Jets’ Olympic dreams dashed by pandemic

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This article was published 21/12/2021 (1356 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

They were stone-cold locks to make the United States Olympic team and would have been among the favourites to bring a shiny souvenir back home from Beijing.

But those gold medal dreams have now been crushed. And Kyle Connor and Connor Hellebuyck aren’t very happy about it.

“That sucks,” Connor, who leads the Winnipeg Jets in scoring with 18 goals and 14 assists, said Tuesday. “I think everybody was looking forward to this. We made this a big part of our collective bargaining agreement as the players to try to bring the Olympics back and just create so many memories. Whether the circumstances around going to China and with COVID and everything, whether there would be fans, I think it still would have been a great tournament, great hockey.”

With 50 games already postponed and more than 130 NHL players currently in COVID-19 protocol, the NHL is able to use an out clause in the CBA to cite a fundamental impact on the regular-season schedule as the reason to pull out. Those games are all expected to be made up during the three-week open window in February.

“It’s something that I thought was in the past for the most part. We’ve got all these vaccines out; we’re 100 per cent vaccinated as the NHL, and you’ve seen in the past couple of weeks that we’re cancelling games. So it’s pretty disappointing but there’s not much else we can really do as players,” said Connor.

“We’re all trying to be as healthy as possible. It seems like a lot of guys I’ve talked to aren’t even really getting sick that bad with the new strain… I’m not by any means a doctor and know too much about it but that’s just my experience in talking to a lot of guys. It sucks that we can’t play these games but with that being said, guys are still feeling pretty good.”

Hellebuyck, who is on the record as saying he’d like the NHL to only be testing symptomatic players — the majority of positive tests right now are asymptomatic cases — went even further in voicing his displeasure.

“I can’t speak for everyone but for myself, it’s a little overkill,” he said. “You see leagues like the NFL that are adapting and I think doing things right. It sucks but it’s Christmastime so we’re enjoying the break and we’ll use this as a little mental reset to see family and enjoy the holidays and really enjoy what we have.”

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Connor, 25, and Hellebuyck, 28, both expressed hope this won’t be their only shot at playing hockey on the biggest stage of all.

“Yeah, if the opportunity presents itself down the road, it would be something I would definitely cherish. It would be pretty cool to be a part of it. That being said, it happens every four years so we’ll cross that path when it comes time,” said Connor.

There were other concerns as well, specifically pandemic protocols which could have forced players who test positive to be stranded in China for up to five weeks. There were also going to be other members of the Jets organization going overseas as well. Nikolaj Ehlers would have been the main star for Denmark, while Moose defenceman Leon Gawanke was a slam-dunk for Germany. Other players such as Mark Scheifele (Canada), Pierre-Luc Dubois (Canada), Josh Morrissey (Canada) and Andrew Copp (U.S.) would have been up for consideration.

“If the next one’s in four years, I’ll be 32 and I know I’ll still be playing my best hockey. But we’ll see, we’ll see if it’s the same story. It was going to be an awesome opportunity to play but I guess that’s just what we have to deal with,” said Hellebuyck.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @mikemcintyrewpg

Mike McIntyre
Reporter

Mike McIntyre is a sports reporter whose primary role is covering the Winnipeg Jets. After graduating from the Creative Communications program at Red River College in 1995, he spent two years gaining experience at the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 1997, where he served on the crime and justice beat until 2016. Read more about Mike.

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