\n<\/p>\n
LAS VEGAS \u2014 Jaccob Slavin\u2019s first day back at practice in Carolina after the Olympics didn\u2019t go quite as planned.<\/p>\n
The U.S. and Carolina Hurricanes defenseman\u2019s idea was to put the gold medal game in the rearview mirror by making a peace gesture to Hurricanes teammate and Canada forward Seth Jarvis.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw him. I tried to give him a hug. And he was like, \u2018Not yet. Not yet. Give me one more day.\u2019 I was like, \u2018Alright. That\u2019s fine,’\u201d Slavin recalled with a laugh this week. \u201cSo next day, we hugged it out. All in good fun, though. There was no poking fun or anything like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not sure \u201cgood fun\u201d is how Jarvis remembers it.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe came in wearing his gold medal into the dressing room, and it set off a lot of emotions for me,\u201d Jarvis said with a chuckle. \u201cSo I needed more time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Slavin does admit it, by the way. Entering Carolina\u2019s first team meeting after the Olympic break, the gold medal was hanging from his neck.<\/p>\n
Ouch.<\/p>\n
Jack Eichel\u2019s face turned serious when asked this week if he enjoyed rubbing it in or making jokes with the three Golden Knights teammates \u2014 Mitch Marner, Mark Stone and Shea Theodore \u2014 who were on the losing side of Team USA\u2019s overtime win in Milan over Team Canada.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t really, no,\u201d Eichel said. \u201cI have so much respect for those guys. You know, they\u2019re three of my best buddies, too. We spend a lot of time away from (the rink) together. Our wives are friends \u2014 they\u2019re really close. If it were the other way around, and they had won, I would assume they would have acted the same way.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a great game, obviously. I was really fortunate to be on the right side of it, but if the roles were reversed, I\u2019m sure they would show me the same sort of respect. We\u2019re all competitors and we all want to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marner appreciates how Eichel handled it. They all tried to park the Olympic gold medal game and move on.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think maybe it\u2019s a respect thing,\u201d Marner said this week. \u201cThat game was probably the biggest game of our careers \u2014 obviously, one that it sucks to lose. But one of us were going to be losers, and I think whoever did win would realize that we weren\u2019t going to push it over the other guy\u2019s head and make jokes about it. Everyone\u2019s been great at that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely different,\u2019\u2019 Theodore said Thursday about walking back into the Knights dressing room a few days after losing to Eichel and Noah Hanifin in the gold medal game. \u201cI think it would have been the same way had that game ended differently. We\u2019re all respectful guys. It was a big game. Sometimes you get some bounces, and sometimes you don\u2019t. Good on them for winning. Obviously, we wished it had gone the other way.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut they\u2019re awesome guys. Couldn\u2019t happen to better guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
The way Stone sees it, there\u2019s no reason for Eichel to rub it in anyway.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re even,\u201d he said with a smile. \u201cWe won at 4 Nations. They won at Olympics. So we\u2019re 1-1.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, he\u2019s one of my best friends. So it\u2019s like, I\u2019m happy for him. I\u2019d rather it not be at the expense of us (Team Canada). But I am really happy for him. All the success that he has, I\u2019m happy for him. I\u2019m sure it\u2019s (the) same if you ask Jarvis about Slavin. I\u2019m sure he\u2019s happy for him. But it sucks (that) it comes at the expense of us. That\u2019s hockey.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jarvis said he and Slavin have parked the Olympic gold medal game.<\/p>\n
\u201cExactly, we never brought it up again,\u201d Jarvis said. \u201cIt was a great experience. We\u2019ll leave it where it was. And you move on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Slavin said it was pretty seamless to go from Olympic rivals to NHL brothers again.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Olympics are every four years. You\u2019re with a group of guys for a short amount of time, and you build a bond that will last forever,\u201d Slavin said. \u201cBut then, you step back into the NHL world, where me and Jarvee have been teammates for a number of years. I\u2019ve seen him grow up in this league. He\u2019s a brother to me, and we know each other so well.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re on the same team. You\u2019re wearing the same colors. And nationality kind of goes out the window.\u201d<\/p>\n
Plenty has been said and written about how either Eichel and Noah Hanifin or Slavin will achieve the rare Olympic gold medal and Stanley Cup in the same year, as Drew Doughty did in 2014 and Jonathan Toews, Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith did in 2010, among others.<\/p>\n
But the flip side to that is how the Team Canada guys in this Stanley Cup Final have a chance to flush away that gold medal loss by going out and winning the greatest of all pro sports trophies.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely,\u201d said Marner. \u201cBut I try to just stay in the moment \u2014 stay in the heat of things. There\u2019s still a lot of work to do. I try not to envision that too much and just focus on the next game and wait until it happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just don\u2019t call it a redemption Cup. The Olympics and the Stanley Cup are different experiences, regardless of what happened in Milan.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I don\u2019t think of it as redemption, really,\u201d Stone said. \u201cThat was probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me (the Olympics). Unfortunately, it went the way it went. But no, I don\u2019t look at this as redemption. I come into a season in September with the expectation that we\u2019re going to have a good opportunity to compete for the Stanley Cup, especially playing here. And this year is no different.\u201d<\/p>\n
Theodore separates the quest for the Cup from the Olympics, too. It\u2019s not about redemption.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019re thinking about it like that at all,\u201d Theodore said. \u201cWe obviously want to win, and it\u2019s a great opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Between this, the Olympics, the 4 Nations and the 2023 Stanley Cup win, Theodore and Stone have played a lot of important games over the past three years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s fun,\u201d Stone said. \u201cYeah, there\u2019s nerves and pressure, but I find this time of year the most enjoyable time of year, the most fun, I think that\u2019s why we do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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