Knights ready to get back to work after Olympics

LAS VEGAS — On a cold morning, at least for these parts, people climbed out of their warm beds, or stumbled into neighborhood bars or restaurants, bleary-eyed from either just waking up or having yet to go to sleep, all to watch a hockey game.

It was a scene replicated across North America as folks rose early to watch and root on their countrymen.  But this wasn’t just any ordinary hockey game. This was the Olympics, the gold medal game, the United States vs. Canada.

Here, where loyalties among Vegas Golden Knights fans may have been divided, Canada, with Mark Stone, Mitch Marner and She Theodore faced off against the United States’ Jack Eichel and Noah Hanifin. Someone was going to be elated, the other devastated.

You only had to see the camera pointed at Stone on the Canadians’ bench to know the outcome after Jack Hughes, he of the missing tooth. delivered the gold medal to the red, white and blue a couple of minutes into overtime to give Team USA its third Olympic gold in men’s ice hockey, the first on foreign soil.

USA 2, Canada 1.

The real winner? Hockey itself. It was everything we love about this game. The speed. The skill. The physicality. The resilience. The national pride from both the Americans and the Canadians. Ultimately, it was a 32-year-old goaltender who hails from Commerce, Michigan and earns his living in Winnipeg, Manitoba who was no less a hero for this gold medal victory than Jim Craig was in Lake Placid back in 1980 or Jack McCartan was in 1960 in Squaw Valley.

Connor Hellebuyck’s play was borderline miraculous and that will be the only time here you see that word mentioned with this team. For unlike what transpired 46 years ago on this day when Craig and a bunch of fellow collegians shocked the world and beat what was then called the Soviet Union, Hellebuyck and his teammates were well-heeled millionaires as were their opponents.

Yes, Hellebuyck, Eichel, Hanifin and the rest of Team USA have all seen the Disney movie “Miracle” numerous times  Hell, I watched it myself Saturday night before turning in. And to steal a paraphrased line from the late Herb Brooks, “This was their time.”

So the question now is, whose time will it be 20 years from now? Who will comprise the next generation of USA Olympic hockey players, both men and women? Ah, you didn’t think I’d forget the incredible accomplishments of the Team USA women who beat Canada in OT for gold on Thursday in running the table and how big a moment it was for the women's game.

I am a hockey-playing and hockey-watching by-product of the first Olympic gold medal USA team, watching in black and white in our New Jersey home as McCartan and the rest of the USA squad turned back the Soviets, then the Czechs to win gold outside at Blythe Arena. I learned to play on the streets of Brooklyn, first on roller skates, then graduating to ice skates. By the time Lake Placid rolled around in 1980, I was pretty much done playing hockey, having gotten as far as my college’s club team before moving to California two years prior to the Olympics.

The challenge to grow the game in this country hasn’t changed in 65-plus years. More rinks are needed. The sport needs to be made more affordable. Investment must be made at the grassroots level.

I think Golden Knights owner Bill Foley and the rest of the NHL understands this. We have rinks in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson. More are needed if we intend to grow the game here, much like the Ducks have committed to growing the game in Orange County, and, before them, the Kings in Los Angeles. It was reported that in the United States more than 100,000 kids aged 8 and under are registered with USA Hockey. That number will likely spike in the coming months as kids who watched Sunday’s game with their parents and siblings are going to want to try their hand at the sport.

And we better be ready to accommodate them. Boys and girls alike.

As for the Golden Knights and the rest of the NHL, it’s time to get back to work. Vegas plays at Los Angeles Wednesday and Artemi Panarin makes his Kings debut. Only 25 games remain, so it’s a sprint to the April 15 finish line.

Oh, there’s the trade deadline of March 6 looming and while Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon is counting his blessings that the eight players of his who participated in the Olympics all returned minus any injuries, he has to see how he can improve the roster. For the chase is no longer for gold by individual members of the Knights, it’s a collective run to silver, as in Stanley Cup silver, and we’re still waiting to see what the roster is going to shape up to be in the next 12 days.

Will defenseman Brayden McNabb be back? Is Brett Howden ready to return? How about William Karlssson, Brandon Saad, Colton Sissons, Jonas Rondbjerg and Carter Hart? What is their status going forward?

It would be nice if Eichel, Hanifin, Stone, Marner and Theodore could get a week off to heal up from the Olympics. But with the Knights’ lead in the Pacific Division a tenuous one — just four points over Edmonton with a game in hand — I don’t see coach Bruce Cassidy implementing any kind of load management. Missing a practice or a morning skate? Sure. But the games are too important to be sitting out.

This upcoming 25-game stretch will test everyone’s physical endurance, their mental toughness and their willingness to pay the price for ultimate team success. This is a group that gets along and has a good bunch of leaders to keep everyone connected. That will be an important intangible going forward.

As Americans, we can afford to bask in the glow of the accomplishments of the men’s and women’s hockey teams in Italy. But for those who are returning to play, it’s time to store the medals, put the memories in the rear-view mirror and get back to work, not as foes any longer, but as friends.