USA HOCKEY COLLAPSE SOURS BILLINS' OLYMPIC DEBUT

By Jeff Seidel, Detroit Free Press

GANGNEUNG, South Korea — Chad Billins walked away from the ice with his head down.

Disappointed after the U.S. men’s hockey team lost, 3-2, in overtime to Slovenia. Bummed out that they had blown a 2-0 lead.

“Obviously, that’s a tough loss,” said Billins, 28, who was born in Port Huron and went to Marysville High School. “That’s a tough one to swallow. We have to learn from our mistakes.”

The Americans will play Slovakia on Friday. “It’s a short turnaround,” Billins said. “We’ll watch the video and learn from our mistakes. We gotta look forward to the next game.”

Billins has built a career of looking forward.

He is a hockey vagabond. He has traveled around the world, playing hockey from stop to stop, going from the Alpena Ice Diggers to the Waterloo Black Hawks.

From Ferris State to the Grand Rapids Griffins. From the AHL's Abbotsford Heat to the NHL's Calgary Flames for 19 glorious games in 2013-14.

From Moscow to Sweden. From the American Hockey League back to Sweden. And now, hockey has taken him to a place he never dreamed. To the Winter Olympics.

“Unbelievable feeling to put that jersey on,” Billins said. “Something special. It was a great experience. It was exhilarating. It was a lot of fun, but it would have been a lot more fun if we would have won that one.”

Billins played for Team USA in November at the Deutschland Cup in Augsburg, Germany. “We started to get to know players quite a bit during that time,” he said.

Obviously, not quite enough.

Hockey, near and far

When Billins was at Ferris State, he was the co-captain of a team that made its first Frozen Four appearance in school history in 2012.

“I loved my time at Ferris, just with the coaching staff and teammates,” he said. “It was a great atmosphere. Obviously, it’s a great hockey program. To go to school at the same time, I built a lot of close relationships, playing together for four years. You don’t only grow as a player, and get stronger, you grow as a person. You learn to take care of yourself. Get good grades. It was a lot of fun.”

He signed with the Griffins in 2012 and helped them win the Calder Cup in 2013.

“It was a good experience,” he said. “I was always watching the Red Wings growing up. It was kind of a unique year, because that was the lockout year. That made the league really strong. I think the NHL got going in January, something like that. It was a really fun season. It was something special, something you can carry with you the rest of your life.”

He played in 10 games for Calgary in 2013-14, picking up three assists.

“That was a great experience,” he said. “I don’t know when my first game was, exactly, maybe in November. It was a pretty surreal experience. Obviously, I called my parents first when I found out that I was going up. To be able to play at that level, learn as much as you can while you are up, you have to make the most of your opportunities. It was something special. It gives you the extra drive to know what you have to shoot for. It was great.”

In 2014-15, he played in Moscow. “It was a little bit of a culture shock," he said. "It was my first time in Europe. To go right to Russia, I learned a lot while I was there. I wouldn’t change that decision. Things just didn’t work out. I ended up playing the rest of the year in Sweden.”

He now plays in Sweden. “The hockey is a little different,” he said. “But I enjoy it. Everyone speaks English. They treat you really well. It’s not too different. It’s kind of like you are close to home, except it’s long travel to get home.”

And now, he has this amazing experience at the Olympics.

“It’s great,” he said. “We are in the Olympic Village with the best athletes in the world. But it’s been a lot of fun. But we are here to play hockey.”

Not just play.

To win.

“We gotta look forward to the next game,” he said.

That’s what traveling around the world has taught him.

Perspective.