For at least the next week, the Tampa Bay Lightning\u2019s chemistry will be tested by geography.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the first time in 12 years that NHL players can contend for Olympic gold.<\/p>\n
Nine from the Lightning organization \u2013 plus coach Jon Cooper behind Canada\u2019s bench \u2013 have traded in blue bolts for national crests in Milan.<\/p>\n
The tournament begins on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Teammates like American Jake Guentzel and Canadian Brandon Hagel have joked about not speaking once the puck drops. Their countries are again the favorites, but they will open in different groupings. A reunion could come later, perhaps with gold on the line.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I won\u2019t be talking to this guy in a couple of days,\u201d Guentzel said Feb. 1 after the Stadium Series game, nodding toward Hagel.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, Jake\u2019s not on my side, but best of luck to him,\u201d Hagel replied.<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay originally had 11 players named to represent six nations, more than any NHL team. (Injuries to Anthony Cirelli and Brayden Point will keep them out for Canada.) Their presence has been hard to ignore, especially with the Bolts on a 19-1-1 run going into the three-week Olympic break.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you get into the dressing room, and we have, what, seven, eight Olympians in there, that\u2019s pretty spectacular,\u201d Hagel said.<\/p>\n
The list stretches across the hockey map: Hagel and Guentzel; Victor Hedman and Pontus Holmberg (Sweden); Erik Cernak (Slovakia), Oliver Bjorkstrand (Denmark), Zemgus Girgensons (Latvia), J.J. Moser (Switzerland) and AHL forward Wojciech Stachowiak (Germany).<\/p>\n
Two of the biggest Bolts stars, Nikita Kucherov and Andrei Vasilevskiy, won\u2019t be in Italy because Russia was barred from the Games because of the war in Ukraine. The NHL has no say in which countries are eligible for international play.<\/p>\n
Obviously, NHL players take international competition seriously; just look back at last year’s 4 Nations Faceoff. <\/p>\n
The final between Canada and the U.S. became a physical clash at the opening faceoff when Hagel and American Matthew Tkachuk dropped gloves, setting the tone for the match, won by Canada in overtime. <\/p>\n
Hagel later stated the game was for national pride. <\/p>\n
The two have been going at it since, including a fight during the Lightning-Florida Panthers game in Tampa on the day before players left for Milan. <\/p>\n
The Olympics are also personal for Hedman. The future Hockey Hall of Fame has played 64 international tournament games for Sweden, including last year\u2019s 4 Nations Faceoff. But he\u2019s never been to the Winter Games.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Olympics are kind of what you dream of as a kid,\u201d he told Olympics.com. \u201cThis is kind of the last thing on my list that I wanted to accomplish. It\u2019s a dream come true for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Cooper, who grew up in British Columbia, being in the Olympics has been a lifelong dream. He also feels the pressure of maintaining the Maple Leafs’ success of winning three of five gold medals in the Winter Games featuring NHL players. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you are not the team being chased, I do not want to be the chaser,\u201d he said. \u201cWould you rather be in a situation where, \u2018Oh, my God, I can\u2019t wait to win the bronze\u2019? No way, man. I want to be the team that is gold or bust.\u201d<\/p>\n
It’s a big spotlight, even for a coach who has won two Stanley Cups in Tampa. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re so proud as a coach because you\u2019re looking and you get to share this experience with the people you\u2019re with every single day,\u201d he said. \u201cBut then you come back, and much of the league\u2019s going to have this three-week break and come back all rested, and then a lot of our players are going to still be in the grind of playing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For at least the next week, the Tampa Bay Lightning\u2019s chemistry will be tested by geography. It\u2019s the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-151736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}