'Very exciting': Canadian athletes happy see NHL players back at Winter Olympics

Ivanie Blondin remembers the minute sir philip sidney bing crosby walked through and through the door.

Canada had tabulate tennis set up in the country's athlete lounge at the 2014 Olympics. The hockey icon picked up a paddle. Blondin did the same.

"I was really young, but you always get those star-struck moments," said the long-track speed skater from Ottawa. "I couldn't even get a word out. I just started playing with him, and I just was like, 'Holy crap, what just happened?"'

Blondin and the rest of Canada's top high-performance winter athletes will once again share space on sports' biggest global stage as the NHL returns to the Games in 2026 following a 12-year absence.

Men's hockey will, almost undoubtedly, take up plenty of oxygen. A lot of the focus will be on the likes of Crosby and Connor McDavid as they pull on the red Maple Leaf in Milan.

So, will all the attention afforded hockey's stars, who previously participated at five Olympics between 1998 and 2014, steal some of the other competitors' thunder?

"I don't think they're going to overshadow," Blondin said. "If anything, it's going to bring the mood up."

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Canadian pairs figure skating champion Trennt Michaud agrees — and won't be shy when he gets to the Olympic Village.

"I want to see Crosby," said the Trenton, Ont., product. "He's Captain Canada for a reason."

Canadian Olympic Committee CEO David Shoemaker doesn't see NHLers being back as anything other than a positive.

"The Canadian men's hockey team will garner a ton of attention, as it should," he said. "We have the greatest hockey players in the world. But if people haven't already realized it, it means that our Canadian women's hockey team will get a ton of attention.

"Our hockey players are also fans of the great Canadian Olympians in other sports."

Women's hockey did, however, get more ink than in the past at both the 2018 and 2022 Games when the NHL declined to participate

Canadian defender Claire Thompson said it's great having the league back, even if the spotlight has to be shared.

"Every Games brings something special," said the Toronto native. "I'm really excited for a lot of them — a lot of tremendous hockey players — to be playing in their first Olympics."

Canadian curler Brett Gallant said the star power will add to the appeal for casual fans.

"More eyeballs on the Olympic Games and more talk about the Olympics is great," said the Charlottetown product. "As a hockey fan, it's pretty exciting that the best-on-best are going to be competing."

Michaud added NHLers might keep those same casuals tuned in longer.

"Most people, when they start watching the Olympics, they don't just stop," he said. "Whether it's hockey that brings them in and then they end up watching figure skating, I still think it's great, and that's how we're going to get more people to watch. It's very exciting."

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Canadian women's hockey star Sarah Nurse said there have already been examples of storylines — the rink dimensions and arena construction delays — that wouldn't have made the same waves without the NHL's impending return.

"It's definitely interesting," said the 32-year-old forward from Hamilton, Ont. "There are always so many things going into Olympic Games that people don't necessarily see the drama with the ice, I don't think anybody would have cared if the NHL players weren't there."

Nurse, to be clear, isn't complaining.

"It's great that they're back," she added. "We all want to see best-on-best."

Canadian short-track speedskating coach and five-time Olympic medallist Marc Gagnon experienced the Games with and without NHLers as a competitor in 1994, 1998 and 2002.

"If we have victories in short-track, I think we'll still have the same attention," he said. "If there's a big, big result in short-track at the same time as a Canadian game, could that affect it a little bit? Maybe so.

"I trust our media enough that they will give the same amount of spotlight to both of them, because they're all important."

But while hockey, figure skating and speedskating are located in Milan, athletes in other events will be spread out across Northern Italy in five other Olympic villages.

"It's a little bit weird because we are so far away from all the other major events like hockey," said men's curler Tyler Tardi of Langley, B.C., who will be a five-hour drive away in Cortina d'Ampezzo. "I've always loved NHL players being a part of it. One of my greatest Olympic memories is in 2010 when Sidney Crosby scored (to win gold in Vancouver).

"Very excited to follow along."

Blondin, meanwhile, will put in a better effort on the social side if she again crosses paths with Crosby.

"I would totally strike up a conversation," she said. "I'm more confident and less shy."

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