Niederreiter reflects on the Worlds and his busy last two months

The last two months have been extremely busy for Winnipeg Jets forward Nino Niederreiter.

From being traded to the Jets from Nashville in March, the push for the playoffs with his new team, the subsequent five game loss to the Vegas Golden Knights and finally an appearance with his Swiss teammates at the World Hockey Championships - which ended with a quarterfinal loss to the Germans.

Before the Worlds began in mid-May, Neiderreiter experienced one of the biggest honours in sports, being named captain of Switzerland.

"I met with the coaching staff right before I saw most of the guys and he (head coach Patrick Fischer) asked me if I would be willing to be captain," said Niederreiter who is currently spending his off season in Switzerland.

"For me obviously, it was a no brainer. It was definitely a big honour. I tried to lead the team in the right direction."

Niederreiter has been playing for his country at the World Championships since 2011 (when he was only 17 years old). He agreed that time has gone by quickly since his debut at the tournament.

"One of the coaching staff (assistant coach Marcel Jenni), I used to play with back then. That's when I know time flies by," Niederreiter reflected.

"I was able to be on both teams that won silver in 2013 and 2018 (at the World Championships). That's where I was able to help Switzerland in some sort of ways, I guess."

The 30-year-old also did just that in 2023, pushing Switzerland to first place in Group B with a 6-0-1 record that included a 5-2 win over eventual gold medal winning Canada in the preliminary round.

"In the preliminary round we found our game. We played the way we hoped to play each and every game - and we got better and better as the tournament went along," said Niederreiter who had four goals and an assist in seven games.

"Then obviously in the quarterfinals we hit a rut, which was very frustrating. We thought we wanted to win the game in the first five to six minutes. We got a tough goal against and then we folded the wrong direction.

"You have to be aware when you see other countries like Canada who got better and better as the tournament went on and kept pushing themselves to reach another level and play their game all the way through. I thought it was something we mishandled."

Part of Niederreiter's frustration comes from the fact that he felt that his team had a legitimate shot at a medal before the knockout stage began.

"Right at the beginning of the tournament that belief was there. You can't go into a tournament thinking 'Ok, we just want to reach the quarterfinal, and everything is good.'," said Niederreiter.

"Don't get me wrong, reaching the quarters is still something you have to do first before you move on, but the expectations for Switzerland got higher and higher as they should. But obviously the disappointment is getting bigger and bigger."

That disappointment shows a changing standard when it comes to hockey in Switzerland, especially on the international stage.

"I remember when I started (playing for his country) in 2010, our goal was to reach the quarterfinals," he said. "The next phase, which hopefully is in the next few years, is how we get to the quarterfinals and then push yourselves once or twice to get to the semifinals and that should be the next goal."

The Swiss have always sent talented, competitive, hardworking teams to international tournaments. With the likes of Niederreiter, Kevin Fiala, Roman Josi, Jonas Siegenthaler, Nico Hischier and Timo Meier, Switzerland looks like they have a solid enough core to compete with Canada, United States, Sweden and Finland.

"I would say yes that we could definitely compete, and we could potentially have an upset or something like that but obviously if you look at the countries ahead of us, we don't have that many players in our country who play at the pro levels," said Niederreiter.

"We definitely can give them a big push and play some good competitive hockey. Do I think we can compete for a medal when everybody is around? Probably not. But we definitely can get to a point where we can compete and we can give them a hard push where they have to play well to beat us, let's put it that way."

Now that Niederreiter is in summer mode, he took some time to reflect on what happened in his short time with the Jets and what's coming next season.

"They treated me, personally, top notch," said Niederreiter. "I didn't know what to expect and with that part I was super happy. Obviously, we didn't get the results that we all hoped for. But I mean Vegas is now in the finals, so you lose against someone which basically went all the way.

"It kind of shows we weren't that far away but we have to make sure we get better to be able to reach our goal next year."