PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) - As the Penguins prepared to scatter for their extended Christmas break, following the postponement of their Tuesday and Thursday games, Sidney Crosby was asked about the increasing inevitably that the surging Covid-19 variant would also cost NHL players a trip to the Olympics.
“I think there are just so many what-ifs right now,” the Penguins captain said, “and I don’t want to get too caught up in looking too far ahead. I’m sure there are a lot of conversations; we’ll just have to see what happens but, yeah, a lot of moving parts right now.”
That was around 1:00 Tuesday afternoon. Not too very far ahead of that - roughly 5 hours - the Associated Press reported that the NHL and NHLPA will not send players to Beijing. An official announcement is expected Wednesday. This will be the second straight Olympiad without the world’s best hockey players.
It will also means Pens coach Mike Sullivan won’t be able to coach Team USA. Sullivan was an assistant under Peter Laviolette at Turin in 2006 and had been hopeful earlier in the day. “It’s an unbelievable honor to represent your nation in the Olympics, it’s the honor of a lifetime quite honestly,” he said. “And so I know I don’t feel differently than a lot of people that pull their nation’s sweaters over their heads.”
Aside from Sullivan and Crosby, Evgeni Malkin is still a Russian mainstay so he will miss out again. You’d think Sullivan would have chosen Jake Guentzel and possibly the speedy Bryan Rust for his team. Tristan Jarry is playing as well as any Canadian goalie right now. Kris Letang would be a longer shot for Team Canada; same for American Brian Dumoulin.
Crosby is 2-for-2 in the Olympics, scoring the Golden Goal in overtime to beat the US in 2010, then captaining Canada’s Gold Medal squad in 2014. The NHL did not participate in 2018 and an 18-year old Crosby was ridiculously left out in 2006 when Canada failed to earn a medal.
Unless these Olympics get pushed back like the 2020 Summer Games, Sid will be 38 the next time Olympics come around but he’s more disappointed for the current players who may never get another chance. “I’ve been fortunate enough to be part of two,” he said. “I definitely feel for the guys who missed numerous opportunities (meaning Connor McDavid, his good friend Nathan MacKinnon and linemate Guentzel). It’s not something (when) it’s the next year or a couple months. You don’t get many opportunities, you might only get one and it just might happen to fall in your window and if that doesn’t work out it’s unfortunate.”
“A lot of things can change and I think everybody’s dealing with that, in hockey or any walk of life, that’s just the way things are,” Crosby reflected. “You just have to be ready to adjust and try to wrap your head around and figure out how to get through it.”
“We’re all human beings right?” Sullivan posed. “Emotions are a part of it. To do our jobs to the best of our ability it requires a certain discipline to make sure that we don’t get overwhelmed by any circumstance.”
Maybe Sullivan will get another shot in 2026; Crosby, too.
In the meantime, they’ll just have to try to enjoy their extended break and hope that the NHL will be able to reorganize its disrupted season.