With the Winter Olympics now in full swing, the NHL has hit pause, sending many of its stars overseas while the rest of the league takes a much-needed breather. For some players, it’s the culmination of a lifelong dream. For others, it’s a chance to rest bruised bodies and battered lineups after a grueling stretch of hockey that’s pushed teams to their limits.
Let’s start with what’s happening in Milan-Cortina. Bruins defenseman Henri Jokiharju suited up for Team Finland in their Olympic opener, but it was a rough outing.
Finland stumbled against a scrappy Slovakian squad, and Jokiharju had a moment he’ll want back-backing off Juraj Slafkovsky and giving the young forward a clear lane to the net for Slovakia’s first goal. It was a defensive lapse that stood out in a game where Finland never really found its footing.
Meanwhile, Bruins goaltender Joonas Korpisalo watched from the bench as Juuse Saros got the start in net for Finland. The Olympic tournament is just getting underway, but already we’re seeing the kind of intensity and unpredictability that makes this event such a spectacle.
And for players like Brad Marchand, it’s more than just another tournament-it’s the realization of a dream. At 35, Marchand is finally getting his shot to represent Team Canada on the Olympic stage, and you can see what it means to him.
He’s talked about how the 2014 Olympic camp lit a fire in him, one that’s been fueling his training ever since. Now, after more than a decade of NHL battles and a Hall-of-Fame-worthy résumé, he’s wearing the Maple Leaf in Italy.
But while the Olympic stage shines bright, the NHL’s regular season has been grinding behind the scenes. The league’s decision to maintain a full 82-game schedule in an Olympic year-while carving out a multi-week break for international play-has created a pressure-cooker environment for teams. The calendar’s been compressed, the games have piled up, and injuries have become a constant storyline.
“Every team is feeling it, and every team is going through it,” said Roman Josi, who’s skating for Team Finland in Milan but also knows firsthand how tight the NHL schedule has been this year. “We all wanted it.
All the players wanted to go back to the Olympics. I think it’s definitely worth it, but I don’t think we’ll be too unhappy to go back to the regular schedule next year, either.”
That sentiment echoes across locker rooms. Players wanted Olympic participation back, and they got it-but not without cost.
The Florida Panthers, who’ve played more hockey than anyone over the past three seasons with back-to-back Stanley Cup titles, are feeling the wear and tear. The Bruins, too, have taken their hits-Pavel Zacha’s injury just before the break kept him from suiting up for Czechia.
“It’s a compacted schedule, it’s not easy,” said Charlie McAvoy, who’s also in Italy representing Team USA. “But it’s the draw that everybody has.”
That draw, though, has come with real consequences. The league is seeing a spike in injuries, and the overall product on the ice has, at times, suffered. There have been nights when teams looked gassed from puck drop-when it was clear that rest, not strategy, was the deciding factor in a blowout loss.
Take the Bruins’ rough patch heading into the holiday break. They dropped four of five games on a homestand, including a 6-2 loss to Ottawa, during a stretch where they played five games in eight days. That’s not just a tough schedule-it’s borderline unsustainable.
“They were just mentally sharper than us today,” Bruins assistant coach Marco Sturm said after that loss. “It’s not just tonight.
It’s been creeping in a little bit and we just have to find a way here before the break. [The streakiness] is all around the league.
Everyone has gone through stretches, [but] you need to find a way to get out of it right away and be more consistent.”
Sturm’s right-it’s not just a Bruins issue. Across the NHL, teams have ridden roller coasters of streaks, both winning and losing, largely dictated by the demands of the schedule. Outside of the Colorado Avalanche, who’ve looked like a machine from day one, most teams have been battling inconsistency and fatigue.
And it’s not just the games. Practice time has all but vanished.
In a normal year, teams would have regular on-ice sessions to fine-tune systems and build chemistry. This year?
Practices are few and far between. Coaches are managing minutes, not installing new systems.
There’s simply no time.
Some around the league are calling for a fix. A 76-game schedule during Olympic years has been floated as a more sustainable option-four games against each team in your conference, one against each team in the other, and a return to 1-through-8 playoff seeding. It’s a cleaner setup that could ease the physical toll without sacrificing too much of the league’s competitive integrity.
What’s clear is that something has to give. The NHL wants its stars on the Olympic stage-and the players want to be there-but the current setup is pushing rosters to the brink. The physical and mental toll is real, and it’s showing up in the standings, on the injury reports, and in the quality of play.
You won’t hear NHL players talk about “load management” the way NBA players do. It’s not part of the culture.
But this season has quietly been one long test of endurance. As the Olympics unfold and the league gears up for the final stretch, the question lingers: can the NHL find a better balance between showcasing its stars on the world stage and protecting them for the long haul?
That’s the challenge moving forward. Because right now, the grind is real-and it’s wearing on everyone.