Resilience has defined Switzerland’s Olympic run — a campaign marked by adversity, determination, and the leadership of players like Nico Hischier, who said, “It hurts, but it's going to make us stronger.”
After a back-and-forth preliminary round, Team Switzerland, backed by three New Jersey Devils players, is now preparing for what’s ahead. The three New Jersey Devils players who are also on Team Switzerland’s roster are Timo Meier, Nico Hischier, and Jonas Siegenthaler.
Team Switzerland has had a whirlwind run at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics. The team hasn’t had a smooth road, though; they experienced adversity early on when Kevin Fiala was taken off the ice on a stretcher.
After the injury, Hischier described seeing a teammate stretchered off:
“Stuff like that is hard to watch," Hischier said to NHL.com.
Meier agreed with Hischier but, looking ahead, added hope for how the team will rebound.
“[I] just hope it's nothing too bad. Didn’t look great. Yeah, it sucks... We got other guys we know can step in, and we're going to battle for each other because we care a lot about each other,” Hischier said. “Yeah, it hurts, but it's going to make us stronger.”
The team has dealt with several injuries, sidelining players for the tournament, not just Fiala. However, Roman Josi shared optimism about his team's future with NHL.com.
"I think every team would say that there's no easy game,” Josi said. “So yeah, our focus is on tomorrow. We've got to play our best tomorrow, and then what happens after we can look to."
The team prepares to face Team Italy on Tuesday, with the puck dropping at 6:10 am ET.
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