When 36-year-old journeyman Adam Cracknell went over to Beijing in 2019 in an effort to extend a professional hockey career that’s now lasted nearly 17 years, he wasn’t really expecting to return any time soon.
Cracknell, who has played for 19 professional teams across four leagues, including six NHL clubs, signed a contract with the Kunlun Red Star of the Russian-based Kontinental Hockey League for the 2019-20 campaign.
With the Beijing-based team, Cracknell got what he thought was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to continue his career in a country he never thought he’d play in. He and his family got to walk along the Great Wall of China, see the Forbidden City before his season was cut off sooner that he would’ve liked because of COVID-19.
He didn't expect that he would be returning to China’s capital city so soon, let alone as an Olympian representing Canada.
“It’s a dream come true,” Cracknell, most recently a member of the American Hockey League's Bakersfield Condors during the 2020-21 season, said in a Zoom call Thursday. “It’s a huge honour to wear the Maple Leaf with pride. … I’m looking forward to wearing that jersey, be a part of the Olympics and give it my best effort and go for gold.”
Hockey Canada unveiled its 25-player men's roster for the 2022 Olympic Games on Tuesday. A mixture of young and old with players such as 37-year-old Eric Staal and Mason McTavish, who won't turn 19 until this weekend.
While the team features plenty of former NHL players, such as Staal, there are no active players from the world's top pro league heading to Beijing.
Among this contingent of former NHLers is Cracknell, who will play an important role not only on the ice, but off it as well.
Because of his unique hockey journey, Cracknell is familiar with Beijing and the environment the Canadian men will be entering and will likely be called upon to act as the team’s designated tour guide.
“I know where the Cheesecake Factory is and the grocery store, so we're good to go,” said Cracknell with a grin.
The familiarity Cracknell has with the city could play a key role for this Canadian team as players try to bond over the short time ahead of the Games.
With two weeks before Canada opens its Olympic tournament against Germany on Feb. 10, players are trying to familiarize themselves with teammates in order to create better unity.
Currently in Davos, Switzerland for training camp ahead of the Olympics, Canadian coach Claude Julien believes that between the camp and the team's arrival in Beijing, there will be plenty of opportunity for the team to get well-acquainted with each other and, eventually, come together as a unit.
“We’re fortunate, in a way, with Hockey Canada bringing us out here to Davos early and getting a chance to spend more or less a week to 10 days here and then going to Beijing and not playing until the 10th," said Julien. "That should give us a fair amount of time to try and bond together."
Aiding this effort will be a pair of pre-tournament games the Canadian men will play before the Games begin. Canada will see Switzerland on Feb. 1 before taking off to Beijing. They will then have an early test against the United States at the National Indoor Stadium on Feb. 7.
Many on Canada's roster of Olympians have played with and against each other before and, according to Julien, have an understanding of what he calls playing hockey the "Canadian way," a "gritty" brand of hockey with a group of players who will always play hard.
“As a coach, I’m looking forward to it because from the group that we’ve chosen I don’t think there’s anybody in there that I have to worry about, ‘What am I going to get from this guy tonight?’ The effort is going to be there, the commitment, the intensity and everything else.”
Because of the relatively short practice time in the lead-up to the Games, Julien appears to be valuing cohesion within the team above all else.
“We found that putting in a system that’s not going to be that complicated is going to be a system that most of the Canadians have played before," he said. "So, we want those guys to be comfortable, not overthink and just play with good pace."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 27, 2022.
Steven Loung, The Canadian Press
