What’s become very clear over the last two or three years – and really has been growing noticeably over the last decade or so – is that USA Hockey is no longer in the scrappy underdog role they undeniably played back in 1980 for the inspirational Miracle on Ice.
Instead, they have become one of the preeminent hockey powers in the world, with even Canada being forced to bend the knee at multiple international hockey tournament stages over the last few seasons. They have captured IIHF World Junior championships in two of the last three years, and they won the IIHF World Championships last spring for the first time in 92 years when Jeremy Swayman helped lead them to a gold medal.
And now they have the crowning achievement after winning just their third Olympic gold medal in the history of their program, and the first since those scrappy, gutty college kids beat the Russians at Lake Placid nearly 50 years ago.
It's a turn that has USA Hockey set up for a long run of dominance in these international tournaments and has Hockey Canada scratching their collective heads and wondering what has gone wrong.
The way the Americans did it was perhaps the most surprising aspect of the entire Olympic run, where they went undefeated and pulled out overtime wins against Sweden and Canada once they got to the single elimination round. New Jersey Devils forward Jack Hughes had looked overmatched and perhaps a little intimidated in last season’s 4 Nations Faceoff while playing for Team USA, but this time he led the Americans with four goals in the tournament and scored the overtime golden goal in USA’s 2-1 overtime win over Canada in Milan Cortina on Sunday morning.
Perhaps the most hockey aspect of the whole thing was that Hughes had a bloody tooth missing for the overtime heroics after a nasty Sam Bennett high stick had knocked out one of his front teeth earlier in the game.
“That’s such a ballsy, gutsy win,” said Hughes when talked to NBC’s Kathryn Tappen after the game. “That’s American hockey.
"This is all about our country right now. I love my teammates. It's unbelievable. The USA Hockey brotherhood is so strong right now...I'm so proud to be an American."
Hockey summed up in one picture pic.twitter.com/AD2zrPJ01V
— The Hockey News (@TheHockeyNews) February 22, 2026
It certainly was after USA Hockey general manager Bill Guerin and his assistant Tom Fitzgerald put together a heavy, rugged playoff-style group that left undeniably skilled players like Adam Fox, Jason Robertson and Cole Caufield off the final Red, White and Blue roster. It was a tournament that saw big-bodied skill players like Millis native Matt Boldy flourish and had Auston Matthews essentially turn into a checking center that was more effective back-checking and winning faceoffs than actually scoring goals and generating offense.
The other part of the equation for Team USA was the