From the Free Press’s Helene St. James:
Darren Helm was watching Olympic skeleton when he, a man once nicknamed ‘Danger’ because of his speed on ice, found himself curious.
“I just want to know how they get into a sport like that,” Helm said Thursday. “Like, what makes them join that event.”
As the Detroit Red Wings prepared for the evening game against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena, the television in the visitors locker room was tuned to coverage of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. As highly trained athletes themselves, players are fascinated by a variety of the events. It is bittersweet for some that the NHL decided to forgo participating, but that doesn’t affect enthusiasm for watching, dreaming about trying out an event, and picking teammates to participate.
“Whenever there is a chance to watch I turn it on,” Helm said. “I think there are a lot of really interesting events – bobsled, luge, skeleton, that’s all pretty interesting to me. It’s pretty exciting. The skiing stuff, snowboarding, the half pipes. I think almost every event has that certain element that’s exciting to watch.”
Continued, and St. James spent 9-and-a-half minutes speaking with the Wings about Olympic events:
