When it comes to honesty, it’s hard to beat Maxim Lapierre.
“I’m happy to have been to the Olympics, but compare a Klinkhammer-O’Dell-Lapierre trio with Huberdeau-Crosby-MacKinnon, it’s not the same thing,” launches the former player and co-host of The blue pocket. “Even I would have liked it to be the real Team Canada! ”
What Lapierre, Rob Klinkhammer and Eric O’Dell experienced in 2018, players like Philippe Maillet, Jordan Weal and Daniel Audette will experience this winter at the Olympic Games: representing Canada, knowing full well that in others. circumstances, they would not be there.
This is obviously not the tournament that fans would have liked in an ideal world. The absence of the NHL players for the second straight edition therefore means that Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews, Leon Draisaitl and other exceptional talents will not face each other in an elite tournament until 2026.
Disappointing for the fans, but the players did not shy away from their pleasure. Take Derek Roy, former Sabers forward. As of February 2018, he was 34 and played in Linköping, Sweden.
He came close to participating in the Vancouver Games in 2010. The Franco-Ontarian was at the heart of a 69-point season, after having amassed 70 and 81 points in the two previous campaigns. But he had not been selected.
Hockey Canada’s invitation to PyeongChang was therefore a godsend for Roy.
“I remember the first match of the tournament, against Switzerland, during the warm-up. I stretched and lifted my head. Sometimes you look in the crowd and you don’t see anyone.
“But there I saw my family with a big Canadian flag. I looked at my sweater. I said to myself : “Oh my God, I’m at the Olympics! ” This is where I really realized it. ”
PHOTO BERNARD BRAULT, PRESS ARCHIVES
Christian Thomas, in 2018
Young or old?
In 2018, Hockey Canada turned to players like Roy and Lapierre, who had NHL experience but were in the second half of their careers. The average age of the players was 31; the youngest of the group was former Canadian Christian Thomas, 25.
Team Canada handed 19-year-old Cale Makar a pole to no avail.
Voices are now rising for the Canadian selection to open its doors to the youngest, for example to players who will play in the World Juniors next week. The idea does not appeal to our two surveyed players, not least because some of these skaters had the opportunity to prove what they are capable of on a big stage for the first time.
A few guys on our team had never played in the NHL. So it was cool for them. They had played their entire careers in Europe, but they were good players too.
Derek Roy
“You have to be careful,” warns Lapierre. Yes, I like seeing young people. But take the best in Europe… You’re not going for a walk in the park! Auston Matthews played in Zurich at 18, and I was up against him. He was good, but not all Auston Matthews, the juniors!
“Take Cole Caufield right now… Russia’s best players are stronger than an American League team. He’s a big gun, even if it’s not the NHL. ”
Life lesson
For Derek Roy as for Maxim Lapierre, participation in the Olympics was a good lesson in life that applies to any young hockey player.
“In 2010, I was one of the last players to be cut off,” Roy recalls. And eight years later, I’m one of the captain’s assistants. It’s proof that you never know what can happen and that you have to keep working hard. ”
Lapierre’s course was even more unlikely. By his own admission, he was not in the plans and had been invited to the Spengler Cup (which served as an evaluation camp for Team Canada) at the very last moment, “because we had been injured”, he specifies. As he was playing in Lugano, Switzerland, he was a two hour drive from Davos.
We packed our stuff and left at 5 am to arrive in time for practice. I was a replacement. We had shorthand practice, and they must have liked my speed. I started on the fourth line, I finished the first game on the second.
Maxim Lapierre
“I was hungry, I wanted to prove that I had my place, I had 600 games in the NHL, recalls Lapierre. I had to break my reputation as a fourth line player in the NHL for that of a fast guy capable of producing offense in Europe.
“No matter how old you are, no matter what you’ve done in your career, you still have to prove yourself. I learned that when you don’t let go anything can happen. I had started telling myself to keep believing it again, like when I was young. ”
Today, Roy and Lapierre have an Olympic bronze medal in their memories. How many hockey players can say the same?