Beijing Journal: 'It's Getting Real'

Kraken first-round draft choice Matty Beniers will be writing a "Beijing Journal" to provide a personal perspective about the honor of representing his country in the Winter Olympics men's hockey tournament. Look for frequent new Beijing Journal entries (bracketed material added for clarity and additional information). Fans who have questions for Matty can email
[email protected]
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Feb. 5 to Feb. 9

Hello, and So Long L.A.
Hey, Kraken fans. I look forward to sharing my thoughts as our team experiences the Olympics and, especially, playing in the men's hockey tournament. We start Thursday night with a game against Team China, which will be early morning in Seattle [5:10 a.m.]. It's a 16-hour time difference on the West Coast and 13 hours difference with my family back in Massachusetts.
We were all in Los Angeles last week [Jan. 31 to Feb. 4] for a mini-camp. It was an excellent training camp. We got a feel for who we might play with [on forward lines and defensive pairings]. We went through power play and penalty kill along with getting our structures and systems.
My teammates and I agree it was good to see what our coaches want from the players. As the week progressed, there was more and more pace during practices.
It was cool flying all together with my Olympic teammates. We flew from Los Angeles, where we had a mini-camp, to Japan first. Then we went on to Beijing [arriving last Saturday]. It was a long day, well, a little more than that.
Village Life, Hockey Focus
Being in the Olympic village around all these athletes has been a lot of fun. We watch a lot of events in our rooms and see those same athletes competing.
For me, it's been a blast practicing with all the great athletes on our team, too. By Sunday practice here in Beijing, it was getting real. All of us are now focusing more on hockey and getting ready for China Thursday [followed by facing Team Canada Feb. 11, 8:10 p.m. puck drop Pacific Time, and Germany Feb. 13, 5:10 a.m. puck drop Pacific].
I was pinching myself - so was my family - when I first heard from [Team USA general manager] John Vanbiesbrouck that I was selected for the team. But now it's all about hockey. It's the same game here as it is back home. That's my focus right now.

Building Team Culture
A huge part for us is team chemistry. Being in the village and practicing with the team is part of that. The [recent] scrimmage with Canada was great for us hockey-wise and team chemistry-wise. Being in our rooms watching other Olympic events, hanging out, allows us to get to know each other, too.
We are watching all the events every night. There's not much else to do in the village [due to COVID-19 restrictions]. We're watching every sport we can - when we get back from practice, which is our one thing or outing most days.
We have a lot of good guys in the locker room, which I think was a big focus of how our coaching and management staff picked the team. Everyone has been in each other's skates, whether it is a 35-year-old or 19-year-old, we all grew up playing hockey, we all looked for ways to come together as teammates.
Lots of the older guys played NCAA hockey. They love tromping up old college stories and we, the younger guys, tell new ones about our teams. The older guys are really good on answering hockey questions or any issues and lead us.
I knew the college guys on our team because we all compete against each other on the NCAA level. I didn't know the older guys and it's been really enjoyable to get to know them and work with them in practices. Every player has been impressive, including guys like Andy Miele [age 33, 15 NHL games, currently KHL], Steven Kampfer [age 33, 231 NHL games, currently KHL in Russia] and Aaron Ness [age 31, 72 NHL games, currently AHL]. They are all three really good and will be big parts of our team.
Family Time
I talk to my family on a group chat every day. My sister texts in the morning, saying, "I'm ready." [Laughs]. At night, I call my parents when they are waking up. We talk a lot. I want to share this all with them.