You can see where this is going.<\/p>\n
So would Buckley give up the goods on his NHL goalie if it meant helping his national team win a gold medal?<\/p>\n
\u201cI probably have a little bit more insight being with him on a day-to-day basis. But at the end of the day, the players still have to execute,\u201d said Buckley, like Kuemper, a first-time Olympian. \u201cSo if I tell someone to shoot somewhere at a certain time or a certain spot, they\u2019re going to have to be able to execute that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The answer then is maybe.<\/p>\n
Still, that\u2019s a dilemma Buckley will probably never face since Jordan Binnington of the St. Louis Blues, who was spectacular in goal in last year\u2019s Four Nations Face-off, will probably start for Canada in Milan. But with the Kings sending four other players (defenseman Drew Doughty<\/a>, Canada; and forwards Adrian Kempe<\/a>, Sweden; Kevin Fiala<\/a>, Switzerland; and Joel Armia<\/a>, Finland) plus Canadian equipment manager Darren Granger to the Olympics, there\u2019s a good chance guys who have shared a dressing room since September will be competing against one another.<\/p>\n Kings forward Kevin Fiala controls the puck while playing for Team Switzerland at the 2025 world championships.<\/p>\n (Michael Campanella \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n The same goes for the Ducks<\/a>, who are sending four players \u2014 goalie Lukas Dostal<\/a> and defenseman Radko Gudas<\/a>, Czechia; forward Mikael Granlund<\/a>, Finland; and defenseman Jackson LaCombe<\/a>, U.S. \u2014 to Milan. Ducks star Leo Carlsson<\/a>, who was expected to start for Sweden, will miss the Games after undergoing surgery to repair a rare injury in his left thigh last month.<\/p>\n So while the Olympics may bring countries together, it also has the potential to turn teammates against one another \u2014 at least temporarily.<\/p>\n In the group stage of the tournament, for example, Armia and Finland will play against Kempe\u2019s Sweden. And Canada, with Kuemper and Doughty, will face Switzerland, which is led by Fiala.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s obviously going to be a little strange,\u201d Gudas said. \u201cIt\u2019s only for a few games. For that amount of time, you can put things aside a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n Those kinds of match-ups were rare in the last two Olympic tournaments since NHL players didn\u2019t take part, sidelined by a dispute over insurance, travel costs and scheduling issues. This year 147 NHL players are on the 12 Olympic rosters, with all 32 NHL clubs represented.<\/p>\n Not all the top NHL players will be in Milan, however. Russia has been banned from the tournament because of the country\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, meaning Alexander Ovechkin, the NHL\u2019s all-time leading goal scorer, won\u2019t play.<\/p>\n Granlund, who won a bronze medal with Finland in 2014, the last time NHL players participated in the Olympics, is glad to be back.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was such a cool experience,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the biggest honors I can have as a hockey player, playing for a country in the Olympics. There\u2019s no player in the NHL who wouldn\u2019t go.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s due in large part to the rush that comes with wearing your country\u2019s colors on your chest.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s tough to explain how much it means,\u201d he said. \u201cYou grow up in a country like Finland, watching the national team play. As a kid you\u2019re dreaming to play for that team.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery single time you put that jersey on, it\u2019s such a pride you feel.\u201d<\/p>\n Doughty, who already has two gold medals, agreed, saying the only time he sings along with the Canadian anthem is at the Olympics.<\/p>\n Kings defenseman Drew Doughty controls the puck while playing for Canada in the Four Nations Face-Off last year.<\/p>\n (Maddie Meyer \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we hear it in the NHL, I\u2019m not singing,\u201d he said. \u201cBut when you\u2019re wearing a Canadian jersey, that\u2019s one of the biggest moments you can have.\u201d<\/p>\n Not just for the guys on the ice. Granger, the equipment manager, will be making his third trip to the Olympics with Canada. And the journey never gets old.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not something that you apply for. It\u2019s something that you\u2019re asked to do,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I don\u2019t take that lightly. It\u2019s an honor.\u201d<\/p>\n The equipment managers may have the most difficult job in the Olympic hockey tournament since they must prepare and maintain the sticks, skates, gloves and uniforms for 25 players, some of whom they\u2019ve never met. That means checking in with the equipment managers of rival NHL teams to get prepared.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have quite a few players that are particular about certain things,\u201d he said. \u201cAfter a while, you just kind of get used to what those things are. If it\u2019s a player that likes to use three sticks a game, then making sure he has that. If it\u2019s a guy that likes to change gloves every other game, making sure you have enough.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet if Canada wins the tournament, Granger\u2019s reward won\u2019t be a gold medal. Olympic rules say medals only go to the players, leaving the equipment managers, trainers and coaches \u2014 even coaches with inside information like Buckley \u2014 out in the cold.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s OK,\u201d Buckley said. \u201cI just want the players to get one.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Think of Mike Buckley as a kind of double agent. Not the sinister kind, who give away state…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[77952,4690,7363,43201,77955,33244,48,52,51,7036,47,50,49,57223,77954,77953,10012,9442,12785,42303,12967],"class_list":["post-160198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-buckley","tag-coach","tag-country","tag-darcy-kuemper","tag-equipment-manager","tag-finland","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-last-year","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-milan","tag-nhl-goalie","tag-nhl-player","tag-olympics","tag-player","tag-sweden","tag-team-canada","tag-tournament"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Kings](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770035168_86_.jpeg\")
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