NHL players returning to the Olympic Games for the first time in 12 years is a direct result of how much NHL players care about representing their countries. It is a right they bargained for, and something for which they’ve accommodated a three-week interruption to the season.
So it is completely within expectation that injuries that players would play through in the playoffs are injuries they will attempt to play through in the Olympics. Players, or at least most of them, would rather win the Stanley Cup than a gold medal. But anyone who believes Game 57 of the season is more important than the Olympics is kidding themselves, which brings us to Jack Hughes.
The Devils’ superstar center, who suffered a lower-body injury last week that kept him out of the lineup through Thursday’s pre-Olympic finale against the Islanders, has wrought the fury of New Jersey’s fan base by dint of the fact that he is still expected to travel to Milan over the weekend to play for Team USA, as per The Athletic’s Michael Russo.
Three things on that front.
