MILAN — Lars Eller took a long, ponderous pause.
“Yeah, the news,” he said. “We’re not used to being in the news that much.”
The we in this case was Denmark.
The news, as you know, is President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to annex Greenland, sovereign Danish territory, citing Chinese and Russian activity in the Arctic Circle.
This is all relevant here at the Olympic Games because the United States is playing Denmark on Saturday night in the men’s hockey preliminary round in a match that suddenly has a strangely political backdrop.
“It’s just little Denmark. No one ever talked about us,” Frans Nielsen, the former Islander and the second-highest Danish point-scorer in NHL history, who’s working the Olympics for Danish television, told The Post. “And suddenly we’re in the world news every day. It’s been a little weird.
“I don’t think [the players are] gonna go out there with anything against [the U.S.]. A lot of these guys know the American guys.”
While artfully avoiding giving his own opinion on the situation — no Danish player was willing to offer up anything resembling a comment on that — Eller admitted that there could be “some pride” associated with the game back home.
The current Ottawa Senator, who’s played much of a 17-year NHL career in the U.S., has had friends and family asking him about the political situation.
“People ask, is it the same message over there in the U.S. as it is in Denmark? What is going on? What are they saying? How do they view things?” Eller said. “But I think you can have a good conversation and dialogue, reasonable, with most people. At least, I’ve had.”
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Denmark, which lost its Olympic opener 3-1 to Germany on Thursday, will be an underdog to say the least Saturday.
This is the first best-on-best competition for the Danes, who scored the biggest win in their nation’s hockey history in the spring by stunning Canada in the World Championship quarterfinals, ultimately finishing fourth.
They’ve got NHL talent with Eller, Nikolaj Ehlers and Nicklas Jensen.
But they’ll freely admit they’re underdogs here.
“We’ve never seen what we’re up against tomorrow,” Nielsen said. “We played Canada and the U.S. a lot of times in the Worlds. They come with good teams there, too, but it’s not even close to this. It’s gonna be a real test.
“But especially up front, there is a lot of talent out there on that [U.S.] team. Who knows? [Denmark] beat Canada last year, right? But this is more on their terms. The little ice. It’s gonna be a tough one tomorrow.”
Team USA canceled its practice Friday, opting instead for a day off between games.
