TONY’S TAKE - THOUGHTS ON USA HOCKEY’S VICTORY AT THE WINTER OLYMPICS
- Tony Fiorello
- Feb 23
- 2 min read
by Tony Fiorello
Some thoughts from this corner on USA Hockey winning their first Olympic gold medal in 46 years on Sunday:
This was no miracle. Unlike the previous time Team USA won gold at the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid, the Americans aren’t an underdog. Instead, they’ve truly staked their claim as the best in the world at what they do. For decades, the two countries that always won in international competition were Canada and Russia - now the United States can join them.
In every international tournament involving best-on-best competition (Olympics, Four Nations Face Off, World Cup of Hockey and the Canada Cup), the only time USA Hockey ever defeated Canada in an elimination game was in September 1996 at the inaugural World Cup. Since then, the spectre of Canada hung over the United States like a bad dream. Time and time again, the Americans would inevitably run into their neighbors from the Great White North in either a semifinal game or a championship match and would always come up agonizingly short. That 500-pound gorilla is now off of America’s back.
Connor Hellebuyck was an absolute brick wall in the gold medal game. In a perfomance reminiscent of Dominik Hasek’s exploits in 1998 at the Nagano games or Ryan Miller’s performance in 2010 at Vancouver, Hellebuyck was clearly the USA’s Most Valuable Player. Even without their captain in Sidney Crosby, the Canadians dominated play throughout most of the second and third periods - but thanks to the Winnipeg Jets’ goaltender and the NHL’s reigning Hart Trophy winner as the league’s MVP, the Americans were able to stay in the game until the New Jersey Devils’ Jack Hughes scored the gold medal-winning goal in overtime.
Of course, the question will always remain for Hockey Canada - what if Crosby did play? Then again, even without one of the NHL’s all-time greatest players it looked as if they didn’t miss a beat without him (for what it’s worth, they were also missing the likes of Brayden Point and Anthony Cirelli due to injury). The line of Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon and Macklin Celebrini was frighteningly good throughout the tournament - it’s almost unfair to have a trio with that much talent and speed together. Plus their depth beyond those three was, as per usual, enviable. Still, it’s a question that Canadians will be pondering for the rest of time.
Watching the Americans celebrate, I couldn’t help but think of previous players to have put on the red, white and blue and come up short. For guys like Miller, Patrick Kane and Chris Chelios, who never got the chance to take home gold for their country, here’s hoping they take some small level of satisfaction in helping to lay the foundation for what USA Hockey is today.
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