Nick Shore was looking forward to watching the Olympics. It’s something the 29-year-old has done since he was a kid. Summer or winter, it didn’t matter. He loved it all.

Shore would sit on his couch and watch from opening to closing ceremonies.

“When you’re growing up, it seems so surreal to watch these athletes compete,” Shore said. “You know how much time and effort they spend leading up to the games. I was a huge fan of pretty much anything that had to do with the Olympics.”

These days the former Denver University hockey player’s Olympic watching schedule looks a bit different. It’s hard to spend hours on a couch watching other people compete in sports when you’re playing professional hockey. Shore’s hockey career has taken him all over, from the Kings, Senators, Flames, and Maple Leafs of the NHL, to teams in Russia.

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This season, Shore was leading the Kontinental Hockey League in scoring, when he got a call from his agent.

Not long before the call, the NHL had announced that because of COVID-19 cases and an increased number of postponed games, it would not allow players to participate in the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

Shore was in Vladivostok, Russia when his phone rang. And by the time he hung up, his plans for the next few months had drastically changed: Nick Shore was competing in the Olympics.

“I was just like everybody else,” Shore said. “I was looking forward to watching Olympic hockey. Then when that news came down (from the NHL), I knew there was a chance, but at the same time, I wasn’t really focused on it until the call came in.”

Shore’s season in Russia is still going on, but, he says, the Olympics aren’t something you turn down.

“It’s one of the coolest opportunities that I’ve ever had in my career, and really in my life,” he said. “It’s just an honor to be a part of it.”

Once Shore came down from the high of the news, it was time to tell his family. All but one person, that is. Because his older brother Drew is the one that broke the news via a phone call. After nine years as a professional hockey player himself, Drew retired and joined the Wasserman Hockey Agency. It was only natural that he would represent his brother.

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“He’s been my agent for essentially a year now, so throughout the whole process, being able to talk with him and go over everything has been a huge help,” Shore said.

Once the USA hockey roster was released, Shore started getting calls and texts from all kinds of people. Among them were former teammates at DU, where he played from 2010-2013.

“That’s been one of the coolest things that I’ve dealt with since I was named to the team,” Shore said. “Not just from me, but the excitement level from friends and family that sort of follow (hockey) but everyone watches the Olympics. It’s been an amazing experience already and I haven’t even gotten there yet.”

For Shore, the priority is of course to win a gold medal for the United States, but as a life-long fan of the Olympics, he’s hoping to squeeze everything he can out of the experience.

He’s looking forward to enjoying life in the Olympic village and is hopeful for the opportunity to watch some of the other events.

The skiing events sit atop his watch list. As a Colorado-native, Shore did some skiing as a kid, and it’s always been an Olympic sport he’s enjoyed as a spectator.

“I enjoy all of them, whether it’s like downhill slalom, to even now they have the big air stuff in it,” he said. “That’s something that if I have the chance, I’d love to go see.”

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On Tuesday Shore sat in the LA airport ready to start his journey. It’s a flight he’s actually done before. Back when he played for the Kings, Shore went to China to play a few preseason games.

“When people asked me how long the flight is, I couldn’t remember,” he said with a laugh.

And when the Games wrap up and Shore leaves China, he probably still won’t remember.

There are plenty of more important things to commit to memory.

“I’m just going to soak it in and enjoy every second of it,” Shore said.