U.S. 'playing for your country' against Canada for Olympic gold medal

MILAN – When the United States takes the ice against Canada at Santagiulia Arena in the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina on Sunday (8:10 a.m. ET; Peacock, NBC, ICE Tele, CBC Gem, CBC, SN [JIP], TSN [JIP], RDS2), a gold medal will be at stake.

But forward Matthew Tkachuk, one of the emotional leaders of Team USA, said the game is not just about the 25 players who will be wearing the red, white and blue. It’s for everyone who calls America home.

“Anytime you're in this position, you're not playing for yourself, you're playing for your country,” the Tkachuk said Saturday. “You're playing for the guys that have come before you. You're playing for the generation that will be coming after that. Might not be hockey players or wanting to play hockey right now, but you never know, we could do something, hopefully special tomorrow, and there's a new crop of athletes that want to be hockey players.

“That’s how it works with teams that have won in the past.”

The last United States team to win an Olympic gold medal in men’s hockey was the “Miracle on Ice” team at Lake Placid in 1980. That was a group of unknown college kids who somehow upset the Soviet Union, perhaps the greatest team ever assembled, on Feb. 22, 1980, exactly 46 years ago Sunday.

The U.S. then topped Finland to win the gold medal.

It was and still is one of the most incredible stories in the history of all sports, spawning several documentaries and a Disney feature-length film about the 25 players who won gold.

Twenty years earlier, 17 United States players took home gold at the 1960 Squaw Valley Olympics.

Now, this team of 25 NHL stars has a chance to make it owns mark and take its own place in U.S. hockey lore. It’s something U.S. coach Mike Sullivan has talked about with this group.

“I think the history of this sport is important, and in particular, this instance, this history of American hockey is important,” Sullivan said. “Because I think what it does is it heightens that opportunity that we have.

“When you think about it in those terms, there are (37) American-born hockey players that have gold medals. What an incredible opportunity we have in front of us.”

The United States has had this opportunity before. It faced Canada in the gold medal game in the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics and the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, losing each time. In fact, the U.S. has played Canada in an Olympics with NHL players five times, and have won once, in the round robin in 2010. The U.S. also lost to Canada in the semifinals at Sochi in 2014, the last time the NHL sent players to the Olympics before this year.

It also played Canada twice in the 4 Nations Face-Off last February, defeating Canada in the preliminary round before falling in overtime in the championship game.

None of what happened in the past, especially Olympic losses 16 and 24 years ago matter now, defenseman Zach Werenski said.

“It’s time for us to take our own step for this group,” Werenski said. “Last year at the 4 Nations, we were one goal short, and now it’s time for us to finally get over the finish line. So I don’t want to look at all the other teams and feel the pressure of that.

"I think for us, it’s just embracing the challenge ahead of us and kind of making our own memories and our own history.”

It will certainly be a challenge. Canada has three of the top four scorers in the NHL this season on its roster in Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon and Macklin Celebrini. Cale Makar has twice won the Norris Trophy, voted as best defenseman in the NHL, and goalie Jordan Binnington seems to rise to the occasion in big games, like he did in the 4 Nations final.

It’s why the players expect the gold medal game to be so close. In fact, the U.S. needed overtime to top Sweden in the quarterfinals, while Canada went to overtime against Czechia in the quarterfinals and then rallied from two goals down to top Finland in the semis with a goal in the final minute.

“Both [teams] are ready for it,” Tkachuk said. “Just some outrageous star power on both sides. But it seems like when you put all these great players on one ice sheet together, it’s the defense that is probably the thing that is the most noticeable, the tight checking, very limited ice out there.

“So we’re probably expecting a very tight game.”

Data Visualizations: Milano Cortina 2026 Men’s Hockey

If the 4 Nations Face-off is any indication, the margin of error in this game will be razor thin. The U.S. won the first game between the two, 3-1, needing an empty-net goal with 1:19 left to put it away. The championship game was an all-time epic, Canada tying the game 2-2 with six minutes left in the second period before eventually winning on McDavid’s goal 8:18 into overtime.

“Both teams are pretty evenly matched,” U.S. captain Auston Matthews said. “You saw that at the last 4 Nations tournament. A lot of the same players are playing in it. I think you can draw a lot from that, from the guys that we’re in there and played in that, and just how competitive and physical that the games were and how tight they were.”

Tkachuk, who has won the Stanley Cup twice with the Florida Panthers and has already played 652 NHL games, said the game Sunday is going to be one he and his teammates remember forever.

“When you look back on it all when we’re all going to be 50 years old, not playing in the NHL anymore, and playing thousands of games, hopefully, and you’re only going to remember start to finish, a couple of them, and this is probably going to be one of them,” Tkachuk said.

The U.S. team, which first gathered in Michigan in August for Orientation Camp, practiced for the last time together Saturday. Now it’s time to play and they are ready, defenseman Charlie McAvoy said.

“The excitement is through the roof for this group,” McAvoy said. “It was good today to come out here and sweat and get the blood flowing, just stay active, stay moving.

“Everybody is just ready to go. We’re so jacked up in there, it’s a chance to make a dream come true.”