Zibanejad dreams of Olympic glory with Sweden during rebound season with Rangers 

GREENBURGH, N.Y. -- Mika Zibanejad described the scene inside his childhood home in Huddinge, Sweden nearly 20 years ago.

"We had two TVs on, kind of split watching the game," Zibanejad told NHL.com. "One was Finnish TV and the other was Swedish TV."

The New York Rangers center grew up a proud Swede in the municipality of Stockholm County, and on Feb. 26, 2006, he was 12 years old and all geared up to watch his country take on Finland in the gold medal game of the Turin Olympics.

He had his eyes on the set tuned into Swedish TV. But Zibanejad is half-Finnish too, his mother, Ritva, coming from Paltamo, Finland.

Hence the two TVs. Hence Zibanejad's apprehension, especially because, as he said, his father, Mehrdad, who is originally from Iran, was probably quietly leaning toward the Finnish side of his family.

"For me it was so split," Zibanejad said. "I guess it was a win-win for me to watch that game."

Maybe so, but Sweden winning 3-2, with Nicklas Lidstrom scoring the game-winning goal 10 seconds into the third period, Mats Sundin and Peter Forsberg assisting, and future Rangers' teammate Henrik Lundqvist in net, is how Zibanejad's own Olympic dream was born.

"That was probably the coolest experience I've had in terms of a hockey game live on TV," Zibanejad said.

Nearly 20 years later, Zibanejad's dream will become a reality, and he has a chance to create a similar moment and memory for boys and girls and hockey fans alike all across Sweden, and maybe some who are Swedish Finns like him.

Zibanejad will represent Sweden in the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026. Sweden opens the tournament against Italy on Feb. 11 (3:10 p.m. ET; USA, CBC Gem). It plays Finland on Feb. 13. The Zibanejad family will not be divided this time.

"For sure with us," he said. "We beat Finland and they get to score a couple goals maybe that's fine, but it's obviously different when I get to do it, play for Sweden, be a part of it. It's very, very different."

Zibanejad has played for Sweden many times, including last season at the 4 Nations Face-Off and the 2025 IIHF World Championship, but he said wearing the distinctive royal blue and vibrant yellow Tre Kronor uniform in the Olympics will simply be different.

"Because it's an event that involves basically every sport in the world and every sport gets their best to be there, basically," Zibanejad said. "It doesn't matter what sport you're in, a gold medal at the Olympics will always be a gold medal at the Olympics, or a medal at the Olympics will always be a medal at the Olympics. It's the history of the Olympics and how much it means."

Zibanejad has won four medals playing for Sweden, including gold at the 2012 IIHF World Junior Championship and the 2018 World Championship.

But he saw 20 years ago what doing it in the Olympics means to the players and the country. He already knows what it would mean to his friends and family back home in Sweden, and, yes, in Finland too.

"I mean, I get a lot more congratulations now making the Olympics than I did after making 4 Nations from people back home," Zibanejad said. "Friends back home that maybe don't care as much about my hockey, now they're still actually like, 'Oh, you're going to be an Olympian.' That itself is huge and a huge honor. They're happy if I'm happy with hockey and they don't want anything other than success for me, but they don't really care about my hockey, you know what I mean? They're happy when things go well in hockey, but they're still happy for me if things don't. But the Olympics, I mean, yeah, it's the Olympics. It is a big difference."

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Zibanejad will go to the Olympics next week in a much better frame of mind and with more confidence in his game because of how he's playing this season than he had when he went to the 4 Nations Face-Off last February.

"I feel like I'm back a little bit more to myself the way I'm playing," he said.

The Rangers as a team are going through a transition into retooling the roster, but Zibanejad has played well in what has been a difficult season for the team.

He has 51 points, including a team-high 23 goals, in 54 games entering Saturday, when the Rangers play the Pittsburgh Penguins at PPG Paints Arena (3:30 p.m. ET; ABC, SNO, SNE, SN1, TVAS) in their second to last game before the Olympic break.

By comparison, Zibanejad had 37 points, including 11 goals, in 55 games before the break for the 4 Nations Face-Off last season, and finished the season with 20 goals and 62 points in 82 games. It was his worst season statistically since 2017-18, when he had 47 points in 72 games.

"I'm happy for 'Meek'," Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said. "He's had a really good year for us. He's played extremely well consistently on both sides of the puck. The types of goals that he scores are goal-scorer's goals. … He's really committed to trying to play the game the right way, the way we're trying to play. I think he's personified that most of the year. We've challenged him to use his size and his physicality both offensively and defensively and I think he's really embraced that challenge."

Zibanejad hinted at a personal mental challenge that impacted him last season but didn't go into detail.

It seems that it's no longer an issue for him.

"I think it was a reset for me this summer, an experience last year to go through what I went through more mentally with everything that was going on," he said. "I'm not going to lie, it feels way better going into a tournament feeling like this than last year."

Sweden coach Sam Hallam said he got that sense from Zibanejad when he visited him in New York in October.

It was reassuring.

"We had a good talk and you could just sense the whole difference about him straight away," Hallam said. "This was a new year. He felt much better physically, mentally. That's what we've seen all year. We're very happy. His confidence has grown and that gives me even more confidence."

It had to happen that way because Zibanejad's performance last season gave Sweden's Olympic management team pause, adding trepidation into what any other year would have been an easy decision for them.

He was among Sweden's first six players chosen in advance of the 4 Nations Face-Off.

He was not among the first six named to the preliminary Olympic roster in June.

"I didn't do it to put a sting specifically on Mika, but things happen and he knew what he was playing for this year, the role he was competing for on the Olympic roster and what he needed to do," Hallam said. "He had a tough year. We didn't know where he was standing coming into this year and neither did he probably."

But, Zibanejad said, not being among the first six for the Olympics provided a sliver of motivation because it created uncertainty in his mind, which kept him grounded.

"I didn't take making the team for granted," he said. "Up until (Hallam) called me I was like, 'I don't know how he's going to think and how he's going to assemble the team?' I didn't lose hope because I wasn't one of the six, it was just try to play as good as I could."

He has done that, but regardless of Zibanejad's production and performance, this season has been challenging for the Rangers.

They announced on Jan. 16 in a public letter to the fanbase written by general manager Chris Drury that the team was going to begin retooling its roster for the future.

New York has already traded defenseman Carson Soucy and is expected to soon trade forward Artemi Panarin, its leading scorer every year since 2019-20. He will miss his third straight game Saturday because of roster management purposes.

The Rangers are in last place in the Eastern Conference.

More changes could be coming after the Olympic break.

Zibanejad admitted that playing through this transition is hard.

"With the intent of our season now we're not going to add players to become better right now so you can't have those expectations like other teams have," Zibanejad said. "If you don't have the capability of it, how can you expect something out of it."

But the opportunity to compete for gold at the Olympics presents Zibanejad a reason to have high expectations, to shoot for something not only special and historic, but attainable too.

"It's going to be cool to go there and know that you at least have the chance to do it," Zibanejad said. "And then it's totally up to you."