Photo credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images
Quinn Hughes and J.T. Miller just won Olympic gold for Team USA, and every Vancouver Canucks fan felt that punch of pride and pain at once.
It finished 2-1 in overtime against Canada, the kind of game that leaves your hands shaking even if you were watching from a couch.
Jack Hughes ended it 1:41 into OT, and the celebration instantly turned into a family moment with Quinn.
If you’re a Canucks fan, that’s the weird part, you’ve cheered those faces before, just not in those colours.
Team USA didn’t win this on vibes, they won it on survival hockey. Connor Hellebuyck swallowed wave after wave and basically turned the crease into a brick wall.
Canada pushed, tilted the ice, and still couldn’t get a second one past him.
Hughes played huge minutes, logged 25:40, and picked up an assist on the opening goal.
Miller’s fingerprints were on the grimy parts, the hard clears, the heavy reads, and the kind of penalty killing that kills a building’s momentum.
Quinn Hughes gives Vancouver Canucks fans mixed emotions
Let’s be honest, the fanbase is split right down the middle, happy for the guys, and still annoyed it didn’t end like this in Vancouver.
Daily Hive framed it like a full-circle moment, two ex-Canucks finally getting their gold after everything that happened around their exits.
And that’s why this stings, because it also reads like closure.
On the ice, the difference was simple, USA stayed patient when Canada tried to speed-run the game.
When the big names had looks, the Americans blocked lanes, won second pucks, and waited for one bounce to matter.
That bounce arrived in overtime, and the tournament ended with Hughes and Miller hugging teammates instead of wearing down another NHL season.
Now the NHL snaps back on Tuesday, and Vancouver gets a reminder fast, the Canucks host Hellebuyck and the Jets on Tuesday night.
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