![\"Former](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ZOJCZHP5DVCF5JEO7NP4IC2UH4.jpg\")
Former Bruins captain Brad Marchand will get his chance to compete for a gold medal with Canada.Gregory Shamus\/Getty<\/p>\n\u201cThis is the deepest player pool we\u2019ve ever had,\u201d he told the Globe in advance of the Olympic tournament. \u201cThis is the most elite talent that we\u2019ve ever had. You could say it for Canada. You could say it for Sweden. You could say it for Finland. These teams are stacked, they\u2019re stacked. It\u2019s not just us.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The return of NHL players to the Winter Olympics, a dozen years in the making, should make for the fastest and most skilled international tournament ever held. The advances in hockey training since 2014 have made players better than ever. <\/p>\n
A whole generation grew up and became NHL stars while the league sat out. Team USA\u2019s Jack Hughes noted that his teammates in their mid-careers \u2014 Jack Eichel, Matthew Tkachuk, Auston Matthews \u2014 should be on their third Games by now. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been waiting, our generation, pretty much the whole of our careers to play at the Olympics,\u201d said 29-year-old David Pastrnak, drafted by the Bruins a few months after Sochi 2014. \u201cFor a kid in Europe, you don\u2019t have much chance to watch NHL because of the time change, so all you do is watch the Olympics and the national team. It\u2019s an amazing feeling. Enjoying every day. I want it to start, but at the same time I know when it starts, it\u2019s going to go fast.\u201d <\/p>\n
Consider Brad Marchand\u2019s road to the Games. Drafted in 2006, he had yet to reach the NHL when his native Canada won gold in 2010. He had made a name for himself as a Bruin, but wasn\u2019t considered Olympic-quality in 2014. He was reaching superstar status when the NHL pulled out of the 2018 Games. He was dismayed when the league did the same in 2022. <\/p>\n
At 37, he\u2019ll get his chance. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the ultimate goal for a hockey player,\u201d Marchand said after being chosen for Team Canada. \u201cIt\u2019s one thing to hope and dream to play in the NHL, but this is just a different level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former Bruins captain Brad Marchand will get his chance to compete for a gold medal with Canada.Gregory Shamus\/Getty<\/p>\n
In a hockey nation, Olympic results change the conversation. The Americans\u2019 1980 run became the stuff of Disney films. In 1998, the Czechs proved that they could hang with hockey\u2019s heavyweights. The Swedes beam with pride about 2006, and the Canadians\u2019 crash-out that year \u2014 they finished an embarrassing seventh \u2014 set the stage for a program overhaul that helped them strike gold in 2010 and 2014. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a special [experience],\u201d said Canada captain Sidney Crosby, who built his legacy at both of those tournaments. \u201cNot only representing hockey but the entire Team Canada and celebrating sports. There\u2019s expectations and there\u2019s pressure that comes with it, but it\u2019s about our group trying to be the best team we can.\u201d <\/p>\n
This is the time for Connor McDavid, who has come up short in his Stanley Cup quest but helped Canada to a 4 Nations crown, to have a career-defining tournament. The same could be said for Nathan MacKinnon, who was named 4 Nations MVP and is the odds-on favorite for the Hart Trophy. <\/p>\n
The NHL sent 147 players to Milan, representing all 32 teams. Every team played between 55 and 59 games before the break, a few more than usual. For the stars, the rest of the season will be a grind. <\/p>\n
Santagiulia Arena, the main rink here, will host two games Wednesday and three games daily from Thursday to Sunday. NHL owners are no doubt nervous about sending their best and brightest to Milan. The Islanders\u2019 fortunes changed after John Tavares broke his leg in 2014. The Senators\u2019 John Muckler believed a Dominik Hasek injury in 2006 cost them the Stanley Cup. <\/p>\n
Hockey fans, though, crave best-on-best. The 4 Nations final between Canada and the United States<\/a> was the second-most-watched hockey game in North America in 10 years (16.1 million viewers, 200,000 behind Game 7 of the 2024 Edmonton-Florida Stanley Cup Final). One in every four Canadians watched it, according to NHL.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n A United States-Canada final would be a ratings bonanza. <\/p>\n \u201cYou gotta step on the gas from the opening faceoff,\u201d Swedish defenseman Victor Hedman said. \u201cDoesn\u2019t matter who\u2019s on the ice: Italy, Slovakia, it doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d <\/p>\n If you\u2019re looking for a dark horse, why not Pastrnak and the Czechs? He was perhaps the best player in the NHL<\/a> from Jan. 1 to the Olympic break: 5-22\u201327 in 15 games. He can put a team on his back, as Hasek did in Nagano in 1998. <\/p>\n \u201cI think he\u2019s a once-in-a-generation type talent,\u201d Bruins teammate Charlie McAvoy said in the lead-up. \u201cAs far as this era that I get to be in right now, I think he\u2019ll be remembered as one of the best.\u201d<\/p>\n Over the next two weeks, he, among many here, can prove it.<\/p>\n The Patriots lose Super Bowl LX to the Seahawks in a beatdown by the Bay. Boston Globe Sports Report is live from San Francisco to break everything down.<\/p>\n