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2026 Olympic
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From before and after making the bold roster decisions that made the gold medal team, Guerin never cared what his critics said. Gregory Shamus / Getty Images
MILAN — To be clear, Bill Guerin doesn’t need anybody to have his back.
From before and after making the bold decision to leave three of the top-four goal scoring American NHLers back home, he stood by his convictions and said plenty of times he didn’t give one iota what the critics said, from the fans in those markets understandably standing up for their favorite players to the “journalists” making fun of his supposed lack of intellect in articles and on social media.
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Even Saturday, when he met privately with two reporters from The Athletic for an exclusive interview on the eve of the gold medal game, the United States general manager already felt that just getting to this point vindicated him for not choosing the likes of forwards Jason Robertson, Cole Caufield and Alex DeBrincat and defenseman Adam Fox.
But make no mistake, as Matt Boldy said with a big laugh as he admired the Olympic gold medal around his neck, “I’m sure he feels a lot better now.”
After Jack Hughes scored the “Golden Goal” early in overtime to beat Canada on Sunday afternoon, Guerin leapt out of his chair, began high-fiving and hugging his fellow USA Hockey executive, and started waving his fist toward his family in the crowd as they jumped up and down. Then he sprinted down to the ice to join the talented, balanced roster of players and coaches he assembled.
Guerin has spent seven weeks getting ripped to shreds for leaving goal scorers at home for “role players,” as if it were some dirty term.
But the decorated former USA Hockey player — one who took part in three Olympics and was part of the 1996 World Cup of Hockey-winning American roster — believed wholeheartedly that the way to win at the Olympics was to build a “team,” not an All-Star team.
You have to check. You have to be trusted by your coaches. And you have to be able to play in all situations.
That’s why he said Saturday that winning gold would be the “highlight” of his USA Hockey career.
The Americans have always been close in best-on-best in the Olympics and last year’s 4 Nations. But they always finished second fiddle to Canada’s supremacy.
Not anymore.
“One of the things that Billy Guerin and I talked about from the very beginning was trying to build a team in the true sense of the word,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “So we looked at a deep group of American talent. and these decisions were very difficult. They weren’t easy. You look at how this group is constructed, there was a thought process that we had players that could play in all situations. And maybe the most important aspect of it is just the character of the group, the personality of the team.
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“The team was built with personality in the locker room. We were loaded with personality up and down our lineup. There are whisky drinkers and milk drinkers, and we got a lot of whisky drinkers on this team.”
Two of those “whisky drinkers” are J.T. Miller and Vincent Trocheck, two veterans on a struggling New York Rangers team that isn’t having the greatest of seasons.
But they’re Billy Guerin-type players, and they play for Sullivan in New York. They are two guys Sullivan considered “glue guys.”
The reality is, Fox, who is hurt, played himself off the Olympic team with his 4 Nations performance. The brass felt he couldn’t handle the pace, and it wasn’t just because of the mistakes he made before Connor McDavid’s overtime winner. And as much as critics felt Guerin took Miller and Trocheck over Robertson, Caufield and others, that’s not accurate at all.
They were always coming because of the roles they fill, players who could accept fourth-line and penalty-kill duties.
The debate for those players surrounded Tage Thompson, Clayton Keller and Kyle Connor, who didn’t have a good 4 Nations and was scratched in the final game. But the United States staff still felt Connor earned the right to be an Olympian as one of the United States’ best scorers. Unfortunately for him, while he did win gold Sunday, he played himself out of the lineup and spent the medal round scratched.
Thompson scored the “Golden Goal” in the World Championship last May, the United States’ first title there in 92 years. Keller also played in that 1-0 win over Switzerland, so the brass decided he could “check.” He replaced Connor in the lineup, played four scoreless games and only one 38-second shift Sunday, but the coaches still liked what he brought in the previous games.
Thompson scored three goals and an assist in six games and did his job next to Dylan Larkin and on the No. 1 power play terrifically.
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“I just wanted to come in here and help in any way I could,” he said. “The guys in the room there made it really easy for me coming in as a new guy to a pretty familiar roster. And I think that’s why we did so well throughout the tournament is just the group of guys we have in that locker room. The care and the love for one another, just playing selfless, sacrificing yourself for the betterment of the team, and I thought everyone in the lineup did that.”
Miller and Trocheck were part of this roster because of the type of players they are: gritty, defensive and solid killers.
And, to be frank, they did their jobs in Milan to perfection.
They were part of an 18-for-18 penalty kill, including a 1:33 five-on-three in the gold medal game and another penalty kill in the final minutes of a tie game.
Are they proud?
“F—ing proud,” Trocheck said. “Yeah, we heard all the talk. You know, maybe we shouldn’t be here. 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.”
As Boldy said, “Those guys were huge for us. I think it’s such a tough decision. We’re so fortunate that there’s so many unbelievable American players. But those guys played such a huge role in this tournament. I think from inside our group, and knowing what those guys were capable of, and what they did at 4 Nations, and what we expected them to do, they did that and more. They’re our best players. Finding ways to win faceoffs, get us out of jams and everything, they’re special.”
Some of the players left off this roster are some of defenseman Brock Faber’s good friends. So he felt for those guys.
But he felt the flak Guerin was taking from critics was ridiculous. Faber may be biased because Guerin is also his Minnesota Wild GM, but Faber has such trust in the job that guys such as Miller and Trocheck do.
“People can say what they want, and most don’t know what they’re talking about,” Faber said. “We know the guys we’re talking about, guys like (Robertson and Caufield). They definitely could have been here. We could have a second team of Americans that could have went pretty dang far in the tournament, too, if we made one, right? That’s the depth that we have, but Billy has to make the hard decisions and we just go out and play. But J.T., Vince, those two were unbelievable on the kill. I loved every time I was on the ice with those guys. We didn’t get scored on, and they’re a huge part of that.”
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Michael Russo is a senior writer covering the Minnesota Wild and the National Hockey League for The Athletic. He has covered the NHL since 1995 (Florida Panthers) and the Wild since 2005, previously for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and Minneapolis Star Tribune. Michael is a five-time Minnesota Sportswriter of the Year and in 2017 was named the inaugural Red Fisher Award winner as best beat writer in the NHL. Michael can be seen on NHL Network; and heard on KFAN (100.3 FM) and the Worst Seats in the House podcast (talknorth.com). He can be found on Instagram and X at @russohockey and Bluesky at @russohockey.bsky.social. Follow Michael on Twitter @RussoHockey