By STEPHEN WHYNO, AP Hockey Author
MILAN (AP) — The long wait for the most effective hockey gamers on this planet taking the ice in a world event lived as much as the hype.
4 of the seven video games within the knockout spherical at the Milan Cortina Olympics went to additional time, together with the U.S beating Canada in a fast-paced, back-and-forth closing for the gold medal. The game earned the highlight it obtained within the NHL’s return to the Video games following a dozen-year drought.
“That is pretty much as good because it will get,” U.S. ahead Vincent Trocheck stated. “They’ve obtained to maintain doing it.”
That’s the plan.
The league, union and Worldwide Ice Hockey Federation have an agreement to participate in 2030 within the French Alps, pending finalizing a cope with the Worldwide Olympic Committee. However the subsequent likelihood for best-on-best nation versus nation competitors shouldn’t be that far-off: The World Cup of Hockey is about for February 2028.
The NHL and NHLPA are in lock step on a whole lot of points, together with the goal of creating a world calendar with this sort of event each different 12 months. The IIHF is on board, too.
“The hockey world from NHL/NHLPA standpoint is in a greater place when The Gamers’ Affiliation and the league are cooperating and, internationally, when these three organizations are collaborating the hockey world is in a greater place,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman stated. “And it provides us a chance to develop the sport in locations the place we’re not as robust as, say, we’re in North America and we sit up for persevering with to collaborate with (IIHF president Luc Tardif) in furtherance of rising the sport. That’s the aim, and the extra issues that we are able to determine to do collectively, the higher it will likely be for everyone.”
This was the sixth Olympics with NHL gamers because the precedent began in 1998 in Nagano. Skipping in 2018 and having 2022 get derailed by the pandemic had lots of people in Milan lamenting the scenario — however, in a means, the absence made the expertise fonder.
“It’s been so lengthy because the final one,” Canada defenseman Drew Doughty stated. “Want it had by no means occurred this fashion, however right here it’s.”
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United States’ Matt Boldy, middle, celebrates after scoring the opening aim throughout a males’s ice hockey gold medal recreation between Canada and the USA on the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photograph/Hassan Ammar)
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United States’ Matt Boldy, middle, celebrates after scoring the opening aim throughout a males’s ice hockey gold medal recreation between Canada and the USA on the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photograph/Hassan Ammar)
The U.S. received gold in males’s hockey at an NHL Olympics for the primary time, ending Canada’s run of two in a row and three of the previous 4. It was the nation’s first because the 1980 “Miracle on Ice,” although the one miraculous a part of this championship was the way it took American Connor Hellebuyck delivering one of the best hockey goaltending performances in worldwide hockey historical past.
“He was our greatest participant by a mile,” Jack Hughes stated after scoring the golden aim in additional time, missing a tooth or two from a follow the face earlier within the recreation.
Hughes’ aim got here lower than two minutes into 3-on-3 OT, which will be the largest factor from Milan that drew criticism and may change transferring ahead — not less than within the gold-medal recreation and doubtless on the NHL and NHLPA-run World Cup.
Canada coach Jon Cooper stated enjoying 3 on 3 as a substitute of 5 on 5, which is used to settle NHL playoff video games, is “not hockey anymore.”
“There’s a purpose additional time and shootouts are in play: It’s all TV-driven to finish video games, so it’s not a very long time,” Cooper stated, referring to how video games are settled within the league in the course of the common season. “There’s a purpose why (3 on 3) shouldn’t be within the Stanley Cup Ultimate or playoffs.”
Following the U.S. victory and earlier than the champagne and beer began flowing, gamers on the successful facet had no complaints.
“Proper now, I feel it’s nice,” Brock Nelson stated.
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
