MILAN — Matthew and Brady Tkachuk as college dorm-style resident advisors?
The U.S. men’s hockey team arrived in Milan in the morning and by evening on Sunday, Feb. 8, they were going through a spirited if relatively brief practice at Santagiulia Hockey Arena, part of getting ready for the 2026 Winter Olympics. It was a hectic day: Off the plane, onto buses, stop by to get swag and gear, drop off belongings at the Athletes Village, then off to the rink. It’s a new building, built for the Olympics, and while it still needs finishing touches, there are locker rooms and two ice sheets and the promise of a great atmosphere.
“It looks good,” said Auston Matthews, shortly before his captaincy was made official. “I can’t imagine having to put together something like this with a limited amount of time, and I thought they did a pretty good job. The setup’s good, the rink looks good. The ice is solid. It’s never going to be perfect, but it’s cool. I think it looks pretty good.”
The accommodations are not the posh standards NHL players are used to, but they are fun, at least for two weeks. Matthews is rooming with Dylan Larkin. Jack and Quinn Hughes are rooming together. But the room everyone was talking about was the Tkachuk brothers’ room, or as Matthew Tkachuk called it, “Club Tkachuk.”
Teammates had a good laugh about that.
“It’s the Tkachuks’ open-door policy,” Larkin said. “The RAs, that’s the Tkachuk brothers.”
Jack Eichel said that, “they probably pushed their beds together. We have a couple of brothers – the Hughes brothers are here, so they’re rooming together. We’ve got Matthew and Brady rooming together. If we hear someone go through a wall in the middle of the night, we’ll probably know where it came from.”
Making noise is the Tkachuk’s brothers specialty: Matthew for the Florida Panthers, Brady for the Ottawa Senators. Last year, they also made a lot of noise fighting (Brady against Sam Bennett and Matthew against Brandon Hagel) during the first U.S-Canada game of the 4 Nations Face-off tournament. It fired up the Americans, but fighting is banned in international hockey, punishable by ejection and suspension.
While coach Mike Sullivan mostly had guys get their legs moving Sunday, he did have the Tkachuk brothers on the same line.
“They were they were terrific at the 4 Nations event,” Sullivan said. “In a lot of ways they were the catalyst for helping us become the team that we had sought to become in that tournament in such a short period of time.”
Now they’re turbocharging the U.S. readiness, Athletes Village style.
“I never went to college, but it’s like a college dorm experience,” Matthew said. “It’s all of us on the same floor. Then we have the men’s and women’s team in the same building. We have a hangout area. Then just every American athlete has their own separate lounge area. It’s just been absolutely incredible so far. I’m trying to meet and say hi to every American athlete that I’ve seen so far.”
Asked about he and his brother would bring their style of play to the Olympics without risking getting tossed, Matthew said that, “don’t really change a whole lot. We’re here for a reason, just like the rest of the guys. Just have fun with it and play our best and try to make the country proud.”
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