Winning gold medal with Canada would mean everything to McDavid: Joseph

NHL players are competing at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, the first time they’ve been on this global stage for a best-on-best competition in 12 years. In order to provide an inside look at the Games experience, NHL.com has enlisted former Olympic players, coaches and those around the game to provide insight. Today, Curtis Joseph, the former NHL goaltender who represented Canada at the 1998 Nagano Olympics and 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.

As someone who has known Connor McDavid since he was six or seven years old, I could tell the moment the puck was dropped at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 what a gold medal while representing Canada would mean to him.

Everything.

He’s waited his entire career for this.

And so, on his first Olympic shift, the first time he was playing on this huge stage that is the Games, wearing that maple leaf on his chest, he left no doubt how focused he was.

Not with a spectacular goal. Or a seeing-eye assist.

With a body check.

A crushing one.

And by slamming into Czechia defenseman Jan Rutta, he set the tone by delivering an early message.

When you saw that, it’s like “Wow, this guy is there to kick butt and take names.”

I mean, he’s not doing that on a January night in Columbus.

But this is obviously different.

This is gold-or-bust.

This is everything.

Think Connor is on a mission?

I think he answered that pretty quickly, didn’t he?

Understand this. He’s not just a Hall of Famer. He's one of the best players to ever lace up. But he hasn't been able to play for a gold medal.

To do so is an amazing accomplishment. I know. I was fortunate to be part of Team Canada in 2002 in which we won the first Olympic gold medal for Canada in 50 years. It’s kind of a feather in your cap. And it’s especially so when you're the kind of player like Connor. There should be a special room in the Hall of Fame for those kinds of players.

And he wants it. Bad. Canada went 3-0 in the preliminary round, including a 5-0 win against Czechia in the opener, and Connor had three points in each of those games. He’s leading the Olympics in points with nine (two goals, seven assists), is plus-seven, and is playing some of the best hockey I’ve ever seen him play entering Canada’s quarterfinal game against Czechia, a familiar foe, on Wednesday (10:40 a.m. ET; Peacock, USA, ICI Tele, CBC Gem, CBC, TSN).

He gets up for these special moments. You can't be like that for 82 games a season but he knows this is crunch time.

I mean, when you’ve got all these expectations on you like he has, and he's not disappointing, he's actually exceeding them, well, it’s pretty spectacular.

Connor’s always been a serious kid. He was like that when I first met him. He played on the same York-Simcoe team, north of Toronto, as my son Tristan. Sam Bennett, who’s also on Team Canada, was on that team too. Like Connor, he was really serious too. When they stepped on the ice, even back then, there was no playing around. I guess you're born with that element, which is great.

They still play that way.

You could always see in Connor’s eyes how determined he was.

Looking back, honestly, for me, growing up playing single-A hockey, I didn't know what an NHL player looked like at 6,7, 8, 9. 10-years-old. So, seeing Connor at that age, I got a new scouting report on what kids look like at that age who are going to make the NHL, let alone be the best player in the world.

You know, now, in retrospect, I can look back and go, “Ya, he was the best player.” And he was so creative. He used the people around him. I mean, you see the kids that were talented but eventually that failed, they’d go through the whole team but they didn't know how to use other players. And they didn't have that awareness where Connor used other players. He could be on a breakaway, slow down, pass it to somebody who needed a goal, or go behind the net. And, like I said, he just was very creative.

I think Wayne Gretzky said at one time, the difference between “amazingly good” and “greatness” is creativity. And Connor had that in spades, along with speed, hands, feet, brain. So he had that element.

Back when he was playing with Tristan, I was still playing in the NHL. I had a first-hand view from my crease of the best of the best. And yet, I’d be at a minor hockey arena against the glass and just say “Wow” while watching this kid.

I remember telling his dad Brian one night: “This kid gets me out of my seat.”

Every time he touched the puck, I'm almost standing up, which was so much fun when he's a little kid, right? Every single time he touched the puck, he was within a breath of a breakaway. He’s just start winding up with his speed, and you're like, “Oh my, here we go.”

At that time I was living in King City, north of Toronto, and had a custom-made rink in my barn. Once a season I’d bring the kids there and let them shoot on me. Connor had the moves but he didn’t have the reach at the time. I did OK. If we did the same today? It would be no contest. In his favor, of course.

More than two decades later, he’s already been in the NHL for what, nine or 10 years? And he’s playing an Olympics for the first time with Sidney Crosby. It’s too bad it’s taken so long. But it’s still kind of cool, seeing them play on the same Olympic team together and seeing a passing of the torch, although Sid’s not ready to pass it the way he’s playing.

And watch the way Sid and Connor handle themselves. The moment is never too big. It’s what great players do.

I remember Gretzky in 1998 and Mario Lemieux in 2002, and how they both handled extreme pressure. I mean, these are one game eliminations for your country, and the whole country is watching and cheering for you. Like I said, extreme pressure. And then you see 'Gretz' in the dressing room, and it’s like a walk in the park for him. And the same with Mario. Mario is taking short shifts, and all of sudden everyone else is taking short shifts. Because he’s a Hall of Famer. He’s Mario.

That’s what it takes. Leaders lead, and everyone else follows along.

It’s incredible. Those are the type of players, like Connor and Sid and Mario and Gretz, they just have the respect that you can't get from being just a good player. They don’t need to say anything to lead. They just do.

For Connor, he’s come close, oh so close, to winning a Stanley Cup. He’s been to the past two Finals with the Edmonton Oilers. Now, he’s looking to carry Canada to gold.

And, to repeat: At this moment in time, it means everything to him.

All you need to do is to watch him be the best player in the world to see that.