FEATURE: Swiss Army Nico

Nico Hischier's accent is thick. It had been a while since he had engaged in such a lengthy English discussion. He has been home in Switzerland ever since the NHL paused the season and players were allowed to return to their native countries.
He's back to speaking Swiss-German on a regular basis. When the NHL season was paused, he returned to Naters and moved back in with his parents Rino and Katja, alongside his brother Luca and sister Nina.

In Switzerland all citizens must take part in military training, this current phase would last 18-straight weeks, suddenly Nico had the time to fulfill it all in one summer.
"It was always in the back of my head," he said, "I already did something for [the army] last summer, but that was just for one day. I knew this year would be the year I would have to do those 18 weeks. But one reason I really did it was to be able to stay in shape, because I didn't know where to go because gyms weren't open and I couldn't just workout at home, I just didn't have the tools for a good workout."

Hischier is enrolled in the Army athletes' program which allows him to continue training for his professional sport. He's in a small group of Swiss athletes, in the program with seven friends who also play hockey and several Olympic skiers. Twice a day they are given the opportunity to train. That was the opportunity Nico needed.
"The Army came, and they had a great solution because where I'm working out right now it's a great building," He said, "They have physio's there, they have everything there, so you're really able to work out good, and do your military service as well."
He began his 18-week program in the "Rekrutenschule", on April 14th and is expected to complete his service on August 14th.
"Because of coronavirus the whole army situation is different," Hischier said going into detail of his service. "Usually we would have the first five weeks in a room where everyone sleeps together, and in the morning do some army stuff. In the afternoon we are able to work out, but because of the coronavirus the first four weeks we were at home and did homeschooling kind of thing, we had exercises on the computer and had to basically learn that and after that we went to this training center."
It's not quite like what you see in the movies, he joked. There is no major screaming, but there are strict rules. Although, he's aware his experience is different than most, he enrolled in the specialty division for athletes.
"Last week we picked up our clothes and there you saw that it was really the army. We had to stand still and stuff like that," Nico said, "But for [athletes] it's a little bit different because they give us more time to work out, because we are able to do the Athletes Army thing but from my friends and stuff I heard they make you do pushups during the night if you're too loud, you have to get up in the morning and basically be clean-shaven every morning."
Through the video conference you could see, he wasn't quite clean-shaven but certainly was close. His program runs a little different, and so were the parameters of his service. Loyalty to his country and to the New Jersey Devils had suddenly potentially intersected.
There was one caveat Hischier approached the army with before starting. If the Devils called, he was going back to North America.
"I talked to the army, before I even said I'm coming," he said, "If I'm there, we didn't' know for a long time if we'd have to come back [to New Jersey] and play again, so they said that if I have to go back that's no problem, I can leave."

When he eventually heard the news that the Devils would not be part of the 24-team Return to Play plan, there was disappointment but also a sense of relief. He now had a different level of focus, and a (less) vague timeline on how to prepare his body, not having to think about returning in mid-July to finish out the year. He was now officially into summer training mode.
"That's the weird feeling about this, working out and not knowing exactly when to come back and not knowing exactly when to be ready for Game 1," Nico shared, "but, it's not just for me, it's the same for everyone. So, I just try and focus week-by-week, try to get better shape-wise, and try to go skate a bit more too in the next few weeks, slowly get back into the rhythm."
Nico is an optimist, always wanting to shed the positive light, always certain that with any 'negative' there's a positive as well. It's how he sees this extended summer and the opportunity for when the next NHL season will begin again. It could be months before he and the rest of his team experience high-level competition, an atmosphere they all thrive within.
"I think that's something that we guys talk about too," he said, "It's going to be such a long time that we haven't played a game, it could be weird, but it could be positive as well. Now you have so much time to prepare yourself off the ice really well. Now you have so much more time, you can use it as an advantage, but I'm both ways. I'm like 'yes, now you can try to use that as an advantage to put your work in, you're going to be in better shape than the last few years, but then the other side tells me too, but 'hey at the end of the day it's hockey that counts and if you haven't played for so long it's going to be so weird to step back out onto the ice and play at such a high-level and such high-speed."
There is no doubt that when that time comes, Nico Hischier will be more than ready. He'll tape his stick, lace his skates and there will be little worry of missing a beat heading into his fourth NHL training camp, he'll have spent 18-weeks over the summer ready for anything.
"This is] a training camp, but we have some army stuff to do."
**[Photos by Alessandro Della Valle**