#olympic-hockey

#olympic-hockey

The Kash Patel thing is so annoying because it's just like, can you just let them have a victory? You know, the second you it's so selfish. Like, the second you insert yourself in the room, it becomes culture war, and it's like, let America have this great victory. These guys play their fucking asses off.

Waking up in time to watch the Olympic Hockey Gold Medal Game and not having to get out of bed to witness the US victory over Canada (because I could stream the game on my phone) was a nice technology win. It is the first US men's hockey gold medal win since 1980. To say it is long overdue would be an understatement. And now that I'm thinking of it, you know who else won a championship in the 1980s.

In that time, they've reached the final twice, both times in North America, and lost both of them. The US men have never won gold outside their home country. The famous win was, of course, in 1980. They also won in 1960. Share NBC, meanwhile, has brought out 1980 men's hockey legend Mike Eruzione to talk about what it means to play for the USA. He says this is the best US team ever assembled.

Gov. Kathy Hochul said she wants all New Yorkers to be able to get together to cheer on Team USA in the men's hockey final at the Olympics, so she's allowed bars and restaurants to open early just for the occasion. Just not for New York City. Or anywhere under the state of emergency she declared on Saturday ahead of the storm. The governor said in a statement that she is suspending alcohol service hours enforcement on Sunday between the hours of 6 a.m.-10 a.m.

Megan Keller was a 21-year-old next-big-thing-on-defense when she won her first Olympic gold medal, in Pyeongchang, the winter before her senior year of college. She was also very nearly the reason her team lost it. The refs whistled her for an illegal hit on Canadian captain Marie-Philip Poulin late in overtime, and her teammates spent 95 chilling seconds on the penalty kill atoning for her sins.

The US Supreme Court has struck down much of the Trump administration's tariffs on foreign goods, which have been a cornerstone of its trade and foreign policies. Also, Iran prepares for a possible US military strike. And, the International Energy Agency has removed climate change from its list of priorities for the next two years, following threats from the US

In overtime, the two teams traded chances, without many of them materializing into anything high-danger. That is, until Minnesota Wild defenceman Quinn Hughes took advantage of some space on the ice and wired home the overtime winner at 3-on-3. Matthews picked up an assist on the play, bringing him to six points in four games to lead the United States in scoring at the tournament thus far.

No one on the team was alive the last time the U.S. won gold in 1980. Now this team has a chance to end that drought after beating Sweden 2-1 in overtime Wednesday to advance to Friday's semifinals, where they will play Slovakia. The win was the Americans' first over Sweden in an Olympic tournament in nine games dating to 1960.

I was able to get it into a spot that I could get it off my stick and into a spot that had a chance to go in and luckily it did,

No. 8 seed Czechia gave them everything they could handle in the quarterfinals, as Canada needed a late game-tying goal from Nick Suzuki and a decisive game-winning goal in overtime from Mitch Marner to move on to the semifinals via a 4-3 win. The game featured many critical pivot points, perhaps none more important for the game -- and the future -- than Sidney Crosby sustaining a lower-body injury in the second period that kept him out for the duration.

Checking back in on Olympic hockey, where the U.S. women are in the midst of an epic run that can only be described as dominant. Through the entire Olympics, teams have collectively scored just one goal against the Americans. That's right. One goal. That includes America's closest rival on the ice, Canada. America beat Canada 5-0 in the round robin play, a game Canada certainly remembers and will be using as fuel on Thursday.

"I think that one of the unique things about Willy is he can play with good players and highly-skilled players, and we did talk about that, even dating back to pre when I was here. His ability to play with some of the most talented [players], whether it was Nick Backstrom, so we just had some good conversations about him being able to play that [role]."

With Kevin Fiala now ruled out for the remainder of the Olympics and the 2025-26 regular season, it's fair to not only assume that Switzerland's previously-decent medal chances might be chased, but that the Los Angeles Kings could very well suffer the consequences of the injury as well. I'm not going to say much about the injury at the end of the Canada-Switzerland game. But for those of you that didn't watch, all I will say is that the injury was unwatchable.

Entering Saturday's action, Sweden needed to win by three goals or greater to secure the top place in Group B. Slovakia won its previous two games, and held a commanding divisional lead. Dalibor Dvorsky scored for Slovakia with 39 seconds left, to preserve its entry into the quarterfinal. If Finland defeats Italy in regulation, Slovakia will capture Group B. Any other result, and Sweden will win the group.

The 28-year-old netminder secured his first-ever Olympic win in a 24-save effort for the Canadians on Friday. Thompson made 24 total saves in the 5-1 victory over Switzerland, pushing Canada atop Group A with two wins from two games. Thompson's best save of the game was perhaps his first, robbing Nino Niederreiter on a 3-on-1 Swiss chance with just 1:24 elapsed from the first period.

This game opened exactly how you'd like to see the first game of a big tournament start, with some physical engagement. It began in warmup with Tom Wilson's antics patrolling the center-ice line, and then it carried over to start the game. Two of Canada's best players, Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon, set the tone with two big hits - first, a MacKinnon reverse hit on Michael Kempny, and then McDavid absolutely lined up and destroyed Lukas Sedlak.

The handful of times Binnington got tested, he was there to make the save. Before Celebrini scored, Binnington kept it 0-0 by making a left-pad stop on Michal Kempny and reaching out to smother David Kampf's rebound attempt. At the other end of the ice, Dostal played well but was helpless to slow down much of the onslaught. There was nothing he could do on the Sidney Crosby to Connor McDavid to Nathan MacKinnon tic-tac-toe power-play goal in the third period.