MILAN — Of all the juicy subplots to the juiciest game of the Olympics so far, the intra-NHL team matchups between the United States and Sweden may be near the top of the list.
There is Auston Matthews against William Nylander; there are Quinn Hughes, Brock Faber and Matt Boldy against Joel Eriksson Ek and Filip Gustavsson; there is Victor Hedman against Jake Guentzel; there is Matthew Tkachuk against Gustav Forsling and Jack Hughes against Jacob Markstrom and Jesper Bratt.
More pressing for Rangers fans, it’s J.T. Miller and Vincent Trocheck on one side, Mika Zibanejad on the other.
We were deprived of the intra-Rangers matchup a year ago at 4 Nations, with Zibanejad missing Sweden’s round-robin finale against the U.S. — a 2-1 win for Tre Kronor — after coming down with the illness that swept around the tournament.
Zibanejad, whose national pride is on the line Wednesday at 3:10 p.m. Eastern, would not miss this one for the world.
“If you’d tell me this situation last year or 12 years ago, however, that you get to play the quarterfinals against the U.S., I’ll take it,” Zibanejad said after scoring one goal and assisting another in Sweden’s 5-1 win over Latvia to secure qualification. “We’re gonna have to play good teams either way. It’s obviously a tough challenge. We know what they are. But we’re excited.”
Zibanejad is not just facing Miller and Trocheck, but also his coach with the Rangers, Mike Sullivan, and his general manager, Chris Drury.
The Americans know all too well what Zibanejad can do. Miller and Trocheck, usually part of the top Rangers power-play unit trying to feed Zibanejad for one-timers at the left dot, will be trying to throw themselves in front of those blasts instead.
“He’s a great 200-foot player,” Trocheck said. “Big, strong, good on draws, has a big shot. So for us penalty killers, that’s what you want to pay attention to a bit more. Then in the O-zone, he’s great defensively. His stick’s so long, he takes up so much space. He’s so smart.”
The Rangers trio has run into each other in the Olympic Village “a couple times” throughout the week, Zibanejad said. “I can still say hi,” he added. “Good catching up with them.”
That either the U.S. or Sweden will exit the Olympics in the quarterfinals and without a medal ranks as the biggest upset of the men’s hockey tournament here in Milan. The two countries have faced each other 15 times at the Olympic Games, with the Americans winning six of the first seven between 1920 and 1960. Since then, the Swedes have won or tied eight in a row, the last of which came in pool play in 2006.
As U.S.-Sweden matchups go, we have to reach beyond hockey for a comparison.
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This one is the biggest sporting event between the two nations since John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg in the 1981 Wimbledon final.
“It’s gonna be a tough challenge,” Zibanejad said. “But one we’re prepared for. It’s obviously guys that we play every day. In terms of knowing how good they are and what their strengths are, we’re aware of that. We have a lot of belief in our group and our team.”
It was put to Zibanejad that, should Sweden win, he’d have something to hold over his teammates, his coach and his general manager for pretty much ever.
“We’ll talk after the game about that,” he said, and walked off.
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