{"id":454027,"date":"2026-02-11T03:49:30","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T03:49:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/454027\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T03:49:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T03:49:30","slug":"nhl-stars-ready-to-show-olympics-what-4-nations-missed-out-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/454027\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL stars ready to show Olympics what 4-Nations missed out on"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILAN \u2014 There were some bruised feelings a year ago, when the four nations selected unilaterally by the NHL in a Russia-less return to international best-on-best hockey did not include the likes of Czechia, which had won IIHF World Championship the previous summer.<\/p>\n

Ditto Slovakia, ditto Switzerland, ditto Germany, as what sort of tournament can call itself best-on-best without the young dynamo Juraj Slafkovsky or the old sage Roman Josi or let alone the surly yet electric Leon Draisaitl?<\/p>\n

No tournament, of course, and certainly not these Olympic Games, where 12 countries \u2014 again, sans Russia, still under righteous sanction for the invasion of Ukraine \u2014 compete for gold starting Wednesday when the Slovaks face the Finns. <\/p>\n

And for all the understandable attention on the United States, Canada, Sweden and Finland, this is not a case of four teams and then everyone else.<\/p>\n

Hockey-loving nations like Czechia, where they filled Prague\u2019s Old Town Square and where David Pastrnak giddily chugged beers after the 2024 Worlds, might have something to say about that.<\/p>\n

\u201cHalf of the whole career, I\u2019ve been waiting [for this],\u201d said Pastrnak, the Bruins superstar who waved the Czech flag at the opening ceremony. \u201cFor a kid in Europe, you don\u2019t have much chance to watch [the] NHL because of the time change, so all you do is watch the Olympics and the national team. It\u2019s an amazing feeling, enjoying every day. I want it to start, but at the same time, I know when it starts, it\u2019s going to go fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Switzerland and Czechia, which have the most NHL players of the non-4 Nations teams, are considered the biggest medal threats of that group. <\/p>\n

But even the likes of Germany, which include Draisaitl and Senators star Tim St\u00fctzle, and Latvia, which nearly upset Canada with a 55-save performance from goaltender Kristers Gudlevskis at the 2014 Games, need to be taken seriously.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we won the bronze medal at World Championships, our national president [Egils Levits], he made a holiday on that day,\u201d said Elvis Merzlikins, Latvia\u2019s goaltender this time around. \u201cIf we\u2019re gonna bring medals home from the Olympics, I don\u2019t know what\u2019s gonna happen. They\u2019re gonna build a statue of us probably.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BruinBruin star David Pastrnak, skating during a practice for Team Czechia on Feb. 9, 2026, said he is thrilled to be playing in the Olympics Getty Images<\/p>\n

Islanders winger Ondrej Palat<\/a>, who came a disappointing third in the group with Czechia at the 2014 Sochi Games, admits his nation is not the favorite here.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut anything can happen in those games,\u201d Palat told The Post. \u201cSo we\u2019re gonna try our best, play in a good system, follow it. Hopefully we can surprise some teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Czechs open against mighty Canada on Thursday a few hours after the Swiss begin their campaign against underdogs France.<\/p>\n

\"RomanRoman Josi, who plays for the Predators in the NHL, takes a knee during Team Switzerland\u2019s practice on Feb. 8, 2026. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Unlike the U.S. and Canada, who often bring half-baked squads to World Championship each spring, these are countries where the IIHF\u2019s annual tournament is treated as a big deal, and thus where their rosters are not at all dissimilar from what they\u2019ve brought to Italy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re definitely a confident group,\u201d Josi told The Post. \u201cI think one of our strengths is that we\u2019ve played with each other for a couple of Worlds now. A lot of guys know each other really well. And I think our team game is our strength.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we play top teams, you gotta play as a team as best you can. You gotta have a good team game. I think that\u2019s one of our strengths. I think we understand who the favorites are, I don\u2019t think we need to hide. We definitely have a lot of confidence in our group.\u201d<\/p>\n

2026 WINTER OLYMPICS<\/p>\n

Josi, after the Swiss first practiced here on Sunday, called this the best national team he\u2019s ever played on.<\/p>\n

Milan\u2019s proximity to Switzerland \u2014 just 45 minutes to the border town of Chiasso by car \u2014 will likely mean the national team is well supported here., and the trio of Devils on their team already have plenty of chemistry<\/p>\n

\u201cYou grow up watching these big events, Summer and Winter Olympics,\u201d said Nico Hischier, one of those three along with Timo Meier and Jonas Siegenthaler. \u201cIt\u2019s only every four years. It\u2019s very cool to be experiencing this now. It took a little while, but the players are all very happy to be part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN \u2014 There were some bruised feelings a year ago, when the four nations selected unilaterally by the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3962,9439,2178,5,8638,4,2602,43,6711,2787,31286],"class_list":["post-454027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-4-nations-face-off","tag-czech-republic","tag-david-pastrnak","tag-hockey","tag-latvia","tag-nhl","tag-olympics","tag-sports","tag-switzerland","tag-winter-olympics","tag-winter-olympics-2026"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116049961041804157","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}