Ice Hockey – Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics – Men’s Preliminary Round Match – U.S. v Slovenia – Kwandong Hockey Centre, Gangneung, South Korea – February 14, 2018 – Team USA’s Brian O’Neill celebrates his goal against Slovenia. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo
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Jan 17 (Reuters) – Brian O’Neill treasured the chance to represent the United States at the 2018 Winter Games but the 33-year-old Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) forward never thought he would be back in his country’s uniform for the Beijing Olympics this year.
Then COVID-19 intervened, obliterating the National Hockey League’s (NHL) schedule and leading it to pull its international pool of talent from the men’s Olympic ice hockey tournament.
“That whole first part of the season leading up to it in 2018, I knew there was a pretty good chance that the NHLers weren’t going. That was kind of set in stone,” O’Neill told Reuters.
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