BURSTThe sun did come up today.
Some Canadians would have doubted that early Sunday morning after the U.S. beat Canada 2-1 in overtime to win the gold medal in hockey at Milano-Cortina 2026 in a game that will be remembered for generations.
It was hockey at its best with two highly-skilled teams playing at warp speed, but in the end, it was a heartbreaking defeat for not only the Canadian team but for the entire nation.
We had walked this tight rope before and always found a way to get to the other end safely: whether it was Vancouver in 2010, the Four Nations final last spring, or even in this tournament where Canada had to comeback against Czechia to win 4-3 in overtime and then had to score twice in the last 10 minutes to get by Finland 3-2.
Canada always found a way.
So when Cale Makar scored late in the second period against the Americans to tie the score at 1-1, you believed that Canada would do it again.
And they would have had it not been for the outstanding play of U.S. goalie Connor Hellebuyck, who stopped 41 of 42 shots in the victory in giving the Americans their first Olympic gold medal since the “Miracle on Ice” team in 1980.
The fact of the matter is that Canada couldn’t find a way to solve Hellebuyck and when Jack Hughes scored 1:41 into overtime for the U.S., our country was officially in mourning.
The nation will think of the ‘what ifs’: whether it be missed opportunities on the power play, Nathan MacKinnon or Devon Toews whiffing on glorious scoring chances, or if Sidney Crosby had suited up. We will be thinking about those ‘what ifs’ for the foreseeable future.
As Canadians, we are heavily invested in the game. Turn on a sports talk radio station in the middle of the summer and they’ll still be rambling on about the hockey season that was, the off-season that is or the season that will be.
In Canada, every season is hockey season.
And that’s why it hurts.
I, for one, will also have to suffer the indignity of hearing all about it from my friends south of the 49th parallel. And I can guarantee you that I won’t be the only one.
You’ll get that call from a business associate or friend telling you how great the Americans played and that they are now ‘the ice hockey kings of the world’ and whatever nonsense they can come up with that will make you feel like vomiting.
Go on social media and you’ll see Americans who suddenly have become hockey analysts talking about a great victory yet think icing is only something that you put on a cake.
What makes it even worse is that in a few days, the vast majority of Americans will forget about this great accomplishment and go back to speculating on what their favorite NFL team is going to do in the upcoming draft or how their baseball team is going to fare this year.
For most Americans, hockey will go back to being that sport that only makes headlines when something ridiculous takes place.
As for us, the World Cup of Hockey takes place in two years and we’ll get a shot at redemption but it’s not the Olympics.
Until then, we have to live with it.
Veteran B.C. sports personality Bob “the Moj” Marjanovich writes about the B.C. sporting scene for Black Press Media. This column is brought to you in part by:
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