Olympics Show Hockey As A Top-Tier Sport For Patriots For Both Teams In That Gold-Medal Game

Passions ran hot in the Olympics and two countries rallied hard around that gold medal game. It was great contest where defence and goaltending magic squared off against the best snipers of the game. And America was rewarded with gold.

Just like any other championship game, the winners will chirp awhile, and the losers will lick their wounds with promises made that ‘next time’ will be different.

But it’s short-sighted and a disservice to the gold medal team to say Canada sucks. If they actually sucked, Team USA’s win isn’t any more special than Kramer’s karate class wins against 7yo kids in Seinfeld. Sure Kramer beat them, but it means nothing.

No. The red white and blue gold medal winners deserve something better. (Mens and women’s alike.) Admitting this was a contest between two fantastic teams, in which Team USA was the underdog IS what makes this win so special.

The win is great. But it’s just one piece of a larger picture. By its nature, NHL hockey is a sport in which elite players come from all sorts of places… mostly Canada, USA, Europe, and Russia, but even that list is growing. There’s something about that dynamic that has carved out a different sport than what you might see in other, more popular sporting events.

Forget the booing we heard since Trump came back to office. That’s just some POed Canucks who can’t figure out how to vote for someone that won’t give them a worse GDP than all 50 states for ten years running and are mad they’re getting the short end of the stick now that Trump’s fixing the trade imbalance. Americans have pride in dominating many events. Canada has just a few.

For them, it’s like diehard baseball fans seeing the Jays win the World Series, or NBA fans seeing the Raptors win… and then some.

But because hockey is built on a set of skills that requires a blend of skill, athleticism and toughness, it produces a different kind of culture. A culture that celebrates things that political correctness has bred out of other sports.

You WANT to be tested by the best, and this time around Americans got it, while completing the very same gold-medal sweep Canadians have enjoyed in the past.

Faces will change and new players will rise to the challenge. Crosby, who was injured for the last two games, won’t be back again next time. Neither will a few others on both teams. But hockey is different than sports where it’s easy and convenient to inject your politics into it. These aren’t all city kids who grew up in one-party political cities. A lot of these players are FROM ‘fly-over country’. They have billeted with families with ideas different than their own. For most, dreams of the big moment in the big game far eclipse the financial benefits of just making it big. Players take ‘hometown discounts’ in their salary negotiations if it means they can bring in one more great player that can help them hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup.

Kapernick could never have started his movement in the NHL, because in hockey, playing both teams’ anthems in the game as a matter of mutual respect. You see it at the NHL level, and in international competition in all age groups and skill levels. In a team of 22, with everyone playing his or her role, there is a strong sense of playing for the crest on front of the jersey, and not for the name on the back of it.

The joy felt by the Miracle on Ice in 1980 is matched in near-perfect patriotic parallel by the emotion of Canada’s winning goal in the final game of the 1972 Summit Series against the Soviets, with 34 seconds left, to win the series. Good guys winning the Cold War has always been a feel-good story. Canada’s Gold Medal wins over team USA in 2002 and 2010 meant as much to team Canada then as Sunday’s win meant to American fans. The 2014 win over Sweden was great, but it’s nowhere near the same emotional depth or significance as defeating a rival like the Americans.

We all saw that wonderful post-game interview from Hughes, broken tooth and all. That’s hockey. ‘Spitting chicklets’ (losing teeth) and going back on the ice. Most of us did NOT see the classy way that Canada’s Connor McDavid — who set some new Olympic records on scoring points through the tournament this year — refused to take the bait on a political question about US policy. He’s here to play hockey.

This in, Michael Traikos of the Hockey News reporting a question and response before the 2026 gold medal game final, with Team Canada leader Connor McDavid.

Asked about the geo-political backdrop of the Canada vs USA game, McDavid said, “I’m not going to get into all that. This is a hockey game.” — Edmonton Journal

This Clash editor makes no secret about being a hockey fan to the total exclusion of almost all other sports, and has bragged on coaches that went on record telling players that if they disrespected an anthem — any anthem — they would be benched.

I’ve made a big deal about the real hockey fans on both sides of the border, not the bandwagon hoppers that only show up at the big games being the classiest kind of good sports, really making it known when a tech breakdown happens with the anthem singer’s mike.

Not only will fans in Canadian rinks belt out the lyrics to the Canadian anthem, but most fans there have the Star Spangled Banner committed to memory too. Despite the American team being the visiting rival, good sportsmanship demands that the visiting team’s anthem be properly honored as well, even if the tech breaks down.

And come ON, seeing a player come out with half a tooth broken off, and be part of the play that decides the game..? That’s just not gonna happen in soccer. Or basketball. Can you even imagine some NFL star playing through a broken tooth? Not many. But every team in the NHL has more than a few diehards who’d play through it. For the love of the game, AND the love of the team, be it franchise or national.

You saw Hughes talking about the brotherhood of American players. That’s not a one-off or even a rare attitude. It’s hockey.

How many other sports can you enjoy where national pride is all about Red, White, and Blue and not that tired political battle of Red versus Blue?

In a world of Rappinoes trashing the very countries that gave them the opportunity to play on the world stage, be like Hughes.

And one more closing thought, to anyone bashing Canada for ‘unsportsmanship’ at being pissed over getting a Silver. That’s loser talk.

Both teams showed up Sunday morning having already earned at least a silver medal.

The game went into overtime, where it was one bounce away from going the other way.

I guarantee that if it had gone the other way, no American player would have come away from an overtime loss thinking it was pretty cool that they got a silver medal. Not when they were so close to trading that up for a gold. Nobody would respect him if he did.

Let other folks cheer on athletes that like to spit on the country that gave them a path to success.

As for me? I’m watching hockey.