There is a fair amount of New Jersey Devils influence at the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milano Cortina. No team is more impacted by New Jersey players than Team Switzerland, which features three incredibly important Devils.
Timo Meier, Nico Hischier, and Jonas Siegenthaler all have different roles on the team. On Sunday against Czechia, they were all great.
For Hischier, he collected an assist and played a strong two-way game up front to keep some elite players from Czechia at bay. That was his first point of the tournament, but he has been a chance-creating machine while playing an honest game.
Siegenthaler is a stay-at-home defenseman, so his name is never going to light up a scoresheet, but the Swiss are better for having him on their roster playing big minutes.
Timo Meier was the star of this game for the Swiss. He had one goal and one assist in an overtime winner. Canada, Finland, Sweden, and the United States are always the favorites in best-on-best tournaments, but the Swiss and Czechia came in as dark horses and lived up to it in their head-to-head matchup. The Swiss prevailed here thanks to Meier's great game.
Meier's game is built for a tournament like this. It's fast, hard-hitting, and filled with skill. Meier has the potential to impact the Olympics because he possesses all of those things. He's been a great playoff performer in the NHL largely because those games are similar.
Now, with the win, the Swiss have clinched second place in Group A. They will likely be the 5 seed, which should get them France or Italy in the qualifying round. Nothing is guaranteed in this tournament, but every team would sign up for the less difficult path to the medal rounds.
The Swiss know what it's like to play Canada, as they were smashed by them earlier in the week. That's an advantage that the other dark horses (besides Czechia) don't have. A game plan could be put in place to give them a chance, but they know they simply will have to be better against those top teams. For now, they can enjoy this one knowing that they have already had a great Olympic showing overall.