The Canadian men’s hockey team is ditching the Olympic Village.
With highly paid superstars up and down their roster, Team USA’s neighbors up north will leave the dorm-style accommodations for a five-star hotel, according to Sportsnet.
“I don’t think we’re doing it as an insult or anything like that,” goaltender Logan Thompson told the outlet on Monday. “We want to win gold, and we want to give ourselves the best opportunity to do so.”
The Americans, on the other hand, are sticking with tradition and sleeping alongside the thousands of other Olympic athletes Milano Cortina, Italy.
“I’ve had some great times hanging out with the rest of the athletes, playing cards, watching the other Olympians,” Matthew Tkachuk said. “It’s been just an unbelievable experience.”
While much has been made of the Canadians’ hotel move, the team’s general manager Doug Armstrong downplayed its significance, noting that the players stayed elsewhere during the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver and in 2014 in Sochi.
“They’ve stayed with their families. They have a room in the village, they have a room provided by the NHL and NHLPA outside there,” Armstrong said, according to The Post’s Mollie Walker. “I think this has sort of grown a life of its own. This is no different than the tournaments we had before. We just wanted to give our players that option to stay where they’re most comfortable to prepare for the games.”
The Canadians, led by superstars Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid and Macklin Celebrini, are the favorites to win gold in Italy.
They took first each of the last two times NHL players were allowed to play in the Winter Games in 2010 and 2014.
Team USA is looking to win its first men’s hockey gold medal since the “Miracle on Ice” in 1980.
