Being a Norwegian living in Denmark, the Norwegian-Danish rivalry is of special importance. As such, let's look at our rival Denmark's roster:
- 7 players from the domestic Metalligaen
- 5 from Allsvenskan
- 3 from SHL
- 3 from DEL
- 2 from the AHL
- 1 from GET-ligaen (Simon Nielsen)
- 1 from the Swiss NLB
- Randomly, the veteran Kim Staal who is playing for the Japanese team Tohoku Free Blades (Asia League Ice Hockey)
As one can see, there is a lack of NHL experience in their roster. The only one with experience is Oliver Lauridsen with 16 matches. All others are either still busy with the NHL or AHL playoffs (Frederik Andersen, Lars Eller, Peter Regin, Nicklas Jensen) or are injured (Jannik Hansen, Mikkel Bødker). Former NHL'er and now KHL'er Philip Larsen is looking for a new team, so he didn't want to play either. They might, however, get reinforcements in the form of Frans Nielsen (if the Islanders release him; he has suffered from some minor injuries recently) and Oliver Bjorkstrand (if his WHL team gets eliminated from the WHL playoffs).
At first I would think they would have some severe challenges with the lack of good goal scorers. However, Denmark has often performed suprisingly weak with the presence of NHL players (in 2012, for example, where they were one match away from relegation). As a group they have performed fairly good in the friendly matches - but that does not automatically mean they will do so in the actual tournament. Who knows?
