Now he’s zeroed in on this. Canada plays Team Czechia at Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena on Thursday (10:40 a.m. ET; Peacock, USA, CBC Gem, CBC) in the first of three preliminary round games.
A reporter told him it sounded kind of sad. If you’re at the Olympics for the first time, you gotta take it in, no?
“No,” MacKinnon said with a little laugh. “Just being honest.”
He explained himself further.
“In terms of going to 10 events a day and going to dinner in Milan, I don’t think anyone’s going to do that,” he said. “That’s what I mean in terms of enjoy myself, but I’m loving being with guys. This is a dream for me. Sitting next to Sid in the dressing room. At 10 years old, how cool would that be?”
Sid, of course, is Sidney Crosby, the Pittsburgh Penguins legend who has won the Stanley Cup three times and Olympic gold twice. Crosby and MacKinnon come from Nova Scotia and have been workout buddies for years. They’re a lot alike and love playing together internationally.
“Nate is a worker, and I found that out when we were at 4 Nations and gave all the guys an off day, and he came to me and was like, ‘Hey, do you care if I skate?'” Canada coach Jon Cooper said. “And he and Sid went down [to the rink], and the two of them went on the ice together, and I thought, ‘Wow, these guys, they’re really, really dedicated and committed players.’
“But there is time you have to have fun, and we tell the guys, like, ‘This is the Olympics. This is an experience we may never get to be a part of again, so enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself in the village, introduce yourself to other athletes, become part of this, but when it’s rink time, it’s our time. Then it’s focus time.'”
Crosby isn’t surprised by MacKinnon’s businesslike attitude here.
