{"id":456964,"date":"2026-02-08T20:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T20:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/456964\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T20:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T20:18:09","slug":"advice-from-the-captain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/456964\/","title":{"rendered":"Advice From The Captain"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILAN \u2013 Auston Matthews<\/a> knows there will be millions of eyeballs tuning in from across the globe when the U.S. Olympic Men\u2019s Ice Hockey Team begins their pursuit of the United States first gold medal in men\u2019s hockey since 1980 later this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the biggest stage in all of sports,\u201d Matthews said.<\/p>\n

Matthews also understands that a large portion of that audience will be youth hockey players who have their own Olympic dreams and parents of kids who are lacing up their skates at local rinks across the United States.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old hopes that kids don\u2019t forget the importance of playing multiple sports and simply having fun in whatever sport they play. Some of Matthew\u2019s favorite memories growing up in Scottsdale, Arizona, also came on the baseball field long before he was lighting the lamp in the NHL as a prolific goal scorer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would tell them to play two sports,\u201d Matthews said during the U.S. Olympic Men\u2019s Hockey Orientation Camp in August. \u201cHave some time off in hockey. It is important to not get burnt out. It is easy to put all your focus and eggs into one basket, but there are so many great sports to play. I loved playing all sports and ended up just playing hockey and baseball. I just focused on hockey once I was 13 years old. Playing two sports is important.<\/p>\n

\u201cHockey was my number one passion, but it is important especially for young kids to have different kinds of stimulus and not be focused on only one thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

What better way for kids to learn about other sports than during the 2026 Winter Olympics, which features eight sports and 15 different disciplines.<\/p>\n

Matthews himself is excited for the chance to visit with other athletes at the Olympic Village and see the world\u2019s best.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty cool just to be in this kind of setting, and I’ve never seen anything like this,\u201d Matthews said following the U.S. Olympic Men\u2019s Ice Hockey Team\u2019s first practice at Milano Santagiulia Arena on Sunday. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of what the Olympics is all about \u2013 all the best athletes from all around the world in their respective sports and it\u2019s just very cool to be a part of.<\/p>\n

So, if Matthews was not a hockey player, what other Olympic winter sport would he potentially be good at?<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe something with skiing,\u201d Matthews said before pausing and letting out a laugh.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like watching skiing, but I probably wouldn\u2019t be any good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matthews sure seems to have that hockey thing down well, though. The No. 1 pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2016 is a notorious, prolific offensive power with 427 career goals and 348 assists.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old was named captain of the U.S. Olympic Men\u2019s Ice Hockey Team on Sunday following practice, while Charlie McAvoy<\/a> and Matthew Tkachuk<\/a> were named alternate captains.<\/p>\n

Matthews is set to make his Olympic debut when the U.S. faces Latvia on Thursday at 3:10 p.m. ET (USA Network | Peacock) as this is the first Olympics with NHL players since the 2014 Games in Sochi.<\/p>\n

He admitted seeing the Olympic rings on the dashers inside Milano Santagiulia Arena was special.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is crazy to think now we are here, and we get this opportunity, and it is very special,\u201d Matthews said. \u201cExtremely honored to represent (my) country and wear the Team USA jersey. It means that much more doing it somewhere like the Olympics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matthews, Tkachuk and the rest of the U.S. squad outside of McAvoy, Jeremy Swayman, Jake Oettinger and Zach Werenski, who arrived on Friday, all landed in Milan Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI envision our team as a team,\u201d Matthews said. \u201cThe camaraderie we have in the room and the selflessness of each guy to step in and fill a roll that needs to be had and do whatever it takes and whatever is necessary to help the team. That was really evident at 4 Nations and the team at the Olympics will try to carry that on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN \u2013 Auston Matthews knows there will be millions of eyeballs tuning in from across the globe when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-456964","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}