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This isn’t just a hockey game Sunday. This is one of the biggest moments in the sport’s history. Gregory Shamus and Bruce Bennett / Getty Images
MILAN — One cannot overstate the stakes in Sunday’s Olympic men’s hockey gold medal game.
It has the chance to be the most-watched game in the sport’s entire history, for one.
“This is as good as it gets. And a rivalry that’s as good as it gets. There will be not one TV without this game on in the United States and Canada,’’ American forward Matthew Tkachuk said Friday night after his team booked its ticket to the gold medal game.
It’s the matchup the NHL dreamed about when it decided to end a 12-year absence from Olympic play.
“It’s the final that we wanted and the team that we wanted to play,’’ said Team USA forward Matt Boldy. “It’s exciting for the fans and for hockey and everything like that.’’
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Added Team USA center Dylan Larkin: “I think this, it’s what everyone wanted, is this matchup in the gold medal game.’’
A Team USA victory would be its most important since the 1996 World Cup of Hockey win over Canada and its first Olympic gold since the Miracle on Ice team. A win Sunday could have that same impact for years to come.
“I’m excited to see the matchup with USA and Canada,’’ Ryan Miller, whose outstanding 2010 Olympic tournament ended with the Golden Goal against him in Vancouver, told The Athletic on Friday night. “Obviously would love to see the Americans take the next step. It has been a consistent push over the last 12 years between World Jr., U18s and World Championships where the U.S. has grabbed titles. I think they have grown a generation of players that are at least on par with Canada and are ready to overtake them. It’s their moment. Hoping to see them get the job done.’’
A Team Canada victory keeps the world’s most hockey-obsessed nation on top of the hockey summit at a time when their rivals south of the border have never looked more threatening as far as hockey world supremacy.
A year after the 4 Nations Face-Off appetizer event surprisingly captured the attention of so many, the Canada-U.S. championship game layered with a tense political backdrop, imagine now what that may feel like in the hours leading up to puck drop Sunday, as relations between the two nations remain frayed thanks to a U.S. president who continues to verbally question Canada’s sovereignty. And there’s a chance Donald Trump will be at Sunday’s game, to boot.
So yeah, this isn’t just a hockey game Sunday. This is one of the biggest moments in the sport’s history.
“It’s a game where everybody is going to be watching and tuning in. That’s exciting for everybody involved, players, countries, all the people back home, it’s going to be a really special moment, just to have an opportunity to achieve your childhood dream, nothing better than that,’’ said Team USA star forward Brady Tkachuk.
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A year ago, Tom Wilson was sitting on his couch watching the 4 Nations championship game between Canada and the U.S. Not to mention the round-robin game between both teams a week prior to that, which featured three fights in nine seconds to open the game.
So yeah, he was grinning from ear to ear as the question was being asked Friday night, the idea of being part of a Canada-USA grudge match for Olympic gold with the whole world watching.
“Let’s just say I’d be excited to play in that game,’’ smiled the rugged Team Canada winger. “It’s one of the best rivalries in sports, especially in hockey. … It’s going to be a big boy game. We’ll see what happens.’’
Canada-USA on this stage? Come on.
“That would obviously be great for hockey, there would be a lot of viewers,’’ Team Canada defenseman Drew Doughty said after the 3-2 semifinal win over Finland. “But we don’t care who we play.’’
Yeah, not buying that for one second. Every single returning player from both Team Canada and Team USA from 4 Nations had this exact matchup in mind for these Olympics.
“Yeah, you can’t really script it any better than that,’’ said Brady Tkachuk. “All we cared about is putting ourselves in that position, didn’t really matter who we were going to play. But now that it’s all set in stone, everything happens for a reason.’’
For Team Canada, there’s also the emotion of seeing its leader, Sidney Crosby, injured in this tournament. Team Canada hasn’t ruled out Crosby for the gold medal game.
There was extra motivation Friday from Team Canada players wanting to make sure they at least gave him that chance.
“A guy that you want to show up for, and with what he’s done for the game, for our team, for all of Canada, we want to show up for him and give him another opportunity,’’ said fellow Nova Scotian Brad Marchand. “But you want to do it for every single guy in that room and every person that helped you get to this point, and for the entirety of Canada. But with what’s going on with Sid, he’s definitely a big rallying point.”
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Wilson, a longtime opponent of Crosby’s in that Pittsburgh-Washington rivalry back home, tried to put into perspective what their leader meant to that group.
“I mean, Sid, it’s cliché, but Sid is one of those guys that every guy that laces up their skates wanted to make him proud,’’ he said. “You know he’s watching. You want to give it all for him, and he’s one of the highest respected players in the game of hockey. So when he’s leading the way for us, and he can’t go tonight, every single guy was trying to play to the best of their ability for him, and you know, hopefully moving on here, he gets another shot at playing. And he was down there with us, helping us through everything in the room. And just a special guy, and I’m excited to go see him now.’’
Just imagine for a moment if Crosby somehow finds a way to lace them up Sunday.
“It would be incredible,’’ said Team Canada winger Seth Jarvis. “You can’t underestimate how powerful he is in our locker room, just to have him around the guys — and what he does on the ice is pretty self-explanatory. Just to have a guy like that potentially in the lineup for the gold medal game would be massive.”
In a matchup pitting two very equal rosters, the Crosby leadership factor is one Team USA can’t rival.
Having said that, Team USA is rolling big time. They had their most dominant game of the tournament Friday night and are hitting on all cylinders.
“Really excited,’’ said Team USA star center Jack Eichel. “The two best teams in the tournament right now, right? Both teams are undefeated. We have an opportunity to go win a gold medal and do something special. It’s a great chance for our group. Really excited about how we’re playing and about the opportunity we have on Sunday.’’
Without Crosby, Team Canada rallied back from a 3-2 deficit late in the third period to beat the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals, and again Friday night, erased a 2-0 hole against Finland.
They’ve been battle-tested ahead of their biggest challenge yet in Team USA.
“We’re a resilient group,’’ said Team Canada winger Mitch Marner. “We kept pushing. We’re not going to back away from a challenge.’’
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“It’s fun,’’ added Team Canada star defenseman Cale Makar. “When you’ve got a team like this that’s got so many leaders on it and everybody’s been through scenarios like this before, regardless of what team they’re playing for, it’s amazing to see all the veterans in the room and how positive everybody is. The talk just never really stops. I think everybody was honestly more comfortable in that 2-0 deficit tonight than when we went down obviously 3-2 the last game or 1-0. We’re just growing as a team and hopefully getting better every day and I felt we did that tonight.”
For an entire generation of NHL stars waiting more than a decade to live out their Olympic dreams, two teams have a shot at gold Sunday.
It’s surreal for them.
“It’s pretty special, it’s something you dream of as a kid,’’ said Marner.
For Team USA, it’s a chance to make an impact on the game in America in a dramatic way.
“The 1980 team, the 1996 World Cup, it grew the game so much,’’ said Brady Tkachuk. “It was great for our generation, we have an opportunity to grow the game, and one, make it a better sport for a future generation. So I’m really looking forward to it.’’
Eichel pondered that same question, understanding what the impact a win would have Sunday.
“Yeah it would be huge,’’ he said. “For us, the group of guys that’s in that locker room, a lot of us came up in the ranks together, we have a lot of history together, whether it’s at the national program, or through world junior tournaments and whatnot. We all take a lot of pride in wearing the sweater and what that means and representing USA Hockey and being that certain new wave of players representing our country. To be here at the Olympics is such an honour. Yeah, we understand the magnitude of it.
“It’s been a minute since USA Hockey won a tournament like this,’’ added Eichel. “So, we’re going to do anything we can to change that.’’
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Pierre LeBrun has been a senior NHL columnist for The Athletic since 2017. He has been an NHL Insider for TSN since 2011 following six years as a panelist on Hockey Night In Canada. He also appears regularly on RDS in Montreal. Pierre previously covered the NHL for ESPN.com and The Canadian Press. Follow Pierre on Twitter @PierreVLeBrun
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