A year ago, the Saint-Louis Blues lived in last place in the NHL standings. A few months later, almost by miracle, this same team lifted the Stanley Cup. Such a turnaround is extremely rare, but it also serves as a reminder that nothing is really lost in advance in sport.
However, there is little chance that such a feat will be achieved this time by the New Jersey Devils, Nico Hischier’s team, mired in the penultimate place in the rankings on January 1. This is in any case what Patrick Fischer, the national coach, must secretly hope for just over four months from the World Championships in the country.
The technician must even salivate by taking a look at the current classification of the NHL when half of the regular season has just passed: with the exception of defender Jonas Siegenthaler, 1st overall with the Washington Capitals Alexander Ovechkin, forward Nino Niederreiter, 7th with the Carolina Hurricanes, and to a lesser extent Sven Bärtschi (member of the Vancouver Canucks organization but currently relegated to AHL with the Utica Comets), the teams employing the other Swiss are not currently in a position to compete in the series for the title (16 of the 31 clubs take part).
Disappointing Predators and Sharks
This observation is above all valid for three of the most important players for the Swiss team: Nico Hischier (30th with the Devils), Timo Meier (29th with the San Jose Sharks) and especially Roman Josi (at a disappointing 21st place with the Nashville Predators). However, the situation could change in the coming months, above all for teams like the Predators and Sharks, which are the most likely to climb up the rankings.
Knowing however that the regular season ends on April 4, the coach of the Swiss team could therefore have on hand a nice bunch of reinforcements stamped NHL at the start of the preparations for the world championships. And if the Swiss finally participate in the playoffs with their NHL club, the first two rounds of the series for the title should be completed before the start of the world championships on May 8 with the meeting between Switzerland and Russia in Zurich.
The provisional classification of the Swiss of NHL on January 1, 2020
Jonas Siegenthaler (1st with Washington)
Nino Nederreiter (7th with Carolina)
Luca Sbisa (13th with Winnipeg)
* Sven Bärtschi (15th with Vancouver), currently in AHL with the Utica Comets.
Gaëtan Haas (16th with Edmonton)
* Denis Malgin (17th with Florida), no longer in the plans of the national team.
Dean Kukan (19th with Columbus)
Kevin Fiala (20th with Minnesota)
Roman Josi (21st with Nashville)
Timo Meier (29th with San Jose)
Nico Hischier, Mirco Müller and Gilles Senn (30th with New Jersey)
* Philipp Kurashev, plays in AHL at the Rockford IceHogs but could be recalled by the Chicago Blackhawks during the season. Played the last Worlds in Slovakia in 2019.
Cyrill Pasche
Created: 01.01.2020, 8:04 p.m.
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