Vancouver Newspaper (Reporter Zhou Lei) For Canadians, they will be very happy to win the gold medal in the Winter Olympics, but they are more to watch the excitement. Canadians are most concerned about ice hockey, especially not to lose to the American team. In the world’s top ice hockey league NHL, the two teams are inextricably beaten every year. As the founder, the United States has always considered itself the leader of this sport, but Canadian players currently have the largest number of players in the NHL, and they regard themselves as the number one country in ice hockey.
In Canada, ice hockey is not just a sport, it penetrates into the lives of fans. Fans regard the confrontation between the United States and Canada as an extension of the NHL. The Winter Olympic Games played by the national team is the moment when the two ice hockey superpowers will fight each other.
There are 18 NHL players in the Canadian team and 14 in the United States. This is like an NHL All-Star game. But this is basically the last time the top team of the United States and Canada staged a peak matchup in the Winter Olympics. NHL Chairman Bateman said that the NHL players participating in the Winter Olympics are backed by 2.1 billion US dollars contracts, and the club cannot take the risk for player injuries. Therefore, since 2014, there will be no NHL players in the Winter Olympics.