![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/dig2502132532_fin_vs_usa.jpg\")
Team USA\u2019s Dylan Larkin (21) battles for position with Team Finland\u2019s Erik Haula (56) during the second period of a 4 Nations Face-Off game on February 13, 2025 at Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec. VINCENT ETHIER\/ICON SPORTSWIRE<\/p>\nTeam USA\u2019s Dylan Larkin (21) battles for position with Team Finland\u2019s Erik Haula (56) during the second period of a 4 Nations Face-Off game on February 13, 2025 at Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec. VINCENT ETHIER\/ICON SPORTSWIRE<\/p>\n
Nashville Predators center Erik Haula isn\u2019t complaining about the NHL\u2019s condensed schedule ahead of the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.<\/p>\n
By the time Haula jets off to Italy to join Team Finland for the tournament, he and his Predators teammates will have played 21 games in 40 days. The grueling stretch was necessary for the league to free up nearly three weeks for its players to participate in the Olympics for the first time since 2014.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just glad that I get a chance to go once in 13 years,\u201d Haula said. \u201cIt\u2019s probably my last chance. If I never got that chance, it probably would\u2019ve haunted me after my career.\u201d<\/p>\n
Haula, forward Filip Forsberg (Sweden), defenseman Roman Josi<\/a> (Switzerland) and goaltender Juuse Saros<\/a> (Finland) are the four Predators bound for Milan-Cortina. Although each player has extensive international hockey experience, only Josi has suited up for the Olympics before.<\/p>\n The NHL did not allow its players to participate in either of the last two Winter Games and faced heavy criticism on both occasions.<\/p>\n The league held players out of PyeongChang<\/a> in 2018 following a dispute with the International Olympic Committee over costs and logistical challenges. Four years later, the NHL withdrew from the Olympics<\/a> after being forced to postpone 50 games in Dec. 2021 due to COVID-19.<\/p>\n Haula, now 34, is appreciative and relieved for a different outcome in 2026.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s very unfair to take that dream and chance to represent your country at the highest level away from an athlete,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was somebody else\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a dream come true (to play this year). It was very emotional to get the news, honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n The Predators (24-23-6) will enter the Olympic break on Feb. 6 with five more games under their belts compared to the same point last year. The men\u2019s ice hockey tournament opens with preliminary contests on Feb. 11 and concludes with the gold-medal game on Feb. 22.<\/p>\n NHL action resumes quickly on Feb. 25 to kick off a jam-packed final six weeks of the regular season, which is likely to test roster depth across the league.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery team is feeling it, and every team is going through it,\u201d Josi said. \u201cBut we all wanted it. All the players wanted to go back to the Olympics. I think it\u2019s definitely worth it, but I don\u2019t think we\u2019ll be too unhappy to go back to the regular schedule next year, either.\u201d<\/p>\n There could be ways to ease the scheduling burden in the future. Saros suggested starting the NHL slate \u201ca couple weeks earlier\u201d when the next Winter Games roll around during the 2029-30 season.<\/p>\n But for the quartet of Predators finally able to represent their countries on the biggest stage this year, the juice is worth the squeeze.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the best international tournament you can play,\u201d Forsberg said. \u201cObviously its history is (unparalleled) in the sports world. Best-on-best hockey is the best way to do it. It\u2019s sad that we\u2019ve missed out on the last two, but we\u2019re trying to make up for it.\u201d<\/p>\n Follow Russell Vannozzi on X\/Twitter\u00a0@RussellV_MSP<\/a>. For the latest Nashville Predators stories, be sure to\u00a0sign up<\/a>\u00a0for the Main Street Nashville email newsletter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Team USA\u2019s Dylan Larkin (21) battles for position with Team Finland\u2019s Erik Haula (56) during the second period…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-447390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447390","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=447390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/482250217061_usa_vs_swe.jpg\")
Team Sweden forward Filip Forsberg (9) juggles the puck in warmups before a 4 Nations Face-Off game against Team USA on February 17, 2025 at TD Garden in Boston, Mass. FRED KFOURY III\/ICON SPORTSWIRE<\/p>\n