Team Switzerland's catching the men's World Championship by surprise with five straight wins. But look deeper into their roster, and it all makes sense.
Switzerland has a little bit of everything on their World Championship roster. Their team is a proverbial ‘Swiss Army knife.’ Every line deployed brings something different to the ice, culminating in a functional, frustrating team to face.
How else can you explain how a team featuring six NHL players beat Canada 3-2, a team with 22 NHL players on their roster? In fact, the only non-NHL player on Team Canada, Adam Fantilli, will almost certainly be the No. 2 pick at the upcoming NHL draft.
Switzerland’s roster, by all logic, should not have beaten the 5,998 games of NHL experience on Team Canada. But this isn’t the NHL, and while Canada had the decided edge in NHL experience, Switzerland had more than five times the World Championship tournament experience on their roster.
Even before their new trio of impact NHL players in Nico Hischier, Kevin Fiala and Jonas Siegenthaler joined the roster, Switzerland had won three straight games without allowing a goal. Switzerland’s new NHL trio, however, along with Nino Niederreiter, Denis Malgin and Janis Moser, have been central to Switzerland’s success.
Swiss coach Patrick Fischer, however, has chosen to deploy his roster more evenly than is typically seen among NHL teams. So far, that approach has been the difference.
Beyond Switzerland’s NHL contingent, the nation’s multipurpose roster has made a difference. If it were a team driven solely by players like Hischier, Niederreiter and Fiala, you’d expect the Swiss to be relying on power-play opportunities. That hasn’t been the case. In fact, the Swiss special teams have been middle of the pack. Through the first five games of the tournament, the Swiss only have the sixth-best power play and the eighth-best penalty kill. Neither special team ranking equates to an undefeated team sitting atop their group. Instead, Switzerland has relied upon their 5-on-5 play, opportunistic scoring, and good team defense.
Against Canada, none of Switzerland’s top 12 forwards played less than 12 minutes, and they even managed to roll seven defenders, all clocking in more than 13 minutes of play. It’s a deployment and trust in their depth that should earn coach Patrick Fischer faith in his roster. Compare that to Canada, who had four NHL forwards play less than 12 minutes and two NHL defenders play less than 11 minutes, and you can see how Switzerland’s approach is working.
Switzerland is getting key contributions from players like Dario Simion and Marco Miranda up front, as well as blueliners Andrea Glauser, Romain Loeffel and Christian Marti, and goalie Leonardo Genoni, none of whom have ever stepped foot on NHL ice.
Perhaps the most influential group for Switzerland, however, is a contingent of NHL castoffs. D-man Dean Kukan, who spent parts of six seasons with the Columbus Blue Jackets but never played more than 41 games in an NHL season, has been a rock. He’s the only original member of Switzerland’s roster averaging more than 20 minutes per night, and he’s spent more total time on ice than any player on the team. Leading the team in scoring is Gaetan Haas, who previously spent 92 games with the Edmonton Oilers. The next wave includes players like Tanner Richard and Christoph Bertschy, who have a combined 12 NHL games to their names, and former Toronto Maple Leafs draft pick Fabrice Herzog, whose North American professional career includes a grand total of five games in the AHL.
It’s a lack of experience in some ways but a wealth in others. Most of the Swiss national team has played together in previous Olympics and World Championship tournaments but also in Switzerland’s NL. That cohesion has been evident in their own end while mounting an attack off the rush and the forecheck.
While the Swiss look like the team to beat in Group B, there’s still a long way to go before the medals are handed out. In Group A, USA has emerged as the team to beat. Switzerland will also face the next-best team in Group B on Sunday, Team Czechia.
Without the fanfare of USA, Canada, Sweden or host Finland, Switzerland has found a way to get it done. Switzerland last medaled at the World Championship in 2018 when they won silver, but now, the team is hunting for the nation’s first-ever gold.