By Michael Rosenberg
The hard part is over. Now comes … the harder part. The United States is 60 minutes away from the men's hockey gold medal. To win it, the Americans will have to beat the most talented team in the world.
U.S. vs. Canada on the final day of the Olympics? Yes, please.
Hours after Canada came back to beat Finland in one semifinal, the Americans dispatched Slovakia, 6–2, in the other. As at least one-third of American geography students can tell you, Slovakia is not Canada. But the Slovaks were the third-best team in this tournament. They beat Finland and Germany to get to the semifinal. The U.S. dominated them from the moment the puck dropped.
Dylan Larkin scored four minutes in. Tage Thompson one-timed a power-play goal over Slovak goalie Samuel Hlavaj's shoulder. Jake Guentzel scored off his skate. That's not legal, of course, and the goal was waved off ... but the Americans just said O.K., fine, we'll play by your silly little rules, and Jack Hughes and Jack Eichel scored 19 seconds apart to make it 4–0.
At that point, the Slovaks pulled Hlavaj, and American fans pulled a muscle just thinking about Sunday.
"It's the matchup everyone wanted," U.S. defenseman Zach Werenski said. "We didn't want to look ahead too far."
American forward Matt Boldy described Canada as "the team we wanted to play."
Between now and then, the U.S. team will surely watch the film that has inspired every American player for the last 40-plus years: Slap Shot. They might also mention 1980.
Werenski said he watched a Miracle on Ice documentary before he flew to Milan. It was not his first viewing.
"It definitely motivates us," he said. "We talked about it. We're well aware of it. I don't think it's pressure. I think it's exciting."
The first U.S. gold medal since 1980 would obviously not be a miracle. These are outstanding NHL players, not college kids. But the Americans will try to do something they have not done in any tournament in decades: Beat Canada in a elimination game.
Last year's 4 Nations Face-Off final went to overtime … but Canada won. The 2010 Olympic gold medal final went to overtime … but Canada won.
The Americans have beaten Canada. They just have not eliminated Canada.
Canada has the best team, even if Sidney Crosby misses the game with an injury. There is no question about that. If somebody said Canada had the world's best player (Connor McDavid), second-best player (Nathan MacKinnon), best young player (Macklin Celebrini) and best defenseman (Cale Makar) … well, it would be a lot easier to argue that case than argue against it.
But the Americans do not need to be better than Canada for a full season. They don't even need to be better than Canada for one afternoon. They just need to play well enough to give themselves a chance to win—and then take advantage of it. They are more than capable of that.
"We play against these guys all year," Werenski said. "So we're aware that we can definitely hang with them and play with them."
Werenski and Boldy both pointed out that the U.S. has gotten better as the tournament went on. For what it's worth: Canada has not. The Canadians came about as close as a team can possibly get to losing to Czechia in the quarterfinal and Finland in the semifinal.
Remember, this, too: If the U.S. has any advantage in this game, it is at the most important position in any elimination game.
Connor Hellebuyck has won the last two Vezina Trophies as the NHL's best goaltender; last year, he also won the Hart as the MVP of the league. Canada counters with Jordan Binnington, who has not received a single Vezina vote in six years and is in the midst of, by far, his worst season as a pro.
The Americans know they can beat Canada. But there is a large gap between knowing it and doing it. They have 60 minutes to close it.
"I'm not nervous yet," Werenski said. "Maybe that will change on Sunday."
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