{"id":142261,"date":"2026-02-23T03:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T03:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/142261\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T03:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T03:18:13","slug":"new-yorkers-hit-the-bars-before-breakfast-to-cheer-on-us-olympic-hockey-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/142261\/","title":{"rendered":"New Yorkers hit the bars before breakfast to cheer on US Olympic hockey team"},"content":{"rendered":"

The beer was flowing in the Big Apple before most businesses even opened their doors.<\/p>\n

New York City bars were jam-packed for the Sunday morning Olympic showdown<\/a> between the US men\u2019s hockey team and Team Canada \u2014 with local sports nuts hitting the bottle early.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great way to spend a Sunday morning, as far as that goes,\u201d said Connecticut hockey nut Sam Buchanan. \u201cMoments like this, they only come around at a minimum once every four years, so it makes it easy to get up early on a Sunday to hang out with your friends and watch something great happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

New York fans celebrate the US Olympic hockey team gold medal on Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

The US men\u2019s Olympic hockey team beat Canada in an overtime thriller in Milan, Italy, on Sunday. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Something great did happen \u2014 the US edged out Canada in overtime<\/a> for a 2-1 victory to earn gold medals in men\u2019s hockey for the first time in nearly a half-century.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is better than the sex I had last night,\u201d quipped Evan Decastro, who said he rescheduled a date with a girl so he could catch the real action. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was supposed to pick up some groceries in preparation of the 2 feet of snow, but who cares?\u201d said native New Yorker Ken Greissman, part of the packed crowd at Blue Haven on Third Avenue.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know things aren\u2019t great for everyone, but sports in the Olympics, it\u2019s a beautiful unifying force for this country,\u201d Greissman said. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing to see everyone pull together and celebrate this amazing victory for our men\u2019s team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fans at a jam-packed Blue Haven bar in Manhattan celebrate US Olympic hockey gold. Kevin C Downs for NY Post<\/p>\n

Hockey pals Jack Doyle, Sam Buchanan and Kyle Smith at Blue Haven bar for US Olympic hockey gold. Kevin C Downs for NY Post<\/p>\n

The game got underway at the Milano Santaguila Arena in Milan, Italy, shortly after 8 a.m. New York time, culminating with the first US Olympic hockey gold medal for the men\u2019s team since the 1980 \u201cMiracle on Ice\u201d during the Lake Placid games in upstate New York.<\/p>\n

The US women\u2019s team earned the gold last week, also beating out Canada.<\/p>\n

But on Sunday, it was all about the men\u2019s team, who edged out the squad from the Great White North<\/a>, which had to settle for a silver medal. Big Apple bargoers watched it all unfold on the screen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got this table reservation two days ago,\u201d photographer Kyle Smith said after the victory.<\/p>\n

Gold medal party for US Olympic hockey at Blue Haven bar in Manhattan on Sunday morning. Kevin C Downs for NY Post<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s US Olympic hockey win was the first men\u2019s gold medal in the sport since the 1980 \u2018Miracle on Ice.\u2019 AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a New York sports fan, I haven\u2019t had this much joy since the Giants won in 2011,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I think this was the first moment in the last 15 years that we got to experience the euphoria and a championship and something to root for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fellow fan Jack Doyle called the whole thing \u201cawesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWith something like this, with the opportunity to beat Canada like this, you had to come out, have a couple of beers and support it,\u201d he said. \u201cMore beers, and then I\u2019m telling everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The beer was flowing in the Big Apple before most businesses even opened their doors. New York City…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[8075,57,9,24,55,54,56,40308,58,59818,23717,53276],"class_list":{"0":"post-142261","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-bars","9":"tag-metro","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-city-news","14":"tag-ny","15":"tag-team-usa","16":"tag-us-news","17":"tag-usa-hockey","18":"tag-winter-olympics","19":"tag-winter-olympics-2026"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}