Jack Eichel in the fall of 2021 still did not believe he and the rest of the world’s best hockey players would be going to the Olympics in Beijing a few months later, even after the NHL reached an agreement to do so.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon’t hold your breath,\u201d Eichel said at the time.<\/p>\n
His skepticism proved to be prescient, as pandemic scheduling issues led the league to withdraw.<\/p>\n
Eichel is part of a generation of NHL stars who have never gotten the chance to play in the Olympics. Unlike players of the past \u2014 before the league allowed its stars to take part \u2014 Eichel, fellow American Auston Matthews, Canadians Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon and many others of their vintage grew up expecting to go to the Games. The NHL, after all, played in five consecutive Olympics from 1998 2014.<\/p>\n
Owners opted against sending players in 2018, and missing out in 2022 became a sad result of circumstances largely out of stakeholders’ control. The 12-team tournament in Milan<\/a> is a moment many have been waiting their entire careers for.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s awesome,\u201d Eichel said before this season, perhaps willing to exhale. \u201cIt’s something that we\u2019ve wanted for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n Construction delays bring more questions<\/p>\n Not so fast, Jack. <\/p>\n Out of his control are construction delays at the main hockey arena, a longstanding worry. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman began raising concerns<\/a> all the way back in 2023, before the deal was reached<\/a> to send players in 2026 and ’30.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have been given assurances that the building will be ready,\u201d Bettman said in February 2024. \u201cWe\u2019re relying on those assurances. There\u2019s a lot of construction that remains to be done on that building. I think they only recently started. But we\u2019re being told by everybody not to worry. But I like to worry, so we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n Those worries have persisted, and work continues on locker rooms and other facilities at Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena, which is set to host the majority of the men’s games<\/a> beginning Feb. 11. The women’s tournament begins there Feb. 5.<\/p>\n Test games in January left league and players’ union officials pleased<\/a> about the condition of the ice, though even that has been a matter of consternation after rinks were made more than 3 feet shorter<\/a> than NHL players are used to. That will change aspects of play but won’t keep the NHL out of the Olympics as long as everyone involved agrees the surface is safe.<\/p>\n What players missed out on<\/p>\n Connor Bedard, the 2023 No. 1 pick who just missed out on making Canada’s roster<\/a> for Milan, is so young at 20 that he does not even have a favorite Olympic memory. He was 4 when idol and fellow countryman Sidney Crosby scored the \u201cgolden goal\u201d to win on home ice in Vancouver in 2010 and 9 when T.J. Oshie<\/a> gave the U.S. a shootout victory over host Russia in Sochi in 2014.<\/p>\n Canada’s Macklin Celebrini, drafted first in 2024 and at 19 the second-youngest men’s hockey player at the Olympics, has only gotten to dream about the possibility of representing his country on this stage.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the pinnacle, just the best on best, all the special moments that have happened at the Olympics, the history,\u201d Celebrini said. \u201cThere’s just a little bit more energy around it. It’s bigger than yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n In all, 12 NHL players are back at the Olympics after participating in the 2014 Games, the last time the league went and it was a true best-vs.-best tournament. The group includes Crosby and Drew Doughty for Canada; Gabriel Landeskog, Erik Karlsson and Oliver Ekman-Larsson for Sweden; Mikael Granlund and Olli Maatta for Finland; Radko Gudas and Ondrej Palat for Czechia. There are no Americans on that list.<\/p>\n “It\u2019s a cherry on top of athletic life,” Gudas said. \u201cTwelve years ago when we went to Sochi was such a great experience that I wish I can do that again. I was that much more sad that we couldn\u2019t go the last two times, so for me I think it\u2019s a great feeling to be able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n American defenseman Zach Werenski at 28 is old enough to remember Crosby’s goal in 2010, and four years later he was watching Oshie’s heroics with other members of the U.S. National Team Development Program. Four of his teammates from back then are also set to go to Milan \u2014 Matthews, Matthew Tkachuk, Charlie McAvoy and Noah Hanifin \u2014 to finally have their Olympic moment.<\/p>\n \u201cThe significance of that, the build-up, we’ve waited a long time for this,\u201d McAvoy said, \u201cso it\u2019s going to be incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n