MILAN– The Swiss team is no longer just happy to be here.
‘We want to poke the bear, there’s no doubt about it,’ the striker said Nino Niederreiter said. “I don’t think we need to hide at all.”
Switzerland has participated in the last four Olympics featuring NHL players and finished sixth in 2006, when it beat Canada in the preliminary round.
Romain Josi said it was a memory from 20 years ago that he would never forget and that it helped fuel his love of the Olympics, his passion to one day get here to represent his country.
“It was amazing to watch that as a kid,” the Nashville Predators defenseman said.
Now he’s at the Milan Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games, part of a Swiss team that believes it can do something bigger for hockey in the country than simply upsetting a global hockey superpower in the preliminary round to finish sixth out of 12 teams.
This time, the Swiss, with 10 NHL regulars and 17 players with NHL experience, feel good enough to compete for a medal.
It would be the country’s first appearance at the Olympics since its bronze medal in 1948.
Switzerland opens Group A preliminary round action against France at Santagiulia Arena on Thursday (6:10 a.m. ET; Peacock, CBC Gem, SN). She will face Canada on Friday and the Czech Republic on Sunday to complete the preliminary round.
“I mean, that’s obviously the goal, and we know what we’re up against,” Josi said of his medal. “We know the teams that are coming here, the players that are here, but I think we can have a lot of confidence in our game. Obviously it’s a different beast from the World Championships, but we’ve played some really good World Championship tournaments and have gained some momentum. We know what we’re up against, but we have a lot of confidence in our team.”
Switzerland has won silver at the last two IIHF World Championships, losing 2-0 to Czechia in the gold medal game in 2024 and 1-0 in overtime to the United States last year.
Many of the NHL players who were on those teams are on the Olympic team, including Josi, Niederreiter of the Winnipeg Jets, Nicolas Hischier, Timo Meier And Jonas Siegenthaler of the New Jersey Devils, Kevin Fiala of the Los Angeles Kings, JJ Moser of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Akira Schmid of the Vegas Golden Knights and Philip Kurashev of the San Jose Sharks. They are joined here by the St. Louis Blues forward Pie Suter.
But Josi and Kurashev didn’t compete at the Worlds last year. Meier and Moser were not present at the tournament in 2024. Suter did not participate in either of the last two World Championships.
“It’s kind of the first time we’ve all been together,” Josi said. “Of course we have a very good world championship, but there are always a few guys missing. So yeah, it’s definitely the first time we’re all playing together.”
