{"id":494460,"date":"2026-02-23T16:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T16:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/494460\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T16:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T16:48:10","slug":"mackinnon-you-be-the-judge-of-who-was-the-better-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/494460\/","title":{"rendered":"MacKinnon: ‘You be the judge of who was the better team’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canada’s Nathan MacKinnon<\/a> doesn’t feel the better team won the gold-medal game.<\/p>\n

“You be the judge of who was the better team today,” MacKinnon said after Canada’s 2-1 overtime loss to the United States, according to Canadian Press’ Joshua Clipperton<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Canada had the shot advantage 42-28 over USA in Sunday’s clash. Canada controlled play for much of the second and third periods, outshooting the U.S. 19-8 in the second, and 14-10 in the third.<\/p>\n

“Just finishing. That’s it,” MacKinnon said<\/a> when asked if there’s anything more Canada could’ve done. “The looks we had, we would’ve taken any day. I missed an open net myself, and I really wish I could have that one back. <\/p>\n

“What a great group of guys. We definitely really tilted that game, but we just – I don’t know, we had to score, and we didn’t score.”<\/p>\n

Canada was unable to convert on the man advantage in the gold-medal game despite having the tournament’s top power play.<\/p>\n

“The 5-on-3 hurt, then the last power play, we had so many good looks in the slot, rebounds,” MacKinnon said. “I don’t know. I just felt like it wasn’t meant to be tonight for us.”<\/p>\n

Connor McDavid<\/a>, who was Canada’s captain the last two games with Sidney Crosby<\/a> unavailable, also felt the team played well.<\/p>\n

“I thought we played a great game,” McDavid said<\/a>. “I thought their goalie played really, really well.”<\/p>\n

USA’s Connor Hellebuyck<\/a> made 41 saves, including a remarkable paddle stop in the third period.<\/p>\n

Crosby was out due to an injury sustained in the quarterfinal. He scored the iconic overtime winner against the United States in 2010.<\/p>\n

“It’s a lot easier playing than watching,” Crosby said<\/a>. “I think everyone should be proud the way the team performed. Obviously, we did everything but score. In every facet, we were just, we were so good today. I thought we deserved better and unfortunately, didn’t come away with the win.”<\/p>\n

Crosby said he was “pretty close” to playing Sunday but ultimately wasn’t able to compete.<\/p>\n

It’s Canada’s first silver medal in men’s hockey since the 1994 Olympics. Canada had claimed gold in 2010 and 2014, which were the previous two Games that featured NHL players.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canada’s Nathan MacKinnon doesn’t feel the better team won the gold-medal game. “You be the judge of who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-494460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}