Gold medal game between United States, Canada a 'perfect showcase' for hockey: Granato

NHL players are competing at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, the first time in 12 years that they've been on this global stage. In order to provide an inside look at the experience, NHL.com has enlisted former Olympic players, coaches and others around the game to share their insights. Today, Team USA icon Tony Granato, a forward at the 1988 Calgary Olympics, and an assistant at the 2014 Sochi Olympics and head coach at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics.

It was time.

Mike Eruzione said so.

Sunday was the 46th anniversary of Eruzione’s historic goal that gave underdog Team USA a 4-3 victory against the heavily favored Soviets at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics. They would defeat Finland two days later to capture the gold medal in a run that forever will be known as the “Miracle on Ice.”

Up until Sunday, the U.S. hadn’t won another one. It had been almost five decades.

Now was their chance. Facing Canada. Their biggest rival. And coming in with arguably as good a roster as Team USA had ever put on the ice.

Eruzione said as much at the start of the game. He discussed how it was about time somebody else becomes that next person, that next team to take over and regenerate the excitement that the 1980 team gave to us and gave to hockey.

Three hours later, Jack Hughes did exactly that, scoring the Golden Goal in overtime to give Team USA a 2-1 victory and, in the process, put his name alongside that of Eruzione’s as the authors of arguably the two most memorable goals in the history of USA Hockey.

I mean, it's definitely going to be remembered. I mean, 46 years from now, will people hold Jack Hughes’ name in the same regard that they do Eruzione’s right now? And will Jack Hughes be at the Olympics at that time talking about it like Mike was today?

I hope so.

It certainly has the potential to have that much impact and be celebrated in the way Mike's did, albeit maybe in a little bit of a different way.

Fitting that it was Hughes, who was missing a couple of teeth after being high sticked late in regulation. He shook it off and was back out there to become a hero.

That says it all about our game, doesn’t it? Get knocked down. Get back up. Put you and your team in the history books.

A great story in a game full of great stories.

A year ago, Jack received some criticism for not playing well for Team USA at the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament, which Team Canada ended up winning with a 3-2 overtime victory in the title game.

I think that was a case of a young player dealing with the bright lights. He’d been on big stages before, sure, but nothing like that one.

He looked like a different player in Milan, fast and shifty and dominant.

A difference-maker, if you will.

I was watching with my parents in Elmhurst, Illinois. When Hughes scored, I had the best seat in the house … on the couch, celebrating. And when we went down to brunch at the cafeteria, everybody that was there was talking about the game.

So if you’re hockey fan or not, and you're tuned into the Olympics, and you became a viewer of what transpired today, I think there's going to be a tremendous amount of kids and families that continue to talk about that maybe being the greatest sporting Olympic event that they watched.

A great day for USA hockey. Given the all-out effort both teams put out there, a great day for our sport.

I mentioned in an earlier column that my family has had a special relationship with USA Hockey starting with my sister, Cammi, who’s in the Hockey Hall of Fame. My brother Don’s association with USA Hockey includes his successful stint with the USA Hockey National Team Development Program where he coached forwards Auston Matthews and Jack Eichel, who both were part of the gold medal performance Sunday.

I’ve done various things with USA Hockey, too, as a player, a coach, you name it. And there’s a sense of pride in seeing these guys get their medals, knowing those of us before them helped in our own little ways of helping build the foundation of what happened Sunday.

In the end, it was the perfect showcase for our game. Kudos to both teams. Team Canada played very well, but Team USA goalie Connor Hellebuyck was not to be denied. That’s hockey.

It’s a great rivalry. And what a great new chapter we saw.

The bottom line: It’s the people of the game who make hockey so special. And the product on the ice is second to none.

This was a way to show it off on the international stage to the whole world.

Mission accomplished.