Another source of motivation for Bellemare is to finally gain some Olympic family bragging rights in his family. His sister, Rose-Eliandre Bellemare, was a gymnast for France at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and his mother-in-law, Ylva Persson, was a swimmer for Sweden at the 1976 Montreal Olympics.

“I self-chirp myself, like, ‘I’m the only loser that hasn’t made it,’” he said.

Bellemare plans on soaking up as much of the Olympic experience as possible. He told Treille that “even if we play an hour after the opening ceremony” that he intends to march in the Parade of Nations.

“Because it’s special,” he said. “I can’t wait to walk in there and to see all of those other athletes who are also a little bit as crazy as I was when they decided to work harder than everybody else. Everyone is going to have their flag on their chest or shoulder or arm and represent it very proudly, and that is beautiful, I think.”

The opening ceremony is on Feb. 6, and Team France plays its first game on Feb. 12 against Switzerland.

Team France faces a tough challenge in Milano Cortina as part of Group A in the hockey tournament with Canada, Switzerland and Czechia. Finland, Sweden, Slovakia and host country Italy are in Group B, and the United States, Germany, Latvia, Denmark comprise Group C.

Group A teams are stacked with NHL talent like McDavid, MacKinnon and Sidney Crosby (Canada), David Pastrnak, Martin Necas and Lukas Dostal (Czechia) and Kevin Fiala, Nico Hischier and Roman Josi (Switzerland).

“This is the thing that’s a little bit daunting at times,” Bellemare said, “because our country has no knowledge of our sport and so when (French fans) see a national team they straight compare it to the soccer national team. The Olympics for them is, ‘Oh, wow, can’t wait to see France try to get a gold.’ And you’re, like, ‘Buddy, it doesn’t that doesn’t work like that for us.’

“The goal is to try to win as many games as possible but knowing that we’re going to play nations that are on top of the world and you’re not going to come and do run-and-gun with those nations. It’s going to have to be an ugly game where you kind of show the dog in the French national team. We’ve done it in the past against some of those teams to just literally defend with five men and then when you have a chance to burst it, burst it.”

Bellemare said the Milano Cortina experience should be a springboard for French hockey when the country hosts the 2030 Olympics in the French Alps. And who knows? Maybe Bellemare will play as he approaches his 44th birthday.

“I’ve managed to take care of my body in a cool way, and I probably could do it,” he said. “I don’t know if my wife wants me to do it.”