It was an incredible accomplishment for USA Hockey and for Werenski, the culmination of many years of hard work for each and a cultural moment that will live in for decades to come.
NHL players first competed in the Olympics in 1998, but before Sunday’s win over Canada, the pros had yet to be able to bring home gold. It took a miracle in 1980 and a similar shock in 1960, but this was the result of years of investment and planning, with the U.S. national team building over the years.
There was the theater of last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off and a historic gold medal last summer at the IIHF World Championships, and Werenski was there for each of them. The Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich., native has developed into one of the top defensemen in the game, finishing second in the Norris Trophy voting a season ago and posting 18 points and a plus-20 rating in 17 games in the Team USA sweater over the past 13 months.
In many ways, it seemed like this was meant to be Team USA’s time. Sunday, Feb. 22, was the 46th anniversary of the Miracle on Ice win over the Soviet Union, and it doubled as the second birthday of Johnny Gaudreau’s son, John Jr.
USA Hockey honored the memories of Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau throughout the tournament, including hanging a No. 13 jersey in the locker room and bringing the Gaudreau family to Milan for the Olympics. After the win over Canada, Werenski and teammates Matthew Tkachuk and Auston Matthews skated Gaudreau’s No. 13 jersey around the ice, then Werenski and Dylan Larkin brought Gaudreau’s daughter Noa and Johnny Jr. onto the ice for a postgame team photo.
“It was incredible,” Werenski said. “We see his jersey hang every day here in Columbus. We saw it last year at the 4 Nations, I saw it at the World Championships and now you see it at the Olympics. These are all events he’d be at. To see it hang there, obviously we had a lot of pride playing for him. We wanted to make him proud, and to see his family supporting us there, his kids, his wife, his parents, to bring the kids on the ice, have the jersey out there, that’s what it’s all about. That’s one of my favorite moments of the whole thing.
“It’s one of those things where he touched a lot of people and had a lot of great friends, and a lot of those great friends were on this team, and we wanted to do something special for them.”
Werenski also had more than 20 friends and family members in Italy for the event, including his parents Ken and Kristen and his brother, Brad.
“It meant everything,” he said. “I think I said it before I left, but they’re the reason why I was there. For them to be a part of it, experience it as well, it’s a moment in history that we can always look back on and say we were a part of it. I think just seeing them in the crowd after the game, seeing them at the party afterwards, that’s why you do it, right?”
Werenski’s life has been a whirlwind since the victory Sunday, as Team USA celebrated that night in Milan, then flew back across the Atlantic for a welcome home bash in Miami on Monday. Werenski was one of the team members who tripped to Washington D.C. on Tuesday to tour the White House and attend the State of the Union address, then he headed to Boston to meet the team Wednesday.
The only defenseman in the NHL with at least 20 goals and 60 points this season took part in the Blue Jackets’ morning skate today ahead of tonight’s game against the Bruins, and head coach Rick Bowness said Werenski left little doubt he’s ready to get back in the lineup tonight.
“When we walked in the hotel last night, his first words were, ‘Bones, I’m ready to go in tomorrow,’” Bowness said. “OK, thank you. We’ll see you tomorrow night.”
Less than a week ago, Werenski’s world changed forever. Not only is earning a gold medal a tremendous personal accomplishment, he did it with teammates he’ll share a bond with forever, and he’ll be able to tell the stories of how Team USA did it for decades to come.
That historic presence is not lost on Werenski, who had a big hand in delivering one of the biggest moments in the country’s sports annals on Sunday.
“There’s gonna be hundreds of thousands if not millions of kids that want to be Jack Hughes,” Werenski said. “I guess someone has to be the one that passes it to him. It’s me in that situation. It’s a full team effort, and just incredibly proud of the whole group for getting it done. It was special.”
