USA TODAY Sports' Martin Rogers on the first round of gold medal winners at the 2018 Winter Olympics. USA TODAY Sports
GANGNEUNG, South Korea — Jim Slater’s Olympic story must be told with his phones, so let’s start with those FaceTime calls. Slater on one end in Switzerland and his young daughter, Wyn, on the other end in East Lansing.
They got tougher and tougher. Wyn wanted her daddy back. And in the spring of 2017, after two seasons with Geneve-Servette of the National League in Switzerland, preceded by 10 seasons in the NHL, preceded by a Michigan State career that links him to the Ron Mason glory days, Slater was 34 years old and ready to be done with it.