The athletes aren\u2019t the only ones who work hard for this achievement. Each athlete\u2019s support system helps them achieve their dreams at this pinnacle event. Keller\u2019s mom, brother, and close friend were able to travel to Italy and be there as Utah\u2019s captain won gold.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was great. She\u2019s a (reason why) I\u2019m where I\u2019m at today,\u201d Keller said of his mom. \u201cAll those sacrifices, my brother as well, they\u2019ve all done so much for me and I\u2019m so thankful and blessed to have them there. One of my great friends from growing up came with and hung out with my family the whole time. Got to spend some time with him and connect more. It was just an unbelievable experience, and all those people mean the world to me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
It has been 12 years since NHL players have participated in the Winter Olympics and having the best players in the world compete on the Olympic stage made this year\u2019s Olympic Winter Games even more special. M\u00e4\u00e4tt\u00e4 has competed in two Winter Olympics and the 4 Nations Faceoff. As a result, he\u2019s experienced the increased level of play needed at these events.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was awesome,\u201d M\u00e4\u00e4tt\u00e4 said. \u201cI think the level of play and the quality of hockey plays (was) very high. I think these tournaments, it just felt like every game mattered so much so you didn\u2019t really need any extra boost or motivation to get up for these games. I think guys were thrilled and excited and really grateful to be back in the (Winter) Olympics again, and I think it was a special (event) for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
M\u00e4\u00e4tt\u00e4, Keller, and all of the NHL\u2019s Olympians have returned to their respective teams and are focused on the remainder of the regular season. The lessons each player learned from participating in the Winter Olympics, and the intense level of hockey at Milano Cortina 2026, will fuel these athletes moving forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThose are the most fun games,\u201d Keller said of the Winter Olympics. \u201cThe pressure\u2019s on the line and so many guys stepped up. It\u2019s cool to share that experience with them. The more you go through it, the more comfortable you are, more confidence that you have in those games.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The athletes aren\u2019t the only ones who work hard for this achievement. Each athlete\u2019s support system helps them…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-506511","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\/506511","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=506511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}