Obama thanks Sweden for NHL hockey exports

Aamer Madhani | USA TODAY

Never missing an opportunity to talk sports, President Obama thanked the people of Sweden on Wednesday for exporting a few of their countrymen to his hometown Chicago Blackhawks.

Blackhawks center Marcus Kruger as well as defensemen Niklas Hjalmarsson and Johnny Oduya are originally from Sweden.

Viktor Stalberg, another Swede who recently signed with the Nashville Predators, was also on the 2013 Stanley Cup winning Blackhawks.

"I should mention on behalf of hockey fans back home in Chicago, I have to say how grateful our championship Blackhawks are for their several teammates who hail from Sweden," said Obama during a joint news conference with Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt on Wednesday. "So that's been an excellent export that we gladly accept."

Obama, who is making the first bilateral visit by a U.S. president to Stockholm, noted his city's large Swedish population. The Swedes of Chicago brought to the Midwest the log cabin, they built Wrigley Field, and they founded the Walgreens drugstore chain.

Obama was asked by a Swedish reporter if there was anything else he admired about the country that he wished to import to the USA.

The president noted that Sweden outpaces the USA in the development of its clean-energy sector, and he praised Sweden for maintaining a robust market while making investments in education, infrastructure and research.

Obama, who has spent much of his 4½-years in the White House butting heads with GOP lawmakers, said he appreciates the respectful tenor of the political debate in Stockholm.

"I'm sure Fredrik doesn't feel this as he's engaging in difficult debates here," Obama observed. "I do get a sense that the politics in Sweden right now involve both the ruling party and the opposition engaged in a respectful and rational debate that's based on facts and issues."