New York Islanders head coach Patrick Roy is going to take things slow and keep the lines of communication wide open with his two returning Olympians, Bo Horvat and Ondrej Palat.
After Horvat and his Canadians dispatched of Palat and Czechia in the quarterfinals, they were beaten in an epic gold-medal match by the United States on Jack Hughes’ overtime goal on Sunday in Milan, capping off a grueling week-and-a-half stretch that featured six games in 11 days.
That comes off a jam-packed finish to the NHL’s pre-Olympic-break schedule in which the Islanders toughed out eight games in 13 nights. Physically, the toll is obvious, but mentally, there are significant hurdles for Horvat, especially to clear.
“When you get to that high [of the Olympics] and maintain that momentum for such a long period, it’s hard to do,” Roy said. “When you’re losing that little bit of momentum, it’s important to deal with it well. That’s what we’re going to do with the two guys at the Olympics. We’re going to make sure they’re rested and not getting overtired. It has nothing to do with the physicality. It’s more the mental side. So we’re gonna have to deal maybe differently with Bo and Ondrej, see how they feel, and see how they’re responding with the schedule, because down the stretch, they’re going to be important players for us.”
Roy is drawing on his own personal experience in this approach. He backstopped Team Canada at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, where gold-medal expectations were cut significantly short by a shootout loss in the semifinals to Czechia.
Upon his return to the defending Stanley Cup-champion Colorado Avalanche, his play and mentality, along with those of his Canadian teammates Joe Sakic and Adam Foote, dipped so low that they were surprisingly eliminated in seven games of their first-round series by the Edmonton Oilers.
“For some reason, it was hard after that for us because we were all disappointed, and we wanted to win the gold medal, and that was the plan going there,” Roy said. “Coming back, you went from a really high, and for some reason, we didn’t have a good playoffs that year. I’m sure the [Horvat and Palat] will probably understand that and have to deal with that, but I think the game is different from it was when I was playing. So I’m sure the players are aware of this and very well prepared for that, and I’m confident that they’ll play a big role…
“I was an intense player, so I was really affected by it because we didn’t win the gold medal… It’s going to be up to us to see how communicating with them and see how they feel and how they want to handle the rest of the season practice-wise. They’re not going to miss any games, I could tell you that, but we want to see how they’re going to handle the practices and based on how not only physically, but mentally how they feel.”
