‘I’m really upset’
Oilers superstar Connor McDavid says he still isn’t over the fact NHLers won’t be at the 2018 Winter Games
TORONTO — While Connor McDavid wishes Canada’s Olympic men’s hockey team all the best in 2018, he knows those players proudly sporting the maple leaf on their chests won’t be the best this country has to offer. And that eats away at him. Just 24 hours after Hockey Canada announced its management team, coaching staff and development blueprint for the PyeongChang Games, the NHL’s reigning MVP said he’s still frustrated by the league’s decision not to participate.
“I’m really upset about it,” McDavid said Wednesday. “You want to be able to represent your country on the highest stage, and the Olympics is obviously the highest stage possible. To know that you might not be able to represent your country at the Olympics for another four years for sure, well ... even if you’re able to in four years, it’s disappointing.”
McDavid isn’t slagging the players Team Canada general manager Sean Burke, adviser Martin Brodeur and the rest of the Hockey Canada hierarchy will select to represent the country. Far from it. There is no one who appreciates the privilege of wearing that red-and-white jersey more than the Edmonton Oilers captain. And there’s the rub.
During the 2015 world junior championship in Toronto and Montreal, McDavid fought through the pain of a fractured hand that had kept him out of the Erie Otters lineup the previous six weeks. While his play improved throughout the tourney as he healed, he wasn’t the dominant force he’d been.
Sixteen months later, coming off an injury-plagued rookie season with the Oilers, McDavid gladly accepted Hockey Canada’s invite to play for Team Canada at the 2016 world championship in Russia, a memorable tournament that ended with a gold medal dangling from his neck.
Last September, McDavid again stepped onto the international stage, playing for the electrifying Team North America at the World Cup of Hockey. The group of 23-andunder players were easily the highlight of the tournament.
But those events are not the Olympics. Indeed, since the door opened for NHLers in 1998, the Olympics have provided the best competition between countries that the modern game has ever seen.
And McDavid knows that. But his dream of playing for Canada in South Korea — alongside the likes of Sidney Crosby, Carey Price, John Tavares and Drew Doughty — will remain just that: A dream.
Instead, after two consecutive Olympic gold medals under the guidance of coach Mike Babcock, Canada will attempt to three-peat with a collection of retired NHLers, international pros and AHL players who are not signed to two-way contracts.
Team Canada coach Willie Desjardins certainly will have his hands full, a fact that is not lost on McDavid.
“I don’t think Team Canada will be able to put together a team like they’d be able to put together this year,” McDavid said, referring to the potential all-star team Canada would ice if NHLers were participating. “It would have been a special group, and you’re just hoping to be a part of it.”
Even so, don’t expect McDavid to ask Oilers management for permission to play in PyeongChang, like Alex Ovechkin did with Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis.
“No, I’m not too involved in all that stuff,” he said. “There’s a lot of guys who’ve been in the league a lot longer than I have and have a lot more pull than I do. You don’t want to leave your team for a month. It’s disappointing, but that’s the way it is.”
While the NHL has said it will skip PyeongChang, it does seem more interested in the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing. Viewing China as an untapped marketing frontier for the sport, the league has scheduled exhibition games there between the Los Angeles Kings and Vancouver Canucks in September, and is helping the Chinese government develop a national team for the 2022 Games.
In the meantime, Connor McDavid will have to wait — even if he doesn’t like it.