As men’s hockey begins at Winter Olympics, Florida Panthers will watch from afar
Aleksander Barkov was hoping for a second chance.
In 2014, he was part of the Finland men’s ice hockey team that won the bronze medal at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. He was 18 years old at the time and only saw action in one of Finland’s six games.
“Those are the tournaments you want to be a part of,” Barkov said. “I got lucky to be a part of it in Sochi, to play, enjoy the atmosphere and play on such a great team. Team Finland is always a great team, and they always go to tournaments to try and win the gold medal. That’s what they’re gonna do this year, too. And they’re gonna do the same thing.”
Barkov, now 26 and one of the NHL’s top players as the top-line center for the Florida Panthers, was poised to be a key contributor for Finland at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Several of his Panthers teammates — defenseman Aaron Ekblad and forward Jonathan Huberdeau representing Canada, goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky with the Russian Olympic Committee and forward Patric Hornqvist playing for Sweden — were projected to be part of the Olympics, too.
And then, they weren’t.
The NHL decided on Dec. 22 that its players would not participate in the 2022 Winter Olympics, reversing course from the league’s original plan.
COVID-19 was the primary cause for the change of heart.
A surge in positive cases throughout the league upended the NHL’s schedule in mid-December, with nine teams (the Panthers among them) being temporarily shut down and 100 games originally scheduled to be played between Dec. 13 and Jan. 29 being postponed. The NHL is now using the three-week Olympic break it baked into its schedule to make up the majority of those postponed games.
There was also concern about the extended quarantine that would take place should an athlete test positive while in China. The International Olympic Committee at the time said any athlete who tests positive for COVID-19 in China will need to produce two negative results 24 hours apart or else they could be subjected to a quarantine period in China lasting anywhere from three to five weeks.
Now, the wait for NHL players to compete at the Olympics lasts another four years, although there is an understanding about why the decision was made.
“It wasn’t great to hear about that,” Barkov said, “but I think it might be the smart decision to keep the players here, keep them safe and play through this regular season as safe as possible.”
Added Huberdeau, who would have been competing in his first Olympic Games: “Hockey-wise, obviously, it sucks. I would’ve loved, if I made the team, to be in there and represent the country. It’s quite an honor and it would’ve been fun, obviously. You don’t know if you’re going to get the chance to do it again. Obviously, I think there was more to it than hockey and that’s why we’re not going.”
So instead, the Panthers’ contingent of players who likely would have gone to Beijing will support their home countries from afar.
Men’s hockey action began Wednesday with the Russian Olympic Committee beating Switzerland 1-0 and Denmark beating the Czech Republic 2-1 to begin the first of three sets of pool play.
The other eight teams — Sweden, Latvia, Finland and Solvakia in Group C; the United States, China, Canada and Germany in Group A — start their three-game pool play on Thursday. Pool play runs through Sunday, with the top team from each pool and the top overall second-place team receiving a bye to the quarterfinals of the single-elimination playoff bracket. The bronze medal game is Feb. 19, and the gold medal game is Feb. 20.
“I’m gonna be watching,” Huberdeau said. “It’s a cool experience for these guys who probably never would have had a chance to play for Canada and now they do. I’m sure they’re going to represent our country the right way.”
Miami Herald sportswriter David Wilson contributed to this report.
This story was originally published February 9, 2022 at 11:41 AM.
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