Jamie Nye: NHL not in Olympics; get over it

By no means will Rene Bourque or Mason Raymond or Ben Scrivens wow the Canadian hockey fan in the men’s Olympic hockey tournament, but this team is growing on me.

As a hockey fan, I was disappointed that Sidney Crosby won’t be able to play with Connor McDavid or Steven Stamkos at the Olympics because the NHL blocked them from doing so.

But this rag-tag group of former NHLers intrigues me because of their stories. None of them had an easy ride as a hockey player. They’ve jumped from team to team and now are jumping from country to country just to keep their hockey dream alive. This for many of them may be the top of the mountain in terms of living that dream of an Olympic gold medal.

Head Coach Willie Desjardins expressed with emotion just how much it meant to these players to be on team Canada at the Olympics and how hard they worked for it.

So it’s time to get over it. Get over the fact it won’t be NHLers and root for these underdogs who won’t be gold medal favourites in South Korea.