MILAN – Thomas Kristensen tried to put into perspective what Denmark’s next match in the preliminary round of the 2026 Winter Olympics men’s hockey tournament means back home.
His answer zeroed right in on why the match between Denmark and the U.S. on Saturday, Feb. 14 at Santaguilia Arena comes with a side of distraction.
‘Of course now they’re going to play a game on the real ice, not on the ice in Greenland,’ said Kristensen, a reporter and commentator for Denmark’s TV 2 Sport. ‘Of course it’s special, but I think that a lot of Danish people are trying to split it up and say this is sport and the politics has to be in another way.
‘You will not see anything from any Danish spectators or something going specific at the American players in no way. The Danish people, they know that this is sport.’
‘We’re not used to being in the news that much,’ said Lars Eller, a forward with the Ottawa Senators who has played 1,116 games in the NHL. ‘But I feel like every week there’s something new, and whatever was in the news last week is forgotten quickly and we move on.
‘I don’t think it’s on any of ours minds what’s going on politically in the world. It’s outside noise and in the profession we’re in, you have to be good at tuning out the outside noise.’
Oliver Bjorkstrand, a forward for the Tampa Bay Lightning and an 11-year NHL veteran, has parried questions about his homeland.
‘More people are saying, hey, what’s up with Denmark?‘ he said. ‘Nothing crazy, but there’s some people who, if they know I’m from Denmark and in the States, they bring it up and it’s like, oh, that’s interesting or whatever.’
Captain Jesper Jensen Aabo, Denmark’s flag carrier in the opening ceremony, said that, ‘it doesn’t really mean anything to us, the whole political situation. I love Denmark and it’s in my opinion the greatest country on earth.
‘I don’t think this is the platform to discuss politics, but of course I follow everything.’
Frans Nielsen, who played 925 games in the NHL, was at Friday’s practice in his gig as a reporter for TV 2. He remembers visiting Greenland in seventh grade on a class trip. ‘It’s part of Denmark,’ he said. ‘No one ever mentioned Denmark in the world picture, so it’s weird to be in the news like this.’
Weird, but not something players spend time time thinking about.
‘Yes, that is something that the whole world is talking about,’ said Nikolaj Ehlers, a forward for the Carolina Hurricanes. ‘It’s nothing new. It doesn’t change anything for a hockey game.’
For the Danes, this tournament is about building on what the national team accomplished at the 2025 World Championship, when Denmark upset Canada in the quarterfinals.
‘It’s great for the sport,’ Nicklas Jensen said. ‘It’s great for all the young kids at home. It’s making maybe their dreams bigger, and maybe it feels more possible to do it so. It’s a really cool time we’re in right now with Danish hockey. Hopefully we can keep surprising.’
That World Championship performance is something the Danes want to use against the Americans. Sure, on paper, the Americans look intimidating, 25-NHLers deep. The Danes have six.
‘We know they’re the big dog, we’re the underdog,’ Bjorkstrand said. ‘It’ll be a difficult game, but as a small nation, where you know you’re the underdog, you just have to have a belief and just find a way to make positive things out there and keep it going for as long as possible. And then, you just see what happens.’