I wonder if he can get chickpea pasta in the village or if the Italian chefs consider that sacrilege.
27 comments
Did anyone expect anything different from MacK? Dude is always like this.
He’s completely surrounded by his kryptonite (regular ass pasta). Gotta be tough on him
Mack is just a machine that turns an obsessive passion for hockey (And ONLY hockey) into an insane ability to put up points and goals
He’s my favorite hockey robot
“Don’t you have to take this all in?”
“No”
That’s my Dogg.
Ongoing joke in my house is that Mack is 100% hockey, 100% of the time. He has no time for jokes, personality, fun.
MacK is to hockey as I am to drinking beer and watching hockey.
/r/hockey won’t let me post the full article, not sure if I’m allowed to here, so mods should just delete this reply if it’s not allowed
MILAN — For any first-time Olympic athlete, there is a balance to strike between peak performance and appreciating the experience.
Most athletes work from early childhood for the opportunity to compete on a stage that only comes once every four years. When that moment finally arrives, soaking it all in and enjoying the reward for all that work would be a natural counterpart to the competitive portion of the Olympic experience.
It would only be human.
Nathan MacKinnon is not a typical human.
The Colorado Avalanche star centre and 4 Nations Face-Off MVP for Team Canada is attending his first Olympics. He has worked nearly his entire life for this, and he is finally here at age 30.
And his reaction to his first experience in an Olympic athletes’ village, a highlight for almost anyone because they get to meet other athletes from other sports, summarized MacKinnon’s skewed work-life balance perfectly.
“We’ve talked to some other athletes,” MacKinnon said after practice Monday. “But to be honest, I just want to win gold here. It’s fun to get to know people, but at the end of the day, we’re just trying to win.”
OK, so not a whole lot of mingling for MacKinnon, apparently. The Olympic experience to him, essentially, is all about the top step of the medal podium.
“I want to enjoy myself, but I’m not here to enjoy myself,” he said. “I’m going to do everything I can to play well, and hopefully it’s enough and hopefully I can contribute.”
Don’t you have to take this all in?
“No,” he responded.
It’s not that MacKinnon isn’t enjoying himself; it’s just that his version of fun is not the same as others. For him, an Olympic gold medal would be fun. Becoming a member of the triple gold club, reserved for players who have won the Stanley Cup, the World Championships and the Olympics, would be fun.
Going to watch speed skating would not.
“Like, I’m loving hanging out with the guys, I’m loving talking, I’m loving practising,” MacKinnon said. “But in terms of going to 10 events a day and going for dinner in Milan, I don’t think anyone’s going to do that. That’s what I mean in terms of enjoying myself. But I’m loving being with the guys. This is a dream for me. I’m sitting next to Sid in the dressing room. At 10 years old, how cool would that be?”
“Sid,” of course, is Team Canada captain Sidney Crosby, a fellow native of Cole Harbour, N.S., and MacKinnon’s mentor, summer training partner and close friend. Just after MacKinnon’s 10th birthday, Crosby began his rookie NHL season. And now, two decades later, they are sitting next to each other in Canada’s dressing room at the Olympics.
Nathan MacKinnon and his mentor and good friend Sidney Crosby share more than hockey talent in common. They both have an unrelenting desire to win.
Crosby is very familiar with MacKinnon’s uniquely intense brand of competitiveness. He’s seen it first-hand for years in Atlantic Canada summer training sessions, running sprints on dunes or just competing on the ice far from crowds and cameras. They are very alike in that way, so when Crosby was asked about MacKinnon’s inability to dial it back just a tiny bit in order to soak in what he’s experiencing in Milan, he chuckled.
“I’ve spent so much time with him, I think I’m used to that,” Crosby said. “I think I know how much these events or these moments mean to him. I know how hard he works, and he’s going to step up. Whatever guys need to do to get ready, and every guy’s different. Yeah, he brings a lot of passion, a lot of emotion and intensity.
“But he wants it, and that’s all you can ask for.”
There is definitely a professional benefit to being as single-mindedly obsessed with winning as MacKinnon. It is a quality every coach would want out of a top player, something to be passed on to teammates. Still, Canada head coach Jon Cooper hopes MacKinnon at least allows himself the liberty to have some fun.
“Nate is a worker. I found that out when we were at 4 Nations and gave all the guys an off day, and he came to me and was like, ‘Hey, do you care if I skate?’ And he and Sid went down, and the two of them went on the ice together. And I thought, wow, these guys, they’re really, really dedicated and committed players,” Cooper said. “But, there is a time you have to have fun. We tell the guys: This is the Olympics. This is an experience we may never get to be a part of again, so enjoy yourself. Enjoy yourself in the village, introduce yourself to other athletes, become part of this.
“When it’s rink time, it’s our time, and then it’s focus time. But I’m encouraging these guys to have fun.”
MacKinnon fully intends to listen to his coach. He will have fun in Milan. His own fun.
“I have fun playing hockey,” he said. “I go on vacations every summer.”
MacKinnon getting ready to do MacKinnon things.
LOL that’s the most MacKinnon response ever. My boy does not have time for masking, he has training to get back to and your baffling questions about “feelings” are delaying him.
Mac is going to retire from Hockey and look back at his career and probably have a few regrets about not enjoying the moment
I love our psycho.
My antisocial goat
If Mack is second star, or less, does he refuse to come back out of locker room in Olympics?
World’s most socially adjusted man
That’s our boy. We have fun so he doesn’t have to.
This dude is so fuckin’ locked in. I love it.
Classic MacK
I absolutely love this guy! He is why I watch hockey!
Mack is like a dad on a travel day, which is the only way I can relate to him.
D.A.W.G.
Ah ok so we’re about to get THAT version of Nate dawg aren’t we?
Olympic Gold and Stanley Cup in the same year… that would look pretty amazing on a résumé!
27 comments
Did anyone expect anything different from MacK? Dude is always like this.
He’s completely surrounded by his kryptonite (regular ass pasta). Gotta be tough on him
Mack is just a machine that turns an obsessive passion for hockey (And ONLY hockey) into an insane ability to put up points and goals
He’s my favorite hockey robot
“Don’t you have to take this all in?”
“No”
That’s my Dogg.
Ongoing joke in my house is that Mack is 100% hockey, 100% of the time. He has no time for jokes, personality, fun.
MacK is to hockey as I am to drinking beer and watching hockey.
/r/hockey won’t let me post the full article, not sure if I’m allowed to here, so mods should just delete this reply if it’s not allowed
MILAN — For any first-time Olympic athlete, there is a balance to strike between peak performance and appreciating the experience.
Most athletes work from early childhood for the opportunity to compete on a stage that only comes once every four years. When that moment finally arrives, soaking it all in and enjoying the reward for all that work would be a natural counterpart to the competitive portion of the Olympic experience.
It would only be human.
Nathan MacKinnon is not a typical human.
The Colorado Avalanche star centre and 4 Nations Face-Off MVP for Team Canada is attending his first Olympics. He has worked nearly his entire life for this, and he is finally here at age 30.
And his reaction to his first experience in an Olympic athletes’ village, a highlight for almost anyone because they get to meet other athletes from other sports, summarized MacKinnon’s skewed work-life balance perfectly.
“We’ve talked to some other athletes,” MacKinnon said after practice Monday. “But to be honest, I just want to win gold here. It’s fun to get to know people, but at the end of the day, we’re just trying to win.”
OK, so not a whole lot of mingling for MacKinnon, apparently. The Olympic experience to him, essentially, is all about the top step of the medal podium.
“I want to enjoy myself, but I’m not here to enjoy myself,” he said. “I’m going to do everything I can to play well, and hopefully it’s enough and hopefully I can contribute.”
Don’t you have to take this all in?
“No,” he responded.
It’s not that MacKinnon isn’t enjoying himself; it’s just that his version of fun is not the same as others. For him, an Olympic gold medal would be fun. Becoming a member of the triple gold club, reserved for players who have won the Stanley Cup, the World Championships and the Olympics, would be fun.
Going to watch speed skating would not.
“Like, I’m loving hanging out with the guys, I’m loving talking, I’m loving practising,” MacKinnon said. “But in terms of going to 10 events a day and going for dinner in Milan, I don’t think anyone’s going to do that. That’s what I mean in terms of enjoying myself. But I’m loving being with the guys. This is a dream for me. I’m sitting next to Sid in the dressing room. At 10 years old, how cool would that be?”
“Sid,” of course, is Team Canada captain Sidney Crosby, a fellow native of Cole Harbour, N.S., and MacKinnon’s mentor, summer training partner and close friend. Just after MacKinnon’s 10th birthday, Crosby began his rookie NHL season. And now, two decades later, they are sitting next to each other in Canada’s dressing room at the Olympics.
Nathan MacKinnon and his mentor and good friend Sidney Crosby share more than hockey talent in common. They both have an unrelenting desire to win.
Crosby is very familiar with MacKinnon’s uniquely intense brand of competitiveness. He’s seen it first-hand for years in Atlantic Canada summer training sessions, running sprints on dunes or just competing on the ice far from crowds and cameras. They are very alike in that way, so when Crosby was asked about MacKinnon’s inability to dial it back just a tiny bit in order to soak in what he’s experiencing in Milan, he chuckled.
“I’ve spent so much time with him, I think I’m used to that,” Crosby said. “I think I know how much these events or these moments mean to him. I know how hard he works, and he’s going to step up. Whatever guys need to do to get ready, and every guy’s different. Yeah, he brings a lot of passion, a lot of emotion and intensity.
“But he wants it, and that’s all you can ask for.”
There is definitely a professional benefit to being as single-mindedly obsessed with winning as MacKinnon. It is a quality every coach would want out of a top player, something to be passed on to teammates. Still, Canada head coach Jon Cooper hopes MacKinnon at least allows himself the liberty to have some fun.
“Nate is a worker. I found that out when we were at 4 Nations and gave all the guys an off day, and he came to me and was like, ‘Hey, do you care if I skate?’ And he and Sid went down, and the two of them went on the ice together. And I thought, wow, these guys, they’re really, really dedicated and committed players,” Cooper said. “But, there is a time you have to have fun. We tell the guys: This is the Olympics. This is an experience we may never get to be a part of again, so enjoy yourself. Enjoy yourself in the village, introduce yourself to other athletes, become part of this.
“When it’s rink time, it’s our time, and then it’s focus time. But I’m encouraging these guys to have fun.”
MacKinnon fully intends to listen to his coach. He will have fun in Milan. His own fun.
“I have fun playing hockey,” he said. “I go on vacations every summer.”
MacKinnon getting ready to do MacKinnon things.
LOL that’s the most MacKinnon response ever. My boy does not have time for masking, he has training to get back to and your baffling questions about “feelings” are delaying him.
Mac is going to retire from Hockey and look back at his career and probably have a few regrets about not enjoying the moment
I love our psycho.
My antisocial goat
If Mack is second star, or less, does he refuse to come back out of locker room in Olympics?
World’s most socially adjusted man
That’s our boy. We have fun so he doesn’t have to.
This dude is so fuckin’ locked in. I love it.
Classic MacK
I absolutely love this guy! He is why I watch hockey!
Mack is like a dad on a travel day, which is the only way I can relate to him.
D.A.W.G.
Ah ok so we’re about to get THAT version of Nate dawg aren’t we?
Olympic Gold and Stanley Cup in the same year… that would look pretty amazing on a résumé!
Singular focus. What an athlete and competitor.
Yeah that sounds like him
He’s the Michael Jordan of hockey.