{"id":483082,"date":"2026-02-22T02:59:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T02:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/483082\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T02:59:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T02:59:13","slug":"u-s-vs-canada-for-olympic-gold-is-a-titanic-showdown-of-hockey-powerhouses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/483082\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. vs. Canada for Olympic gold is a titanic showdown of hockey powerhouses"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILAN (AP) \u2014 Dylan Larkin<\/a> has been thinking about the U.S. facing Canada for gold at the Olympics<\/a> for a year. All the dreams he had as a kid crystalized after he and his teammates lost to their rival<\/a> in the final of the 4 Nations Face-Off.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve thought about it so much,\u201d Larkin said. \u201cIt\u2019s what everyone wanted, this matchup in a gold-medal game. Yeah, I\u2019ve thought about it a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those thoughts become reality Sunday when the North American countries that have become the preeminent global hockey powerhouses<\/a> face off in a titanic final of a best-vs.-best tournament with many of the NHL\u2019s biggest stars. The U.S. against Canada on the biggest stage in sports should be hard-hitting, quick-skating, must-see entertainment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s gonna be a big-boy game,\u201d Canada\u2019s Tom Wilson said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be as fast and physical and skilled as you can ever imagine. Right now it\u2019s the two big countries for hockey in the world. Every single guy is going to be doing everything they can at every single moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The favorites reach the final<\/p>\n

Canada and the U.S. entered the tournament as the favorites and played like it. Each team went undefeated, winning all five games, with the U.S. outscoring opponents 24-8 and outshooting them 201-124 and Canada 27-8 and 202-106.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s two of probably the best teams ever, maybe,\u201d U.S. winger Matthew Tkachuk said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of respect for the players over there and what they\u2019ve done in the past, and we want to be the team that comes out on top.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were some scares and nervous moments<\/a> along the way: Canada needed late tying goals to get past Czechia in overtime in the quarterfinals and Finland in the semifinals<\/a>, while the U.S. also gave up the lead late against Sweden before winning in OT.<\/p>\n

Unlike the preliminary round, the U.S. and Canada have each been tested facing elimination.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt hasn\u2019t been the smoothest quarters and semis for us,\u201d said Canada\u2019s Connor McDavid, the leading scorer at the Olympics with an NHL player-record 13 points. \u201cBut I think that adversity is good. Going through that has brought us closer. You can definitely feel that in the group, it\u2019s been been fun to play in those games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canada is out to maintain a gold standard<\/p>\n

In the previous two Olympics the NHL participated in, Canada took home gold. In 2014, the team never trailed. In 2010, Sidney Crosby scored in overtime to defeat the U.S. and win on home ice.<\/p>\n

Canada has won three of the five Games with NHL players to give it a record nine gold medals. Hockey was born in Canada, and the expectation is always to be the best in the world at it.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou always feel that responsibility as a Canadian,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cWe want to be the best. It\u2019s been our game for a long time. The guys that are pulling the jersey on, it\u2019s our responsibility to go out there and try and prove why we\u2019re the best and why we should be the best. And continue to be the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arguably the best Canadian Olympian in history, Crosby, may not play because of an injury<\/a> that knocked him out of the quarterfinals. Coach Jon Cooper did not show his hand over whether Crosby will be available.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously we\u2019d love to have him,\u201d Cooper said.<\/p>\n

The U.S. is trying to accomplish something not done since 1980<\/p>\n

The last American men\u2019s hockey gold medal at the Olympics was 46 years ago in Lake Placid. The 1980 team of college players pulled off the \u201cMiracle on Ice,\u201d<\/a> beating the heavily favored Soviet Union on the way to authoring one of the most talked-about underdog stories in sports history.<\/p>\n

None of the players on this U.S. team were alive to see it; coach Mike Sullivan was about to turn 12. The reverence for that team remains as the current generation of players seek to join the likes of Mike Eruzione and Jim Craig in USA Hockey lore.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unbelievable,\u201d said forward Brock Nelson, whose uncle Dave Christian was on the 1980 team. \u201cIt\u2019s exciting. The adrenaline, the chills, everything. This is kind of what you dream about as a kid and why you want to play the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eruzione captained the U.S. in 1980 and visited with players at the 4 Nations last year in Montreal. Auston Matthews, the U.S. team captain, said Eruzione\u2019s best advice was, \u201cJust leave it all out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what you play for,\u201d Matthews said. \u201cThis is what you came here for: to have this opportunity and put ourselves in this position. We just got to go out there and leave it all on the ice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Find more Olympics coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN (AP) \u2014 Dylan Larkin has been thinking about the U.S. facing Canada for gold at the Olympics…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,966,4825,3,1082,99,1507,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-483082","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-article","10":"tag-dallas-stars","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-olympics","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-stars","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}