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Two goal songs from the men's hockey tournament stand above the rest in our ranking of the best at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games. Gregory Shamus / Getty Images
MILAN — Five days into the men’s hockey tournament at the Olympics, I have heard The Ting Tings’ “That’s Not My Name,” a quirky little number from 2008, 11 times. I have heard the masses at Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena mangle John Lennon’s “Imagine” during an intermission sing-along seven times. I have heard the J. Geils Band’s “Freeze Frame” so many times during an intermission game played by the delightful in-arena host — who looks alarmingly like either Kenny G or Richard Simmons, depending on who you ask — that I find myself randomly freezing in exaggerated poses whenever there’s a lull in conversation.
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There’s the EDM power-play song that pulsates after every penalty, the classic Italian ditty “Che La Luna Mezzo Mare,” Pearl Jam’s “Even Flow,” which plays every time matching minors are called, and all sorts of Euro power pop I’ve never heard of but will never forget.
But it’s a 40-year-old campy operatic gibberish song that’ll stay with me long after I leave Milan. The Swedes and their goal song have destroyed my brain, and I don’t know whether to thank them or sue them. Either way, I think I love them.
Let’s rank all 12 men’s hockey goal songs at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games, based solely on my impeccable, unimpeachable taste. That’s right, it’s time for some Important Journalism:
Listen to this track and you might find it cute. A little catchy, a little hokey, a little fun. Listen to 8,000 Swiss fans scream it at the top of their lungs and you will want to tattoo the “lyrics” onto your forehead. A great goal song requires two things: a catchy, repetitive melody and fan participation. Simple, easy-to-remember lyrics — or even better, simple scatting — is a huge plus. Add in a little local flavor, all the better. This one has it all. It’s like the Swiss “Chelsea Dagger.” A perfect goal song for one of the most electric fan bases in the tournament.
The first time I heard this, when Gabriel Landeskog evened up Sweden’s game against Italy on Wednesday, I turned to my colleague Arpon Basu and said, “This is the stupidest song I’ve ever heard.” Five days later, I think it might be better and more significant than “Beethoven’s Fifth,” “Für Elise” and “Livin’ on a Prayer” combined. I will be singing the goofy operatic part of this song on my deathbed. It will never leave me. The only reason it’s not No. 1 is that the Swedish fans don’t really seem all that into it. Fan participation matters.
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Honestly, I didn’t think the Swedes could top “En För Alla För En,” their goal song from Sochi in 2014 by a band called The Poodles, which I can only describe as Sweden’s Motley Crüe. That song even had a video in which the entire Swedish team, coach Pär Mårts included, dramatically entered a music studio and sang the chorus off printed lyrics sheets like in “We Are The World.” It was perfect. Yet somehow, it’s been topped by a song that is literally just some dude reading a pizzeria menu. God, I love hockey.
This song breaks all the rules. It’s not repetitive. The part that’s used doesn’t have lyrics. There’s no fan participation. But “Free Bird” is the most ‘Murican thing imaginable, so it works. It’s more American than baseball, than apple pie, than butchering a local’s language and then rudely mocking them for not speaking Boston. This is a good song. But it is a GREAT Olympic goal song.
Accordions! Fiddles! Scatting! Slovakia brings a great local flavor to its goal song, going full folk. This song is nothing but good vibes, which is appropriate for a team that’s been the exciting surprise of the tournament. I asked a Slovak journalist friend of mine what the lyrics mean, and he replied, “It’s in a special dialect. It means something such as this: ‘I’m such a wild little girl, cingi lingi bom. I like to braid little feathers, cingi lingi bom … I tuck it behind my hat, cingi lingi bom.” That’s better than I possibly could have imagined. The Slovaks are by far the most fun team here, both taking this event by storm and not taking it too seriously.
You know how I know this is a pretty good goal song? I heard it 11 times on Saturday and didn’t want to throw my laptop across the press tribune. It’s not a great participation song, but it’s super upbeat and has great energy. A lot of these songs start sounding the same after a while, but this one stands out as something different. And the name of it is great: “The beast is loose.”
There was a bit of controversy on opening night in Milan, as Canada’s first two goals were greeted with Canadian icons The Tragically Hip. Nobody’s ever going to complain about hearing The Hip, but The Sheepdogs were Canada’s choice. It’s not bad. “I’m feeling good” is a solid goal-song lyric. It’s got a bit of a country tinge to it and reminds me of the Nashville Predators’ goal song, “Gold on the Ceiling.” It’s simple, it’s repetitive, it’s fine.
This song feels like someone typed “What if the Dropkick Murphys were Eastern European?” into Chat GPT. It’s not awful, but it feels very generic. The lyrics are patriotic and even a little militaristic, which plays well at an international event like this. The Czech fans are among the most active and loudest ones in Milan, but the goal-song participation isn’t as high as I’d like.
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Well, at least Latvia has the best jerseys in the tournament. Points for having the name of the country in the title and in the lyrics, but the instrumental underneath sounds like one of those rights-free guitar licks you use in a podcast intro.
This is a curious one. It reminds me of the Vancouver Canucks using Simple Minds’ “Don’t You (Forget About Me).” Great song, but is it a great goal song? I mean, “Major Tom” is a sad song! He gets lost in space! Though I suppose it’s very German to celebrate a moment of triumph by ponderously examining the human folly and existential insignificance of life in the cold and uncaring endless void.
Another generic mix of old-timey folk and modern rock. Call and answer is always a good idea in a goal song (think how Seattle has added “Let’s Go, Kraken” to Nirvana’s “Lithium” chorus), but the phrases are too long and cumbersome here. I do love the “Oh, yeaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh” and “la la la” transitions. I just wish they were transitioning between better segments of the song.
This sort of feels like one of those 1980s sports-team videos, like “The Super Bowl Shuffle” or “Let’s Ram It” or “Let’s Go Mets Go.” “All of Italy” is a nice sentiment, but this one falls flatter than a pappardelle noodle.
This is very, very bad. Like, so bad. No fan participation. No lyrics to the chorus. No juice whatsoever. It’s lame house music briefly interrupted by some indifferent French singer in a noir film, leaning on a piano with a lit cigarette in her hand, the smoke curling up to the ceiling in black and white. Le boooooo.
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Mark Lazerus is a senior NHL writer for The Athletic based out of Chicago. He has covered the Blackhawks and the league at large for 13 seasons for The Athletic and the Chicago Sun-Times. He has been named one of the top three columnists in the country twice in the past three years by the Associated Press Sports Editors. Follow Mark on Twitter @MarkLazerus