By Kevin Snow
If this was Olympic hockey, Niklas Edin and Team Sweden would be down two goals early in the first period.
Everyone saves their best games for the champ, so now it’s time to get pucks in deep and start digging your way back into the game.
However you try and spin it, this is unfamiliar territory for Edin’s squad.
A 6-3 loss to Great Britain on Thursday has the defending gold medallists in an 0-2 hole to start the round-robin portion of the men’s curling tournament at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games.
Things don’t get any easier for Sweden, with Brad Jacobs and Canada up next on Friday at 1:05 p.m. EST. The Canadians opened with a 7-6 extra-end win over Germany on Wednesday, and will next face the United States in their second game on Friday at 3:05 a.m. EST.
Edin’s team has been to the podium in the last three Olympics, finishing no worse than second in the round-robin standings each time. A 7-0 start in 2022 vaulted them to a 7-2 record and an eventual gold medal victory. In their silver medal year in 2018, they sat atop the standings with a 7-2 record after winning their first six games. They opened the 2014 Winter Olympics with three straight wins en route to an 8-1 record to top the table before taking home the bronze medal.
The Swedes mapped out their season with a plan to peak at the Olympics but it’s been a grind at times, playing just one playoff game in five Grand Slam events. The battle-tested Edin does come out to play in the longer events, and he showed that mettle at the 2025 European Championships in December. Sweden jumped out to a 4-0 start only to lose three of their next five and barely qualified for the playoffs. Given new life, they roared back to defeat Bruce Mouat and Scotland in the semis and took home gold by knocking off Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller in the final.
If they are to dig themselves out of this hole, Sweden will have to replicate some 2014 Olympic magic to get it done. Off to a 2-0 start that year, the Swedes faced a Canadian rink skipped by Brad Jacobs in their third game. The two men had faced each other a year earlier at the 2013 World Championships in Victoria, B.C, with Edin coming out on top. History would repeat itself in Sochi as Edin scored one in the 10th to take home a 7-6 victory to remain undefeated. Jacobs would ultimately get the last laugh that year as they knocked off Great Britain to win gold, while Sweden would settle for bronze with a win over China.
In a media call, Jacobs said that Sweden can “flip the switch and all of a sudden become the best team in the world” at a moment’s notice. Time is already running out on the defending champs from Sweden, and a win over Canada on Friday could stop their season from going dark.
Lead photo by Anil Mungal/TCG
