Photo by Martin Rose/Getty Images
By Kristin Tullo (@K_Tullo)
Since the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, where she appeared just once in a 12-1 routing over China, Brianne McLaughlin-Bittle has played for the United States Women’s hockey team just four times.
In her entire USA hockey career, she’s been in the crease on 14 occasions, making 187 saves and so far has yet to register any playing time through two U.S. women’s games at the 2014 Sochi games.
Her starts are few but it hasn’t deterred the Ohio native from putting all of her time into getting a chance to be a part of the U.S. women’s goaltending trio. In fact, she’s even taken the time out of her marriage to get to Sochi, barely seeing her husband since the two-time Olympian married in July.
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“I saw him for about two weeks,” McLaughlin said according to The Plain Dealer. “ It’s a long year. You put your life on hold. Every single day is training and you have to choose hockey over any other life. It’s a huge commitment.”
Logan Bittle knows a bit about hockey life and happens to spend a lot of time around hockey players, just not the one he’s married to.
Bittle is an assistant coach for the women’s hockey team at Robert Morris University where his wife Brianne set a record by making 3,809 saves over her career. Prior to trying out for her second Olympic team, McLaughlin was also a part of the coaching staff but stepped down to concentrate on making the team.
The women’s national team gathered in June for training camp leading up to the Olympic tryouts which took place in August. In between, Bittle and McLaughlin exchanged vows knowing what would hang between them for the next several months.
Neither of them seemed to mind.
“That’s definitely something we talked about,” McLaughlin said. “We knew if I made the team, I wasn’t going to be around. It was a smaller sacrifice- six months. We figured we could do that.”
The U.S. women’s team clinched a spot in Monday’s semifinal (Feb.17) with a 9-0 blanking over Switzerland on Monday but it’s still unlikely that McLaughlin will make her 2014 Olympic debut when her team faces Canada in their final preliminary game on Wednesday.
At 26-years-old, when and if McLaughlin does get a chance to play in Sochi, it could be her last as an Olympian.
“I’ll play at least one more year and then it will depend on when we want to start a family.”
She’s dedicated her life and temporarily stepped away from her marriage to compete for the U.S., even if she’s just along for the ride. Hopefully the first color the future Bittle child sees is gold.
Related Olympic Coverage from The Hockey Guys:
Three U.S. women you’ll hear a lot of in Sochi
USA tops Finland 3-1 in 2014 Olympic opener
Jessie Vetter to start in goal for Team USA vs Finland
Meghan Duggan ready to lead Team USA into Sochi Olympics
Hilary Knight, Team USA prepare to win back gold in Sochi
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