It's not that shocking to be honest mr. majormajor, like Ville said for the two first years he was called a "p***y commie" who "tries to steal their jobs" the league was a bit different towards europeans then.
Edit: ofc after they proved their value and played hard, they made some lifelong friends, i think it was more of a test than some racist stuff. Anyway we should be proud of the europeans who back then paved the way for so many more, because back in the day it was not easy to go in a NHL teams lockerroom as a european.