The timing of Fox\u2019s potential return would also work out well with the 2026 Discover NHL Winter Classic against the Florida Panthers at loanDepot park in Miami set for Friday (8 p.m. ET; HBO MAX, truTV, TNT, SNW, SNO, SNE, TVAS).<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the guys are competing hard in \u2018Foxy\u2019s\u2019 absence, but obviously when your top defenseman isn\u2019t in the lineup — pick any team — that has ramifications and they\u2019re hard guys to replace,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cIt\u2019s not to say that we can\u2019t be competitive and it provides opportunities for others to step up and play a more significant role. \u2026 I just think injuries are a part of it and trying to find ways to continue to stay competitive through it is one of the challenges that every team faces.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fox, who won the Norris Trophy as the NHL\u2019s top defenseman for the 2020-21 season, is among the leading candidates to play for the United States at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 from Feb. 11-22 after playing in the 4 Nations Face-Off last season. The deadline to submit Olympic rosters is Wednesday, and the U.S. is expected to announce the rest of its team on Friday.<\/p>\n
His availability for the Olympics was uncertain initially after he was injured and placed on long-term injured reserve on Nov. 30. It eventually became clear he\u2019d be back in plenty of time to play in Milan, though, and he\u2019ll have a more than a month to sharpen is game before then, if selected by the U.S.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, he\u2019s disappointed when he got hurt,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cNobody wants to get hurt and be out of the lineup for any length of time like Foxy\u2019s been out. But obviously, it\u2019s something that is part of the game and when you compete hard and put yourself in harm\u2019s way, you take hits to make plays, injuries are a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The timing of Fox\u2019s potential return would also work out well with the 2026 Discover NHL Winter Classic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-381385","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}