Avalanche superstar Nathan MacKinnon is tremendous on the ice, and a bit quiet off of it. He does not like to give himself too much credit, but on Thursday, the Avs center put himself in a vulnerable state as far as expressing his feelings leading up to the first game, which was against Martin Necas and Czechia.
If you haven’t already seen the quote, care to guess what his feelings were? Okay, time is up…
MacKinnon said that he and the team were nervous and that he could not sleep the night before due to the magnitude of the Olympic stage he would be playing on. He also added that, “we feel like kids at this tournament.”
Wow. Never in a million years would I catch Nathan MacKinnon admit that he was nervous for a hockey game. From “young and stupid” to a Stanley Cup champion, to a Four Nations participant and finally, to a 2026 Olympian, MacKinnon has come a long way during his career. The maturity aspect has become incredibly obvious. MacKinnon is a team-first type of player. He didn’t care about openly admitting his nervousness for the Olympics, and that’s just a refreshing thing to hear coming from him.
My guess is that part of the nervous feelings were because he was not only taking part in a historic event, but he was doing so mostly with guys who he is not teammates with in the NHL. The only guys on Team Canada to share that exact feeling are Cale Makar and Devon Toews. The only other team in the NHL with multiple players on Team Canada are the Florida Panthers (Brad Marchand, Sam Bennett, and Matthew Tkachuk).
That’s not to say that MacKinnon isn’t friends with the other players. He’s one of the most respected players in all of the NHL and is known for his greatness.
You can find all of the Olympic hockey seeding and groups here.