{"id":452880,"date":"2026-02-10T03:14:47","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T03:14:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/452880\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T03:14:47","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T03:14:47","slug":"us-mens-hockey-team-all-in-on-olympic-village-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/452880\/","title":{"rendered":"US men’s hockey team all-in on Olympic village experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILAN \u2014 Approximately two-thirds of NHLers skip college, so not all of them have a freshman dorm room as a point of comparison for the spartan accommodations at the Olympic Village.<\/p>\n

For those who do, though, the two-bed, one-bath dorm rooms in Milan\u2019s Navigli district do feel awfully similar to being in college again.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou got a roommate who\u2019s two feet away from you in the same room and you\u2019re in a small little dorm,\u201d Team USA\u2019s Jack Eichel told reporters Sunday after the Americans\u2019 first practice. \u201cBut I think it just brings the guys together. There\u2019s not a whole lot to do and spend time together, so we\u2019ll get to know each other pretty quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TwoJ.T. Miller #10 and Jack Eichel #9 of Team United States take part during training. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Though the NHLPA has made hotel rooms available that are closer to the five-star accommodations players are used to, Team USA is embracing the athletes\u2019 village.<\/p>\n

The two sets of brothers \u2014 Tkachuk and Hughes \u2014 are both in rooms together<\/a>, Auston Matthews is \u201cthe biggest\u201d celebrity (at least according to Matthew Tkachuk), and the American hockey players are enjoying meeting the figure skaters and speed skaters who are staying in the village too.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a hangout area and then just every American athlete has their own separate lounge area and it\u2019s been absolutely incredible so far,\u201d Matthew Tkachuk said. \u201cTrying to meet and say \u2018hi\u2019 to every American athlete I\u2019ve seen so far.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TwoBrady Tkachuk and Matthew Tkachuk attend the Team USA Welcome Experience at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Matthew Tkachuk, one of Team USA\u2019s alternate captains, has already branded the room he\u2019s sharing with his brother Brady as \u201cClub Tkachuk.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they probably push their beds together,\u201d Eichel joked. \u201cI\u2019m sure maybe they\u2019ve roomed together before. If we hear someone go through a wall in the middle of the night probably know where it came from.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Team Canada pointedly said they would stay in the Village the first night after arriving, leaving the rest open to interpretation, it doesn\u2019t sound like the Americans will be making much use of the hotel option, if at all.<\/p>\n

2026 WINTER OLYMPICS<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think that part of the experience is to immerse yourself in the whole Olympic experience and the village is part of that,\u201d coach Mike Sullivan said. \u201cThat was part of the discussion that was had.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most other teams appear to be following the same design.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re gonna stay in the village,\u201d Sweden\u2019s Victor Hedman said. \u201cFeels like we\u2019re back in junior, kinda living in dorms.<\/p>\n

\u201cMe and Erik [Karlsson] in the same room, I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve had a roommate in over 12 years in the NHL. [We\u2019re] combined 70 years old, we pretty much grew up together on the national team stage. First got to know him when I was 13 or 14. Now we\u2019re 35, together once again, so we\u2019re super pumped.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN \u2014 Approximately two-thirds of NHLers skip college, so not all of them have a freshman dorm room…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[532,5,1041,4,2602,43,3255,2787,31286],"class_list":{"0":"post-452880","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-auston-matthews","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-jack-eichel","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-olympics","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-team-usa","15":"tag-winter-olympics","16":"tag-winter-olympics-2026"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116044164928926051","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}