When Ryan Gunderson read last April that the National Hockey League would not send its players to the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, he reacted the way most of us did.
“As a fan I was like, `That stinks,’ ’’ said the Bensalem native. “Because you want to see those guys, right? I honestly didn’t think about what it meant. Or at all until Jim called in mid-July.’’
Jim is Jim Johannson, the late assistant executive director of USA Hockey who was charged with assembling an Olympic team in the wake of the NHL’s announcement.
“He said, `We’re starting to compile a big list of guys and your name might be on there’ ’’ Gunderson recalled recently.