{"id":459980,"date":"2026-02-16T18:13:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T18:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/459980\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T18:13:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T18:13:13","slug":"for-aging-captains-in-olympic-mens-hockey-the-goals-vary-but-the-pride-is-universal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/459980\/","title":{"rendered":"For aging captains in Olympic men\u2019s hockey, the goals vary but the pride is universal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athletic has live coverage of Canada vs. Switzerland<\/a> in the 2026 Olympic women\u2019s hockey semifinals.<\/p>\n

MILAN \u2014 I could sit here and wax poetic about what it means for France to be on the global hockey stage. I could spin 1,200 flowery words about how awe often overwhelms opportunity when you look up at a faceoff circle and see Connor McDavid, or Nathan MacKinnon, or Macklin Celebrini, or \u2014 gulp \u2014 all three. I could throw in a bunch of colorful adverbs to underline just how momentous it was when France scored three goals in five minutes on Friday afternoon to take a 3-2 lead on the Czech Republic, a traditional hockey power.<\/p>\n

Or I could just let Pierre-\u00c9douard Bellemare do it. He\u2019s better at it, anyway.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came here to earn respect,\u201d the 40-year-old elder statesman of French hockey said after the Czech Republic pulled away for a 6-3 win. \u201cThere was never talk about a medal. For us, we try to explain it to all our newspapers at home that don\u2019t know the game, that don\u2019t know our team. They compare us to handball or soccer or basketball, rugby \u2014 we are not there. In the international level, France is nowhere near the 12th (best team). That\u2019s the truth. We\u2019re in a tournament where this is supposed to be the 12 best nations in the world. We knew it was going to be difficult, but we always said whatever the talent that we\u2019re facing, they cannot have more heart than us and more legs. Play like dogs and we\u2019ll see at the end of the game. I feel like we\u2019ve done this. It\u2019s just unfortunate that a couple mistakes there and there, and then the score looks like we were totally out of the game, when actually, even if they had triple the amount of shots, it was 4-3 before the second. If you would have told me that two years ago, I would have signed a contract, no-brainer.\u201d<\/p>\n

I could listen to Bellemare talk all day. That was true two years ago when he was wrapping up a 10-year NHL stint with the Seattle Kraken, and it\u2019s still true now that he\u2019s wearing the captain\u2019s \u201cC\u201d for his native country. There\u2019s a reason he\u2019s the captain. There\u2019s a reason he\u2019s content to stand and answer questions at length even though he\u2019s a middle-aged man whose body is breaking down, and standing in the mixed zone talking to reporters after a 60-minute game is tantamount to torture. At one point, he had to lean on the waist-high barrier just to brace himself for a moment.<\/p>\n

Bellemare is French hockey. He\u2019s a national institution who helped put his country on the hockey map. He was on the national team that attempted \u2014 and failed \u2014 to qualify for the Olympics way back in 2004. And 2008. And 2012. And 2016. And 2021. And 2024. But Russia\u2019s exclusion from the 2026 Olympics opened the door for France, and here they are. And here Bellemare is. Finally. So if you think he\u2019s going to skip right through the mixed zone to rest his aching knees, his balky back, you just don\u2019t understand what this all means to him. He wants to talk about it, to revel in it, to make others \u2014 back home and abroad \u2014\u00a0understand.<\/p>\n

France isn\u2019t here to win. France is here to learn. To experience. To soak it all in. And Bellemare isn\u2019t here to win, either. He\u2019s here to teach. To connect. To ensure his young teammates do soak it all in.<\/p>\n

Alexandre Texier is the only current NHLer on the French roster, but maybe in four years there\u2019ll be more. That\u2019s Bellemare\u2019s hope. And after a solid but unmemorable NHL career, maybe that could become his legacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see myself coming into the World Championship in two thousand \u2014 I\u2019m not gonna say the date,\u201d Bellemare said with a smile. \u201cAnd I was a youngster, 18 years old. You try something (on the ice) and it goes straight back into your face, right? This is the moment that can mold a generation. This is the moment that can force kids to see OK, we\u2019re never going to play against guys like this in our league in France. So this is the moment where you\u2019re playing the best. It\u2019s a privilege to do that. And those mistakes, if you don\u2019t see them as a lesson, then there\u2019s no point in playing this game that we all love so much. That\u2019s how I see it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roman \u010cervenka, the venerable captain of the Czech Republic, is a little different. Like Bellemare, he\u2019s 40 years old. Like Bellemare, he\u2019s beloved back home for his ceaseless devotion to his native country. But unlike Bellemare, he\u2019s in his fifth Olympics. And unlike Bellemare, he is here to win. He has to win \u2014 a rivalry game, a medal, something. It\u2019s been nearly three decades since Dominik Ha\u0161ek led the Czechs to the gold medal in Nagano in 1998. In \u010cervenka\u2019s time, Czechia has finished seventh, sixth, fourth, and ninth.<\/p>\n

\"Roman<\/p>\n

\n Roman \u010cervenka is beloved in his native Czechia. This is his 34th event representing his homeland, dating back more than 20 years. (Gregory Shamus \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s team \u2014 with three strong NHL goaltenders, and two star forwards in David Pastr\u0148\u00e1k and Marty Ne\u010das \u2014 has a real chance to leave Milan with a medal. Even after Sunday\u2019s overtime loss to Switzerland left a difficult road ahead, there isn\u2019t a team in this tournament that the Czechs don\u2019t think they can play with.<\/p>\n

\u010cervenka scored a goal in that France game. That mattered to him. While he understands his role as the venerable veteran, he wants to be more than just a mascot, a father figure.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means a lot,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery game for the national team means a lot, and I\u2019m proud I can be here and I\u2019m really glad. I still believe I can help the team. I enjoy every game, every second in this jersey.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why \u010cervenka is so beloved back home. While every player in this tournament wants to represent his country well, those from North America, Sweden and Finland are just dabbling during a two-week break from the NHL. For so many Europeans, international hockey comes first. Always has, always will. This is the 34th event in which \u010cervenka has worn the shield of Czechia, dating back more than 20 years.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s been through the pride of playing for the bronze medal in PyeongChang in 2018, and he\u2019s been through the humiliation of flaming out in Beijing. The passion of Czech hockey fans is extraordinary. You can feel it inside Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena when they\u2019re jumping in unison, chanting and singing at big moments of the game. But that passion can also be a crushing weight.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a pleasure,\u201d \u010cervenka said when asked what it\u2019s like being a national hero. \u201cBut it\u2019s not always like this. It depends (on our results).\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if they\u2019ve been hard on him in the past, \u010cervenka didn\u2019t even pause to think about it: \u201cFor sure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But playing without them in Beijing, during the pandemic, was disorienting. There was no way \u010cervenka was going to let that be his last Olympic experience. He owed them a better performance, and he owed himself one last chance to earn their love.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we have the best fans in the world,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s always strange without them. We are happy they are here. Big energy from them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s Sidney Crosby. He\u2019s not quite 40, but at 38, he\u2019s pretty close. Crosby couldn\u2019t be more different than his fellow aging captains. He\u2019s one of the most accomplished players of all time, with three Stanley Cups and two Olympic gold medals, one of which he won on home soil by scoring the golden goal in overtime. Virtually nothing could befoul Crosby\u2019s legacy in Canada at this point. Certainly nothing that could happen on the ice in Milan.<\/p>\n

And yet, he feels the magnitude of the moment every bit as much as Bellemare and \u010cervenka. That thin little \u201cC\u201d stitched on your jersey can feel heavy as hell.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying for Team Canada over the years, that\u2019s something you learn is part of it \u2014 that expectation and that responsibility,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Like Bellemare and \u010cervenka, Crosby is no longer burdened by being the top threat on his team. But his contribution still means something. He had two assists in the opener against Czechia, a goal the next day against Switzerland, and added an assist against France. He might not have the speed of McDavid, or the strength of MacKinnon, or the youth of Celebrini, but he still competes as hard as anybody. He still matters. He\u2019s still the one Canada will look to in the medal round, when the pressure mounts and heartbeats rise and breath shallows.<\/p>\n

Crosby is Canadian hockey. Just as \u010cervenka is Czech hockey. Just as Bellemare is French hockey.<\/p>\n

The expectations are different, the goals don\u2019t align, and the glare of the spotlight varies wildly. One seeks respect, one redemption, one reaffirmation. But one way or the other, the weight of a nation rests on their shoulders. Which is exactly where they want it.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s about pride. And pride is universal \u2014 whether you\u2019re on top, stuck in the middle, or mired all the way at the bottom.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can hear it in the locker room, when guys are talking about which teams are going to be there, and then they\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, we\u2019re playing France,\u2019 and one guy\u2019s laughing about it and then the other guy\u2019s like, \u2018No, we played them last time \u2014\u00a0it was a nightmare,\u2019\u201d Bellemare said. \u201cThis is the kind of respect that you get to earn. Is the media going to give us that type of respect? I don\u2019t know. We don\u2019t have McDavid. We don\u2019t have anyone fancy. And we are a small country. But at the end of the day, if we can be here and show our value to our countrymen and show them that, OK, these guys are working their nuts (off)? I\u2019ll be happy. Happy with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

With that, Bellemare straightened up, twisted this way and that to loosen up his 40-year-old spine, and limped off to the next batch of reporters, the next set of questions, the next opportunity to talk about the game he loves, the country he loves, and what it means to bring them together for the whole world to see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Athletic has live coverage of Canada vs. Switzerland in the 2026 Olympic women\u2019s hockey semifinals. MILAN \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5113],"tags":[5,54125,4,2602,118,1469,100,5216],"class_list":{"0":"post-459980","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-penguins","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-mens-olympic-ice-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-olympics","12":"tag-penguins","13":"tag-pittsburgh","14":"tag-pittsburgh-penguins","15":"tag-pittsburghpenguins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116081669699652431","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459980","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=459980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}