‘Young and dumb’ at the Olympics before, returning players bring valuable experience to Milan

MILAN (AP) - Sidney Crosby is 16 years removed from his first Olympics, when he scored the golden goal to give Canada a much needed title on home ice at the 2010 Vancouver Games.

"There's some days that it feels like 12 years and other days where it feels like yesterday," Crosby said.

Rasmus Dahlin was only 17 when he went to South Korea for his first for Sweden in 2018.

"I did not enjoy it one bit," Dahlin said. "I was just young and dumb. I didn't really realize I was at the Olympics."

Crosby and Drew Doughty are at their third Olympics and first since 2014. Dahlin and Finland's Miro Heiskanen and Eeli Tolvanen played in 2018. U.S. defensemen Brock Faber and Jake Sanderson and Slovakia's Juraj Slafkovsky are among those going back to back after being in the Beijing bubble at the 2022 Winter Games.

Now they are all together in Milan as part of the first full international men's hockey tournament with the world's best talent in a decade, dating to the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. Ten of the 12 teams involved in Milan have at least one player with Olympic experience, with just a handful bridging the dozen-year gap between NHL appearances.

"That was 12 years ago, which is wild to think," Sweden captain Gabriel Landeskog said Monday. "You realize those opportunities don't come around very often, and now here in 2026, we feel very fortunate to get this opportunity again and are very excited about the opportunity."

There are only four left from Vancouver: Crosby, Doughty, Latvia's Kaspars Daugavins and Czechia's Roman Cervenka. Canada won each of the past two tournaments with NHL players and is looking to make it three in a row.

The Russian team won gold in 2018, and Finland followed in 2022.

"A lot of things are different, but the same goal is in mind and that's the gold medal," Doughty said. "It means so much, and it's been so long since the last one. That's all you think about when you come here."

Daugavins, 37, is here for the fourth time. Cervenka, 40, is the only five-time Olympian in the field.

Sweden is tied for the most players back from the 2014 Sochi Olympics with four: Landeskog, Erik Karlsson, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and injury replacement Marcus Johansson. Landeskog and Karlsson were talking Monday about their experience back then and don't remember as much as they would have liked.

"It's an experience that some of us have that is very valuable," Karlsson said. "It's always something that, when you're in those moments, it gives you a sense of comfort that you've been here before."

While Canada has two in Crosby and Doughty, the U.S. has no one back from 2014. Czechia and Switzerland have three apiece and Finland two.

Latvia has Daugavins, Zemgus Girgensons, Ralfs Freibergs and Kristers Gudlevskis back. Gudlevskis memorably made 55 saves on 57 shots to almost knock off Canada in the quarterfinals in Sochi, and his next game at the Olympics is Thursday against the heavily favored Americans.

"I feel like every next time I'm coming to the Olympic Games, I appreciate it more and more," Gudlevskis said. "I just feel more appreciative for the opportunity to be here and be a part of this whole thing."

A rookie in 2014 and not close to making Canada's roster then, Nathan MacKinnon didn't remember why the league didn't go to the 2018 Olympics and lamented the missed opportunity of not going to Pyeongchang. A variety of factors from the time differential and South Korea not being a hockey market to the disruption of the season factored in.

Heiskanen, now an elite No. 1 defenseman with Dallas, and Tolvanen, now 400 NHL games in, only made Finland - and the same for Dahlin with Sweden - because federations could not take players from the best league in the world.

"We were kind of the kids around that everybody else was babysitting," said Tolvanen, who made the all-tournament team.

Unlike Dahlin, who was much younger than the rest of his teammates and sulked about it, Tolvanen and Heiskanen enjoyed their first Olympics.

"To get to play there at 18 years old, it was a pretty cool moment and something for sure I remember the rest of my life," Heiskanen said. "It probably helps a little bit to know how all the things work here and know a little bit what to expect."

The post-pandemic plan was for players to return to the Olympics in Beijing, but scheduling issues caused the league to pull out just before the drop-dead date to decide. USA Hockey and Hockey Canada went with more young prospects than four years earlier, and Slafkovsky showcased himself by scoring seven goals at age 17 to earn MVP honors as he led Slovakia to the bronze medal.

The U.S. lost in the quarterfinals in a shootout, just as it did in 2018, and gave Faber and Sanderson a valuable lesson about the perils of a single-elimination tournament. They just won't be espousing much about it to their elders.

"You kind of just soak it all in," Sanderson said. "But I think Fabes and I being the two youngest on the team, I don't think we're holding court too much there."

A big difference this time is the chance to roam freely around the city, rather than being confined to a bubble with COVID-19 precautions everywhere. While that's a world of difference, Faber was surprisingly comfortable arriving at his second Olympics.

"Pretty similar, though, honestly," Faber said. "A lot more similar than I thought it would be."