What’s become very clear over the last two or three years – and really has been growing noticeably over the last decade or so – is that USA Hockey is no longer in the scrappy underdog role they undeniably played back in 1980 for the inspirational Miracle on Ice.
Instead, they have become one of the preeminent hockey powers in the world, with even Canada being forced to bend the knee at multiple international hockey tournament stages over the last few seasons. They have captured IIHF World Junior championships in two of the last three years, and they won the IIHF World Championships last spring for the first time in 92 years when Jeremy Swayman helped lead them to a gold medal.
And now they have the crowning achievement after winning just their third Olympic gold medal in the history of their program, and the first since those scrappy, gutty college kids beat the Russians at Lake Placid nearly 50 years ago.
It's a turn that has USA Hockey set up for a long run of dominance in these international tournaments and has Hockey Canada scratching their collective heads and wondering what has gone wrong.
The way the Americans did it was perhaps the most surprising aspect of the entire Olympic run, where they went undefeated and pulled out overtime wins against Sweden and Canada once they got to the single elimination round. New Jersey Devils forward Jack Hugheshad looked overmatched and perhaps a little intimidated in last season’s 4 Nations Faceoff while playing for Team USA, but this time he led the Americans with four goals in the tournament and scored the overtime golden goal in USA’s 2-1 overtime win over Canada in Milan Cortina on Sunday morning.
Perhaps the most hockey aspect of the whole thing was that Hughes had a bloody tooth missing for the overtime heroics after a nasty Sam Bennetthigh stick had knocked out one of his front teeth earlier in the game.
“That’s such a ballsy, gutsy win,” said Hughes when talked to NBC’s Kathryn Tappenafter the game. “That’s American hockey.
"This is all about our country right now. I love my teammates. It's unbelievable. The USA Hockey brotherhood is so strong right now...I'm so proud to be an American."
Hockey summed up in one picture pic.twitter.com/AD2zrPJ01V— The Hockey News (@TheHockeyNews) February 22, 2026
It certainly was after USA Hockey general manager Bill Guerin and his assistant Tom Fitzgerald put together a heavy, rugged playoff-style group that left undeniably skilled players like Adam Fox, Jason Robertson and Cole Caufield off the final Red, White and Blue roster. It was a tournament that saw big-bodied skill players like Millis native Matt Boldy flourish and had Auston Matthewsessentially turn into a checking center that was more effective back-checking and winning faceoffs than actually scoring goals and generating offense.
The other part of the equation for Team USA was the dominant play of Connor Hellebuyck for the entirety of the tournament, and during the gold medal game where he was only beaten once by a ridiculous Cale Makar sniper shot. Hellebuyck stopped Mack Celebrini and Connor McDavid on breakaways and made the save of the tournament on Devon Toewswith his paddle as he scrambled to cover the empty net that the Canadian defenseman was shooting at.
This is going to go down as one of the greatest saves / greatest images in Olympic ice hockey history. All time from Connor Hellebucyk in a game that lived up to the billing and then some pic.twitter.com/ZlSbDui7St— Tyler (@TyAragao) February 22, 2026
In all, Hellebuyck made 41 saves and kept the Americans hanging in a tie game when Team Canada essentially dominated the second and third periods before surprisingly falling during a 3-on-3 overtime that should have favored them with McDavid, Makar and Nathan MacKinnon on the ice at the same time. For a player who had been questioned in the past for his ability to execute in the big game pressure situations, Hellebuyck answered all the questions and saved his very best for the most important game of his hockey career that included an amazing two season stint at UMass-Lowell in college.
“He channeled his Jimmy Craig tonight,” said Charlie McAvoyto reporters after the game. “He was unbelievable. He had so many saves, time and time again. Like the one in the third on Toews, we’re going down the bench saying, ‘That’s the one.’ The TSN Turning Point. And then he made a couple more.
“There were times in this game for sure when we were on our heels. It’s hockey. You need good goaltending and we got it. He’s the best player in the league, and we have him on our side.”
From a local perspective, Jeremy Swaymanobviously didn’t get a ton of game action but will undeniably benefit from being on a gold medal team and largely getting the rest over the two-week Olympic tournament, leaving him fresh for the stretch run. And McAvoy made a game-saving play as well, stepping into the breach to block a shot at an empty USA net and then somehow shuffling the puck away from the danger at the net.
Underrated part of this is Charlie McAvoy somehow doesn’t fully catch or put his hands around the puck in the crease. Just shovels it out and saves a goal. pic.twitter.com/YwRtH9ZWX5— Evan Marinofsky (@EvanMarinofsky) February 22, 2026
It was every bit as huge as the Hellebuyck save on Toews from a game-saving perspective and was a highlight moment for a player in McAvoy that played the heavy, physical D-man role where he punished anything with the puck for pretty much the entire tournament.
There was a time in hockey history when USA Hockey was chasing after what other hockey-loving countries were doing in terms of training and development, but they have taken the lead after putting together the US National Team Development Program nearly 30 years ago and instituting an American Development Model (ADM) of training youth hockey players across the entire country.
Those changes have, over the course of a few decades, put USA Hockey in the cat bird seat where they are developing elite, top drawer hockey talent and building a bigger and wider base of players to choose from with the record numbers of youth hockey players suiting up and skating across the entire country.
As hard as it is to believe, USA Hockey has become more like the big, bad Russians at this point in terms of dominance and being the envy of the hockey world exactly 46 years to the today that the legendary band of Miracle kids inspired a nation with their unlikely win over Russia that kicked everything off that we’re seeing today.
ONE TIMERS
*The celebration after winning the gold medal was jubilant and raucous as one would expect for Team USA, but it also featured an extremely thoughtful tribute to fallen USA hockey teammate Johnny Gaudreau with his family in the stands at Milan Cortina. Gaudreau’s longtime teammates Matthew Tkachuk and Zack Werenski brought Gaudreau’s children on the ice for the victorious team picture on the ice, and they held Gaudreau’s jersey up high as they took a victory lap around the ice after the overtime game had concluded.
This will go down as the most heart wrenching clip of the year. Johnny Gaudreau gets to look down from heaven and see his kids celebrate a gold medal w/ Team USA and his parents soak it in from the stands. That hockey brotherhood is special 🙏🏼pic.twitter.com/G6ueJciuFI— J.P. Hovey (@jhovey34) February 22, 2026
One of the huge benefits of kids playing youth hockey is the code of conduct and love for both team and teammates that the hockey culture breeds in players at all levels, and all of that was so evident in the way that Gaudreau’s memory has been front and center throughout everything this group has done internationally since his tragic passing.
*One last time we’ve also got to conclude with the video of Nathan MacKinnonbeing forced to accept a stuffed animal Olympic mascot along with his silver medal after the Team Canada loss to the United States.
The agony of defeat…and getting handed a stuffed animal immediately after you missed an open net and got blown off the puck by Zack Werenski right before the GWG OT goal in the gold medal game pic.twitter.com/yfWAcmNpqj— Joe Haggerty (@HackswithHaggs) February 23, 2026
The bottom line: McDavid and MacKinnon were both not good in the gold medal game and that was part of the final result. MacKinnon missed an empty net late in the game and was completely thrown off the puck in overtime by Zack Werenski that set up the Hughes game-winner and was a huge losing factor as McDavid and MacKinnon combined for no points and a minus-4 in the must-win game.
