Why NHL participation at the Olympics is important for European hockey fans
The men’s portion of the 2026 Olympic Winter Games will begin this week in Milan, Italy, with Slovakia and Finland kicking off the action Wednesday at 10:40 a.m. ET.
This edition of the Winter Games stands out for a number of reasons, but perhaps the most notable is the return of NHL players, who haven’t played on the world stage since 2014 in Sochi, Russia. While much has been made about the return of NHLers in Canada and the U.S., how do European hockey fans feel about it?
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Sweden, for example, is six hours ahead of eastern time, and only the most committed of hockey fans — or the ones who don’t mind having irregular sleep schedules — can watch the best players in the world compete in the NHL. But with Sweden sharing the same time zone as Italy, fans will be able to watch all their favorite athletes represent their respective countries.
On the Daily Faceoff Milan Games men’s hockey breakdown, host Jeff Marek and Better Collective head of content creation Uffe Bodin discuss the NHL’s place in the Olympics and how the rest of the world feels.
Jeff Marek: We’ve talked a lot about what these games on the men’s hockey side means for Canada, what it means for the United States. And that’s kind of been a hyperfocus for all of us in North America. I’m curious from a European perspective here. What’s the noise around this tournament in the hockey community in Europe? Not just Sweden where you are, Uffe. But Finland, Czechia, etc – the European countries who, as we’ve seen before, can upset here, right?
If you really want to spoil the party for Canada and the United States, we’ve seen it happen before. What’s the mood going into these games? Not just in Sweden, but in Europe proper?
Read more: Daily Faceoff’s 2026 Olympic men’s hockey preview hub
Uffe Bodin: I mean, it’s high anticipation because we don’t get to see these players very often. We’re six hours ahead of you guys right now. And that makes the big difference that we don’t really get to see the NHL players a lot in Europe because the games were played during the night for us.
I think it’s so important to show the younger generation the best players. And this is such a golden opportunity. We saw it to an extent last year at the Four Nations, where we actually had the game between Sweden and Finland played on a Saturday night, a really good TV time, and the ratings were through the roof. So it’s just amazing that we’re actually getting the opportunity to see these players play.
I know it’s going to be a rough patch for you guys with the game starting pretty early in the morning, but for us it’s just amazing to be able to watch these games, and especially these players, during the best time of the day (for Europeans).
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