MILAN – Ivanie Blondin remembers the moment Sidney Crosby walked through the door.
Canada had table tennis arrange within the country’s athlete lounge on the 2014 Olympics. The hockey icon picked up a paddle. Blondin did the identical.
“I used to be really young, but you usually get those star-struck moments,” said the long-track speedskater from Ottawa. “I couldn’t even get a word out. I just began fidgeting with him, and I just was like, ‘Holy crap, what just happened?’”
Blondin and the remaining of Canada’s top high-performance winter athletes will once more share space on sports’ biggest global stage because the NHL returns to the Games in 2026 following a 12-year absence.
Men’s hockey will, almost undoubtedly, take up loads of oxygen. Plenty of the main focus shall be on the likes of Crosby and Connor McDavid as they pull on the red Maple Leaf in Milan.
So, will all the eye afforded hockey’s stars, who previously participated at five Olympics between 1998 and 2014, steal among 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.”
Canadian pairs figure skating champion Trennt Michaud agrees — and won’t be shy when he gets to the Olympic Village.
“I need 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 aside from a positive.
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“The Canadian men’s hockey team will garner a ton of attention, because it should,” he said. “We now have the best hockey players on the planet. But when people haven’t already realized it, it implies that our Canadian women’s hockey team will get a ton of attention.
“Our hockey players are also fans of the nice Canadian Olympians in other sports.”
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Women’s hockey did, nevertheless, get more ink than up to now at each the 2018 and 2022 Games when the NHL declined to participate
Canadian defender Claire Thompson said it’s great having the league back, even when the highlight needs to be shared.
“Every Games brings something special,” said the Toronto native. “I’m really excited for a whole lot of them — a whole lot of tremendous hockey players — to be playing of 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 concerning 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 self same casuals tuned in longer.
“Most individuals, once they start watching the Olympics, they don’t just stop,” he said. “Whether it’s hockey that brings them in after which they find yourself watching figure skating, I still think it’s great, and that’s how we’re going to get more people to observe. It’s very exciting.”
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 identical waves without the NHL’s impending return.
“It’s definitely interesting,” said the 32-year-old forward from Hamilton. “There are at all times so many things going into Olympic Games that individuals 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. “All of us wish 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’ve got victories in short-track, I believe we’ll still have the identical attention,” he said. “If there’s an enormous, big end in short-track concurrently a Canadian game, could that affect it somewhat bit? Perhaps so.
“I trust our media enough that they’ll give the identical amount of highlight to each of them, because they’re all necessary.”
But while hockey, figure skating and speedskating are situated in Milan, athletes in other events shall be unfolded across Northern Italy in five other Olympic villages.
“It’s somewhat bit weird because we’re to this point away from all the opposite major events like hockey,” said men’s curler Tyler Tardi of Langley, B.C., who shall be a five-hour drive away in Cortina d’Ampezzo. “I’ve at all times loved NHL players being an element of it. One in every of my best 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 greater effort on the social side if she again crosses paths with Crosby.
“I’d totally strike up a conversation,” she said. “I’m more confident and fewer shy.”
-With files from Gemma Karstens-Smith, Daniel Rainbird, Donna Spencer and Gregory Strong.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 6, 2026.
© 2026 The Canadian Press