trying it . Yeah , yeah , uh , but I played soccer until I was 14 and , okay , that helped then , yeah , no , for sure , like I was , I think it's me it was good to have something else than just hockey .

Speaker 1 16:59

Right .

Speaker 2 16:59

It's just like nice to do something else , focus on just not hockey all the time . I think all my other friends play hockey too , so like yeah , it was just like fun to be around friends and have fun . Yeah , that's probably it .

Speaker 1 17:17

I love it , hey quick episode here with Linus Carlson on the Athletes Podcast , episode 254 with number 94 . Oh , that's awesome 254, .

Speaker 2 17:25

crazy , it's a couple 254 , that's a lot .

Speaker 1 17:27

Hey , thank you for coming on Seriously we'll look forward to when you are leading the points for another .

Speaker 2 17:34

Thank you so much , thank you .

Speaker 1 17:36

Just want to say thank you , folks , for tuning in to the 254th episode of the athletes podcast . Obviously , this is a new format we hope you enjoy . Let us know what you think below . Do you like the Jeep studio ? Do you think we should do more training style videos ? I want to know . I want to make sure you folks are enjoying what we're putting out here on the athletes podcast on a weekly basis . We have to say thank you our sponsors , can I wellness , for keeping me fresh , ready to go .

Speaker 1 18:01

Perfect sports diesel protein powder , which is the best in the business , been voted so for multiple years in a row . Now my personal fave at the moment is the muskoka blueberry . It's so dang good . You have to try it again . Use the code ap20 at checkout to save 20% . And we can't forget about our studio sponsor , jeep Pioneer Auto Group . Thank you , folks , for providing us with the best wheels on the road as we speak . And we have to say thank you to Pioneer Auto Group for providing us with this amazing plug-in hybrid Jeep . It is getting me everywhere I need to go on a daily basis . We're just having a great time . I hope you guys are enjoying it , because I am myself personally , selfishly . I get to have these amazing conversations with these individuals and hopefully you're gaining something from it again . Sincerely , thank you for tuning in . I hope you enjoyed it . We'll see you next week for another episode . Bye .