It's here! You up?
The gold-medal game.
Drew Doughty, Darcy Kuemper and Team Canada are set to begin their final game at the 2026 Winter Olympics against Team USA, with the ultimate prize on the line. It's the first gold-medal game featuring NHL players since 2014, the first time that almost everyone has played in this game. Doughty is the outlier. He's got two gold medals to his game, having won gold in both 2010 and 2014. Team Canada forward Sidney Crosby will not be in the lineup today for Team Canada, meaning that Doughty is the only player with that kind of experience on the ice today.
Should Team Canada win today, Doughty will sit in exclusive company. No NHL player has ever won three gold medals at this stage. Doughty and Crosby would become the first, with a win today for Team Canada.
Per Hockey Canada, Doughty is set to begin today's game on a pairing with Philadelphia defenseman Travis Sanheim. We've seen him, primarily, alongside Dallas defenseman Thomas Harley in this tournament, so we'll see how things actually shake out. Should the game be tied or Canada take the lead, I'd expect to see Doughty a bit more. Should the United States pull ahead, especially by multiple goals, I'd expect to see Doughty a little bit less. Seems to be what the flow of the tournament has been thus far and would expect the gold-medal game to be no different. Kuemper is the third goaltender for this game and is not expected to play.
