Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid, one of the first players named to Canada’s national team for the 2022 Olympics, shared his thoughts on the National Hockey League’s decision to pull out of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics due to COVID-19 concerns.

“The whole thing is so disappointing,” McDavid told reporters on Sunday, per The Athletic. “It’s hard to really put into words what I think a lot of guys are feeling, especially the guys that haven’t gotten to go before. Now, we’re missing it for the second time in a row. We can’t dwell on it.”

The NHL did not send its players to the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea either. That decision had been made for a number of reasons, including that the league was not in favor of the 17-day break in the schedule.

The league made the decision this time following a potential disruption of the regular-season schedule by coronavirus outbreaks, a source told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

“We do have to find a way to get a best-on-best tournament at some point here,” McDavid added. “We can’t go six, seven, eight years without playing best-on-best.”

Penguins Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby also weighed in on this decision.

“These are opportunities and experiences of a lifetime that you don’t get very many of as an athlete, and you might only get one,” said Crosby, who won Olympic gold with Canada in 2010 and 2014. “It just might happen to fall in your window and if it doesn’t happen to work out, it’s unfortunate.”