Alina Muller is excited to be back with her PWHL Boston teammates, but is also hopeful for the future of Switzerland's national team.
Alina Muller is excited to be back with her PWHL Boston teammates, but is also hopeful for the future of Switzerland's national team.
Alina Muller played hero for Switzerland at the IIHF women's World Championships in Utica, New York. After a relatively quiet preliminary round for Muller, she stepped up in the placement game scoring twice to save Switzerland from dropping to Group B in next year's tournament.
Instead, the Swiss, led by Muller, Lara Stalder, Andrea Brandli, and young stars like Ivana Wey, will enter the 2025 tournament as fifth seeds.
With the Worlds over however, Alina Muller is excited to get back to her PWHL Boston teammates and complete the final push in the inaugural PWHL season. Things haven't gone exactly as planned for Boston this year. A preseason favorite to challenge for a title, it now looks like there's a realistic chance Boston will miss the playoffs.
"The season with Boston so far was really good, we didn't get the puck luck we wished for, we didn't get the bounces or wins we wished for, the points, but you know I miss the girls, we have a great group, I can't wait to be back with them," said Muller.
She acknowledged the struggles Boston has had, and the fight to the finish that's going to occur. Muller returns to Boston this week as the team's leading scorer with 13 points in 19 games, and she'll need a memorable performance like the one she put together for Switzerland in their final game if Boston hopes to challenge for the final playoff spot.
"Now I'll go back with the other girls, we'll try to make the playoffs, and I'll give my very best."
Muller's presence in the PWHL has impacted women's hockey players in Switzerland giving girls and women something else to dream for. That includes Naemi Herzig, a 17-year-old first time member of Team Switzerland at the 2024 Worlds who has been avidly watching Muller and will look to someday follow her path to North America.
"Now with the best league in the world, to play there, to see Alina Muller play there is just a new dream I am able to chase now. But I also want to stay in the moment," Herzig told The Hockey News.
"They all want to go to college, they want to play in the US," Muller confirmed about Switzerland's young players, who will become the future of the national program. It's a change she's seen in her career where players will now have more chances to extend their careers beyond minor hockey and college to the pros.
With Boston sitting five points out of a playoff spot trailing Ottawa, the team has one game against each PWHL team to close out the season.