{"id":190974,"date":"2026-02-24T04:18:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T04:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/190974\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T04:18:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T04:18:21","slug":"sharks-wennberg-kurashev-return-from-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/190974\/","title":{"rendered":"Sharks’ Wennberg, Kurashev Return From Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first two of the four San Jose Sharks players who went to the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026<\/a>\u00a0have returned to practice. <\/p>\n

Alexander Wennberg, who played for Sweden, and Philipp Kurashev, who played for Switzerland, participated in practice. Wennberg did leave practice slightly<\/a> early, but the team stated that it was part of his return from Italy.<\/p>\n

Both players were made available to the Sharks media and spoke about their time at their first Olympic Games.<\/p>\n

\u201cDisappointed results for the Swedes. Obviously, we were expecting to fight a little longer than we did. We played a good team, the U.S, but overall, it\u2019s a great experience,\u201d Wennberg said. \u201cI mean, what a tournament. The whole experience with the best on best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sweden fell 2-1 in overtime to Team USA<\/a> in the quarter finals. Quinn Hughes<\/a>\u00a0scored the game-winning goal and ended Team Sweden\u2019s time at the Olympic Games. Wennberg didn\u2019t record a point in five games, but played a critical depth role for his home country.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tough to leave it on a good note. I feel like, give me a few weeks or something like that, I\u2019m probably gonna settle in and appreciate the whole experience a little bit more,\u201d Wennberg explained. \u201cYou\u2019re competitive. You want to win, and obviously, we fell short.\u201d<\/p>\n

The San Jose Sharks center enjoyed the experience with his family. The Sharks forward says his parents have been following him throughout his career, and having them in Italy was the culmination of his hard work.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing. I got my parents there. They\u2019ve been following me my whole career. [I\u2019ve] been a huge fan for them to be there and experience [the Olympics] as well. It\u2019s great,\u201d Wennberg smiled. \u201cMy wife and kid were there. Kids are obsessed with hockey right now, cheering for Team Sweden. It means a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wennberg will re-assume a spot in the Sharks\u2019 lineup that needs contributions from everywhere during their push to the Stanley Cup Playoffs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Philipp Kurashev says experience at the Olympics was special<\/p>\n

Philipp Kurashev and Team Switzerland were bounced in the quarter finals by Finland in heartbreaking fashion. After leading 2-0 for over 53 minutes, Finland finally broke through.<\/p>\n

The Swiss would give up the game-tying goal and eventual overtime goal and have an early exit that didn\u2019t seem likely. Kurashev started down the lineup for Switzerland, but was forced onto the top line after the injury to Los Angeles Kings<\/a> forward Kevin Fiala.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sucks. It was a very tough day for all of us, especially [since] it was right at the end of the game. We tried to see him after, but it kind of went pretty quick,\u201d Kurashev said. \u201cHe was sending us videos and messages every day, trying to pump us up or give us motivation. We tried to play for him, and it shows a lot of what a guy he is, how much he cares about the group. I just hope he recovers as fast as he can.\u201d<\/p>\n

The San Jose Sharks forward had a goal and two assists in five games. Kurashev felt that the Swiss team felt the impact of their fans. The culture of the international fan is very different from that of a traditional NHL fan, and this was evident during the Olympic Games.<\/p>\n

We always get a lot of our fans who travel wherever we play. It\u2019s a little bit different culture in Europe, I think the fans and they didn\u2019t have too many chants this time. Usually, they have chants as well. It\u2019s maybe more loud during the play, and not just when something happens. It was a great, great atmosphere,\u201d Kurashev said. \u201cWe really appreciate our fans coming out. They always show us support. We wish we could have rewarded them a bit better than what we did.\u201d<\/p>\n

The return of Pavol Regenda<\/a> could be delayed, as the Sharks forward is stuck in New York due to a snowstorm. Macklin Celebrini<\/a> is expected to return to the team in the near future after Team Canada was diverted to Miami.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first two of the four San Jose Sharks players who went to the Olympic Winter Games Milano…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[2094,86968,12863,88,90,89,98,755,62643,89556],"class_list":{"0":"post-190974","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-alexander-wennberg","9":"tag-olympic-winter-games-milano-cortina-2026","10":"tag-philipp-kurashev","11":"tag-san-jose","12":"tag-san-jose-headlines","13":"tag-san-jose-news","14":"tag-san-jose-sharks","15":"tag-sj-sharks","16":"tag-team-sweden","17":"tag-team-switzerland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}