• Swiss target improvements

    From IIHF News@1:266/404 to All on Sat May 5 16:46:07 2018
    A liberal sprinkling of youngsters honing their skills in North America adds some zip to the Swiss roster at this World Championship. Forward Nino Niedereitter is the best-known name on the list,

    but there are some intriguing new additions on defence as Switzerland reshuffles its pack ahead of the action in Denmark.

    Goalies

    Reto Berra and Leonardo Genoni look set to share Switzerland's goaltending duties in Copenhagen. The 31-year-old Berra spent most of this season playing in the AHL with the San Diegao Gulls and

    returns for his fifth World Championship. He's in good form, with his numbers from the 2017-18 campaign comparable with the best in his career (SVG of 92.2% from 36 games in the AHL). Bern's

    Genoni, meanwhile, was the main Swiss goalie in last year's tournament and went
    to the Olympics in February. Gille Senn, a 22-year-old from Visp, completes the
    trio.

    Defence

    New Jersey's Mirco Muller makes his World Championship debut for Switzerland, hoping to end a frustrating season on a high note. The 23-year-old missed 31 games of the NHL season after breaking his

    clavicle, but returned to action in February and featured in the Devils' brief play-off campaign. He's one of three North American-based players on the Swiss roster here. Three years after his last

    World Championship appearance, Dean Kukan returns. Now 24, the solid defenceman
    has spent those seasons in North America, mostly recently with the Blue Jackets
    and the Cleveland Monsters (AHL) and

    will look to show how he's developed in that time. Jonas Siegenthaler, the youngest player on the roster at 20, played his first full season of AHL action
    with the Hershey Bears and is set for his

    World Championship debut. Amid several young prospects, the experienced Raphael
    Diaz, 32, will play a leadership role in his sixth championship. A veteran of more than 200 NHL appearances, Diaz

    spent the last two seasons back home with Zug and was part of this year's Olympic set-up.

    Forwards

    The return of Nino Niedereitter to the Swiss roster is a big boost for Patrick Fischer's team. The pacey Minnesota Wild forward was a big contributor to the silver medal run of 2013 but has not

    been at a World Championship since Moscow in 2016. He's joined by another NHLer, Sven Andrighetto of Colorado, who produced a point a game in his debut championship in Moscow two years ago.

    Elsewhere, some familiar names are missing: Andres Ambuhl and Cody Almond have not been selected leaving the likes of Simon Moser and Reto Schaeppi to provide
    the experience on the roster.

    Newcomers to the roster include Joel Vermin, Chris Baltisberger and 21-year-olds Noah Rod and Damien Riat. There's disappointment for promising 19-year-old Nico Hischier who misses out after

    picking up a wrist injury during the Devils' play-off exit.

    Coaching

    Patrick Fischer has been behind the bench since 2015-16 and has had mixed results in that time. His first tournament, the World Championship in Moscow, saw the Swiss miss out on the quarter-finals

    but he put that right in 2017 with a strong performance in the group phase and a battling exit against eventual champion Sweden in the last eight. The Olympics, though, were a disappointment. Heavy

    defeats against Canada and the Czech Republic set up a qualifying round match-up with Germany and an overtime loss to the eventual silver medallist.

    Projected results

    As usual, the Swiss should be looking at reaching the quarter-finals, particularly in a group where several nations are undergoing something of a transition. With its NHL reinforcements, this is a

    stronger roster than went to Korea and Switzerland should have enough to stay ahead of Slovakia and claim a top-four place behind the big three of Russia, Sweden and the Czechs. However, it's hard

    to see the team challenging those three in the group phase and it's likely that
    the campaign will end in the quarter-finals.

    Andy Potts

    http://https://www.new-iihf.com/en/events/2018/wm/news/2272/swiss-target-improvements
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