Sunday was a great day for USA Hockey. 46 years from the Miracle on Ice, the men won gold after the women took care of business a few days before. The whole entire tournament was incredible to watch. The best players in the world on the biggest stage – I couldn’t have asked for anything more.
Here are my five biggest takeaways from USA winning gold:
1. I’m so proud to be an American
Every time I turn on the news – it’s so divisive. Our algorithms and the corporate media have us believing that we’re extremely divided, when in reality, I think Americans are a lot more aligned than we’re led to believe.
Watching the men and women win the gold medal, it showcased what hockey and our country are all about.
Unity. Sacrifice. Honor. Tradition. Resilience. Blue-collar effort. We over Me.
Both the men and the women had STAR POWER. But they won with culture. Togetherness. Buy in. Talent wins games but buy-in and culture wins championships. Both teams led the Olympics in TEAM DEFENSE, a testament to star players sacrificing offense and statistics for TEAM.
It was amazing to see our country come together to cheer on our players. People I know that have watched zero hockey games in their lives were texting me ecstatic about the game all day.
I love being an American. I’m blessed to have been born in this country. Watching our players put forth the collective effort to win gold gave me such a sense of pride in what our country and our game represents.
“E pluribus unum.”
Our country’s motto symbolizes our Olympic Hockey teams – “Out of many, one.”
The players chose to put the flag and each other above everything else. They were one collective group pulling the same rope, sacrificing for each other, and leaving it all out there for our country. And contrary to what our politicians and the corporate media tell us, THAT is as American as it gets.
2. There’s so much power to playing for something bigger than you
Two words: Johnny Gaudreau.
At the Olympics, you’re obviously playing for your country. The players have national pride and they want to put their best on display for the red, white, and blue. But this men’s team – they were connected by something deeper. And a big part of that was playing for their fallen teammate.
Those around the hockey world know how big of a loss Johnny Gaudreau was to the USA Hockey community and the hockey community at-large. He was largely known as a glue-guy, someone that every team would be lucky to have in their locker room. Full of positive energy and someone whose presence was contagious to everyone in the room.
I still can’t stop tearing up watching the video of the boys bringing his kids on the ice for the team picture. Or the shot of his parents in the stands after the win. Anyone who has played the game knows that hockey is the ultimate TEAM sport. Johnny Hockey was the ultimate TEAM player and even though he wasn’t out on the ice, he motivated those players from above to gold.
One of my favorite coaches to read is Phil Jackson. He was maniacal about getting his players to believe in the collective and playing for something bigger than yourself. It was his gift to players like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant who were larger than the game but had to learn that important lesson to win. If you haven’t read “Sacred Hoops” or “Eleven Rings” I highly recommend those books.
Too often in today’s day and age, youth sports is so focused on the individual and their journey. I think that’s a huge disservice to the kids coming up as it’s so great for their development to understand how to play for something bigger than you. It makes them better hockey players, it makes them better people, and it makes for a much better experience in the game.
Team USA, on both the men’s and women’s side, were a TEAM and playing for something bigger. That was on full display throughout the Olympics and something I’ll remember forever thinking back on these past few weeks.
3. Everyone has a different path
When looking at the roster construction of the teams – every player had a different path to the Olympics. The strongest example is MVP Connor Hellebuyck and team hero overtime hero Jack Hughes.
Jack Hughes was born to be a great hockey player. His mom and dad were stud hockey players and coaches, his brothers are stud hockey players, and he was the best all the way up to being the number one pick in the NHL draft.
Connor Hellebuyck did not play AAA, he played Michigan High School hockey. He didn’t make the top junior league, he played in the NAHL. He wasn’t recruited by the top colleges, he went to a lesser-known UMass Lowell and had a great career there. He started off in the AHL before he got his shot in the NHL.
Without these two players, USA doesn’t win that gold medal game.
Two very different paths, both a part of the greatest American team ever assembled.
We did a post looking at all 288 American born players that suited up in the NHL a few years ago. It’s a great window into how players got to the league. Everyone had a different path to getting there. If you want to learn more about it, check it out here.
4. The women absolutely DOMINATED
From Hillary Knight breaking the goal scoring record, to three American defensemen leading the tournament in scoring, to Aerin Frankel and company only giving up two goals in the entire tournament – this team was FUN TO WATCH.
They had an incredible mix of veteran players that had been there before with talented young players that made a huge impact.
As a father of three daughters, watching the team play with such passion and authority was so inspiring. And the best part was when my six-year-old looked at me and said I want to be in the Olympics like Kendall one day.
Some of the women on the team have been fighting for the growth of women’s hockey for years. Kendall Coyne-Schofield was our first ever podcast interview 7+ years ago and she talked so passionately about leaving the game better than where she found it. She talked of girls like mine have more opportunity than she did. Hearing my daughter say she wanted to be like Kendall one day validates their efforts are bringing results.
We also interviewed Caroline Harvey a few months ago, and she was phenomenal (on the podcast and obviously winning MVP of the whole Olympics!).
I also want to shout out John Wroblewski. He’s the head coach of Team USA that led them to the gold and also a former coach at the NTDP who developed a few of the players on the men’s side. He and his staff were phenomenal over the whole tournament.
There is a bright future for the women’s game here in the US. We’ve won the last eight games against the Canadians and USA Hockey is close to having over 100,000 women’s players registered, a milestone they’re gearing up for. This performance at the Olympics may have tipped the scale.
5. Praise for the NTDP and ADM
In terms of big swings that USA Hockey has made in its existence, creating the NTDP (National Team Development Program) and the ADM (American Development Model) were swings that were huge in propelling the teams to gold medals in Milan.
I remember 20+ years go when the team of players my age won World Junior gold for the first time ever. USA was eh, fine, in international competition. On the men’s side we won the World Cup in 1996, but that was the first big win since Miracle on Ice in 1980, and it took 46 years to win another Olympic gold.
USA Hockey leadership had to get creative to find ways to develop our players better. And they did.
First came the NTDP – getting a group of the best players in the country at 16-17 years old on a team and putting them through a different and challenging development experience. Starting in 1996, the NTDP didn’t really find it’s groove until a few years later and now we just saw 17 alumni from the program win gold in Milan.
There’s a debate in the hockey world about the value of the NTDP in regards to the growth of the game. Some would argue that allocating so much of USA Hockey’s dollars to 40+ players takes away potential opportunity to invest into the grassroots. I don’t know the financials, but it’s a fair argument.
However, the amount of people that texted or messaged me that they are going to put their kid in hockey after watching that gold medal game – I would pretty much guarantee we’ll see a spike of Learn to Skate and Learn to Play numbers in the coming weeks and months. I was getting those same messages after the USA/Canada Four Nations games too. America winning in international competition I think grows the game too and the NTDP certainly helped us win the gold.
And while the NTDP clearly showed value in developing top American talent, the ADM helped to develop the grassroots. USA Hockey rolled out the ADM in 2009 when golden goal scorer Jack Hughes was 8 years old, Olympic MVP Caroline Harvey was 7 years old, and All-Tournament player Laila Edwards was 5 years old.
The ADM redefined how we develop players in the US turning to principles like station-based practices, more focus on small-area games, and younger levels playing cross or half-ice hockey rather than full ice. These principles have so much to do with the depth and growth of American born talent. Using research-based systems proven to develop athletes of all sports around the world, the ADM is a shining example of development done right.
My fear is that we are now straying from the very ADM principles that helped us become the top hockey country in the world. The ADM encourages strong practice to game ratios, not narrowing the talent pyramid too early, age-appropriate programming, an emphasis on development over winning, and so many other values proven to develop players. And what we’re seeing in youth hockey now is the sport drifting away from those values.
We’re working our butts off to continue to help educate parents and leadership in youth hockey that ADM principles are the way to go and we’ll continue to shout it from the rooftops until we can’t breathe. USA Hockey’s dominance after the ADM was introduced should be the proof we need that it works.
I have one last message. To the politicians, media personalities, and social media keyboard warriors using the past few days to further divide people – get a life. The men and women winning should be all about unity, not division. This is a historic moment for our country and our sport, a moment that will undoubtedly grow our game, a moment that should bring us together.
Ellen Hughes, mom of Jack and Quinn, and also a player development consultant for the women’s team, said it best in the below interview:
“At the end of the day, it’s just about the country and the moment that these players, both the men and women, can bring so much unity to a group and to a country. People that cheered on that don’t watch hockey. People that have politics on one side or on the other side. And that’s all both the men’s team and the women’s team care about. If you could see what we see from the inside, and the men and women sharing dorm rooms and halls and flex floors, and the camaraderie and the synergy and the way that women cheered on the men and the way the men cheered on the women…that’s what it’s all about. And the other things they cannot control. They care about humanity, they care about unity, and they care about the country.
Go USA.
