MILAN — It was almost as if supernatural forces were at play.
Storming Team USA’s net in hungry waves, Canada was all over the Americans, first tying the airtight gold medal game, then pressing their nemeses like paninis, wanting what’s golden.
Connor McDavid, the best player on the planet, had a clear breakaway… stuffed.
Macklin Celebrini, the breakout star and leading goal-getter of this Olympic tournament, had six shots at Connor Hellebuyck, including a clean break of his own… nothing.
The most dangerous power-play we’ve laid on had a five-on-three for 93 seconds… and came up emptier than silver-medal linings.
Nathan MacKinnon saw two-thirds of open net calling his name… and blew a puck wide.
Devon Toews fell victim to an immaculate paddle, 14-karat gold on his blade… only to see it turn fool’s.
“Great save,” Toews said. “Tried to shovel it in. And, yeah, it didn’t go in. We had five or six of those kinda looks tonight that we couldn’t quite put one in.”
Canada threw its heart at Hellebuyck, 42 shots in all, yet somehow only Cale Makar squeaked one past.
They dominated in a 2-1 loss to golden Team USA, and these ghosts will dance.
Something spiritual felt at play all night.
“Johnny and Matty should be here,” said gold medallist Dylan Larkin, after he’d fetched the late Johnny Gaudreau’s daughter, Noa, and oldest son, Johnny, and brought them onto the ice to rejoice in the first Team USA men’s ice hockey gold since the 1980 miracle.
“It honestly felt like that the whole tournament. Felt he was here. I felt that feeling a lot in Columbus, and I felt it at the world stage, world championships last year, now here at the Olympics,” echoed Zach Werenski. “I feel like he’s following us, and he’s got our back.”
“Part of the puck not going in our net was… somehow, he’s standing there doing something, laughing with Matty. Just somehow, they put a spell around our net where that puck didn’t go in,” Larkin continues. A bittersweet laugh. “Ironic, because it’s on the defensive side. He would never have been back there. We miss him, and we love him, and we love his family.”
Larkin, you’ll recall, was the target of the biggest hit on the grandest stage, a tone-setter from wrecking ball Tom Wilson.
“Oh, my God,” Larkin burst out. “I saw him coming, and I know not to reach, but next thing I know, I’m getting smoked and got me good. And I haven’t been gotten I haven’t got hit like that in a long time.
“I didn’t feel great after that, to be honest with you. But I feel amazing right now.”
These are reactions, raw and real and rambling, we hear from the victors.
The flip side is quiet and curt and cold.
Second place is as stunning and agonizing as a McDavid stare into the abyss. It’s all clipped responses and hushed voices and standing on chewed-up ice for 15 minutes while some other country’s anthem blares, a rival’s fans sing proud.
Mark Stone: “One of our better games of the tournament. Lots of good looks. Just couldn’t get it behind him. It sucks. It really sucks.”
Sam Bennett: “We gave everything we had, and unfortunately, it wasn’t enough tonight.”
Drew Doughty: “That’s one of the best games I’ve seen a team play that I’ve been a part of. I thought we were so good tonight, especially for the last 40 minutes. Yeah, it’s shocking.”
Sidney Crosby: “As a team, there’s not much more we could’ve done.”
MacKinnon used the word sad four times in one response trying to describe it all.
He thought about the window he couldn’t jump through.
“Just couldn’t finish,” he said. “We didn’t have that touch tonight. I missed a wide-open net.
“It felt like it wasn’t really meant to be.”
What seemingly is meant to be is redemption for so many U.S. stars.
There is Jack Hughes taking a high stick in the chops, losing a tooth, then coming up with the 3-on-3 golden goal off a brilliant play by Werenski.
“Who cares at this point?” Matt Boldy says. “I think more people are looking at his medal than his teeth.”
There is Hellebuyck — “an absolute manic,” according to Quinn Hughes — shedding the rep of not holding fort when it matters most.
“He channelled his Jimmy Craig tonight,” defenceman Charlie McAvoy said. “The one in the (second) on Toews, we’re going down the bench saying, ‘That’s the one.’… then he made a couple more. There were times in this game for sure when we were on our heels. It’s hockey.”
Fitting, really, that Hellebuyck assisted on the winner and was still playing a little offence in the postgame: “Those critics, they can keep writing. But they don’t understand goaltending. They definitely don’t understand my game. I know what I’m putting forward. I know what I’m building. These are the moments that prove it — not that I need to. But these are the moments I enjoy, and this is why I play the game.”
There is Auston Matthews wearing protective champagne goggles and a gold medal and the biggest smile we’ve ever seen him flash. He is alternating between a Pilsner Urquell tallboy and a bottle of Corona someone hands him.
“Grazie,” he giggles.
And there is a reporter asking Matthews if such a massive win can translate once he returns to his NHL team in Canada.
Matthews smiles: “I’m trying to live the moment, man. C’mon.”
Jack Hughes leans into the mic and speaks through a jack-o-lantern grin: “It doesn’t matter what anyone says now. Auston Matthews is a winner. Auston Matthews is an Olympic gold medalist. He’s a winner.”
Quinn Hughes leans in, too: “Yeah, that’s what the media in Toronto should be talking about. Austin Matthews led us to a championship.”
There is head coach Mike Sullivan at a podium, his dress shirt soaked through tight with bubbly, his perfect haircut dripping with celebratory booze.
There is GM Billy Guerin, whose defensive 2-1 hockey played out to perfection and who doesn’t need to hear any more about taking, say, J.T. Miller and Vincent Trocheck over Jason Robertson and Cole Caufield.
The U.S. penalty kill went 17-for-17.
“Yeah, we heard all the talk. We shouldn’t be here,” Trocheck is firing. “Listen, I’m not naive. I know that there’s players that have more skill to be in the NHL, and we were able to come here. And we had a job to do, and it was to be good penalty-kill guys, faceoff guys, character guys, and we took that role and we ran with it.”
And there is McAvoy, too sore to play in the 4 Nations final. He is bruised and cut and swollen and still deliriously happy.
“I can’t wait to see the footage of what happened after we scored, because it was a complete blackout. Who I was hugging, where I was going,” McAvoy says. “I don’t know what happened. I got cut (on the face). Like, it was just euphoria, man. I can’t even explain what I was feeling. Just pure joy.”
Imagine all that. Then imagine what Johnny might be thinking.
Now imagine all those feelings turned upside down for Connor. And Devon. And Macklin. And Nate.
“The chances they had and how the puck didn’t go in, it’s kind of mind-blowing,” Larkin says.
“I’ll watch the golden goal many, many times. But it’ll take me a while to watch how they missed all those chances.”
Fox’s Game Notes
• The idea that this might be Crosby’s final Olympic Games crossed the captain’s mind a little as he sat out the semis and the final, watching the action on a TV in the trainer’s room with a suspected knee injury.
“But ultimately, I think it was about what’s best for our group and what gives us the best chance to win,” Crosby explained.
“If I’m not able to go, I’m not gonna compromise our team, put myself ahead of that. Might’ve crossed my mind, but ultimately that’s not how you make your decision.”
Sidney Crosby, silver medallist. Those words just don’t sound right.
“You feel bad letting a guy like that down,” Brad Marchand says. “One of the best ever to play. One of the best leaders to ever play the game. Wish we could have got it done for him.”
• 2026 Olympic All-Star Team:
Goaltender: Connor Hellebuyck, USA
Defence: Quinn Hughes, USA; Cale Makar, Canada
Forwards: Connor McDavid, Canada; Macklin Celebrini, Canada; Juarj Slafkovsky, Slovakia
• Thankfully, the IIHF isn’t using shootouts to decide medals anymore. But going straight from five-on-five to three-on-three for gold? I dunno. What’s wrong with mixing in a little four-on-four?
“You take four players off the ice, now hockey’s not hockey anymore,” Canada’s coach, Jon Cooper, says. “There’s a reason overtime is in play; it’s all TV driven. You want to end games.
“There’s a reason (three-on-three) is not in the Stanley Cup Final or playoffs, ’cause it gets ended in five (minutes). It’s still skill players out there making skill plays. The U.S. team has some skill players, as do we. They made one more play than we did in overtime. You have to tip your cap to them.
“You can’t come up here and say (as) the losing team, ‘We lost in a three-on-three, and that’s not fair.’ We knew the rules going in. We won a game three-on-three. Do the traditionalists want it a certain way? I’m sure they do, but there’s a lot more than this that goes into dragging out. I’ve been a part of a five-overtime game. I don’t think people want to watch hockey for six and a half hours.”
Well, when it’s this good…
• As fiercely as a double silver in Olympic ice hockey stings for Canadians, a new king on the throne will enhance the revenge stories heading into the 2028 World Cup and should inspire children south of the border to pick up a hockey stick.
“I’m sure this is going to be a moment that younger kids are talking about, to see Jack score that OT winner, and they’ll try to recreate, to envision themselves in that spot,” Brock Nelson says.
Adds Quinn Hughes: “I hope we grow the game. The kids back home can — kind of like we did watching the Miracle on Ice movie — be able to gain inspiration from us.’’
