{"id":466455,"date":"2026-02-10T19:35:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T19:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/466455\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T19:35:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T19:35:07","slug":"nhl-players-vocal-in-their-praise-for-milan-athletes-village-but-low-key-about-plans-to-stay-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/466455\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL players vocal in their praise for Milan athletes village, but low key about plans to stay there"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

NHL players have said they’ve enjoyed the athletes village at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, but it’s unknown if they’ll stay there for the duration of the Games.Lisi Niesner\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Drew Doughty was coy. Which was probably the first clue.<\/p>\n

The veteran Team Canada defenceman is known as a straight shooter, a guy who rarely ducks a question.<\/p>\n

But when Doughty was asked whether Team Canada was planning to stay in the athletes village for the entire duration of the Milan Cortina Olympics, or whether the NHLers would be checking into a nice hotel, Doughty\u2019s response was, basically: I don\u2019t really want to talk about that.<\/p>\n

The arrival of multimillion-dollar hockey superstars in Milan for the men\u2019s tournament that begins this week has injected some glamour into the Winter Games, not unlike when NBA superstars descend upon the Summer Olympics.<\/p>\n

However, living arrangements are something the players aren\u2019t eager to make a lot of noise about. After staying the first few nights in the athletes village to get a taste of the Olympic experience, some players will be quietly decamping for hotels to prepare for the tournament.<\/p>\n

Jon Cooper’s unlikely journey to men’s Olympic hockey coach reaches its moment of truth<\/a><\/p>\n

Some will join their wives or families, who are arriving this week, while others will be in hotels arranged by the NHL Players\u2019 Association. <\/p>\n

As part of the agreement that sent NHL players back to the Olympics for the first time in 12 years, the players\u2019 association negotiated hotel rooms into the deal, which players can take advantage of if they choose. And it\u2019s not just Canada. The United States and other countries are also covered.<\/p>\n

NHL players on both the Canadian and the U.S. squads were vocal in their praise of the athletes village, and the vibe that comes with hanging out among Olympians from other sports, when they held their first practices in Milan this weekend. <\/p>\n

Canadian head coach Jon Cooper said he loved seeing top athletes in other sports walk by. Canadian players remarked about how Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid drew stares. And forward Tom Wilson mused about what it was like to room with a goalie, in his case former NHL teammate Darcy Kuemper.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Canada’s Drew Doughty, seen here arriving for hockey practice in Milan on Sunday, wasn’t interested in talking about where he and his teammates may stay throughout the Olympic Games.Carolyn Kaster\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re close quarters so it\u2019s good that I know him a little. He\u2019s clean so far,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cAs far as goalies go, he hasn\u2019t done anything too weird in the room yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the American side, Auston Matthews\u2019s teammates joked he was a celebrity. And Jack Eichel quipped that putting the Tkachuk brothers, Matthew and Brady, in the same room at the village was a risky idea.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we hear someone go through a wall in the middle of the night, we\u2019ll probably know where it came from,\u201d Eichel said.<\/p>\n

But how many of the players will spend more than a few nights at the village, particularly as the high-stakes games draw near, remains an open question. <\/p>\n

The tournament begins Wednesday, and Canada plays its first game Thursday against Czechia.<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s journey to Olympic men\u2019s hockey glory had an important stopover in Halifax<\/a><\/p>\n

The U.S. players say they love the village and its dorm-like feel, but they didn\u2019t say if all of them are definitely staying the entire tournament. Canada said it will be a decision for the team\u2019s leadership group on what players do. As such, living arrangements can be subject to change.<\/p>\n

The spread of norovirus among the Finnish women\u2019s hockey team last week, which forced their game against Canada to be delayed by a week, has also raised concerns about stomach flu and viruses, though it appears no new athletes have gotten ill in the past three or four days. Team doctors are no longer as concerned about the norovirus matter as they were last week.<\/p>\n

At past Olympics, teams replete with NHL players have stayed at the village. But that was before this current arrangement existed. It is not unlike that of NBA players at the Summer Olympics, who often skip the village, nor is it necessarily a new development; the agreement was struck well in advance of the Olympics. <\/p>\n

Follow our live daily coverage<\/a> of the Winter Games<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: NHL players have said they’ve enjoyed the athletes village at the Milan Cortina…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,2922,4963,187287,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-466455","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-noastack","12":"tag-olympics","13":"tag-olympicstaff","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}