It’s the gold commonplace now.
Staff USA alum made it loud and clear that its first Olympic males’s hockey championship for the reason that 1980 Miracle on Ice isn’t from hell freezing over this go-around, however as a substitute the results of what generations laid the groundwork for.
“USA Hockey has been constructing in direction of this since 1980,” Olympian Ken Morrow advised The Submit Sunday, including that he “by no means had any doubts” that the boys would earn gold once more.
Morrow, who obtained up at 6 a.m. for a raucous watch celebration Sunday, wasn’t the one one giddy to see the 2-1 extra time barn-burning, winner-take-all dogfight in opposition to Canada. It grew to become the height second of “pure pleasure” he’s shared with fellow “Miracle on Ice” members all through the 2026 video games.
“We’ve had a textual content thread going all through the Olympics,” Morrow mentioned. “It’s simply been nothing however ‘Go USA’ by all of it.”
Issues have been a household affair for a lot of former Staff USA members, about all of whom flooded the present males’s and girls’s rosters with assist letters, mentioned former two-time Olympian Pat LaFontaine of Lloyd Harbor.
“[My letter] was telling the blokes, ‘Seize the wheel and drive the bus. That is your time,’ mainly quoting the nice Herb Brooks,” mentioned LaFontaine, who’s assured the following males’s gold received’t have a 46-year wait.
Morrow, who received 4 Stanley Cups with the Islanders mere months after capturing gold, mentioned Brooks, head coach of the 1980 Staff USA, had impressed the present Staff USA’s “fashion that emphasised skating, pace, ability, puck possession.”
“I believe he could be very proud to see the place USA Hockey has come,” added the one-time Northport man, now a scouting director for the Islanders in Kansas Metropolis.
LaFontaine performed for post-miracle America, when public sentiment was not optimistic concerning the purple, white, and blue.
“Our era, we have been all the time advised, ‘the rationale they name it a miracle, was as a result of it was a miracle — you’ll by no means beat finest on finest,” mentioned the previous Islander, Sabre and Ranger.
“We had heard that for years.”
He didn’t win Olympic gold in 1984 or 1998, however silenced critics within the 1996 World Cup.
LaFontaine and teammates, together with present US normal supervisor Invoice Guerin and Keith Tkachuk — the dad of 2026 gold medalists Matthew and Brady — received first over the Canadians in a best-of-three ultimate.
Till Sunday, it was the final time the American males beat Canada for a gold.
“It was a few years of sacrifice to get to this subsequent era … Now the 2026 group, they’re carrying on the custom,” mentioned LaFontaine, who Morrow’s miracle group impressed as a teen and beat the Soviet Union on his birthday — the identical day America received gold in 2026.
“We’re sitting again right this moment with an enormous smile of satisfaction and a tear in our eyes, and are simply grateful for what the sport has meant to the USA.”
Each LaFontaine and Morrow additionally praised Lengthy Island’s Charlie McAvoy, whose defensive heroics helped fend off Canada’s relentless assault on a number of events throughout Sunday’s gold medal match.
“[He’s] blazing a path for extra Lengthy Island youngsters to comply with,” Morrow mentioned of the Boston Bruin from Lengthy Seashore.
“Many of those gamers will go on and possibly win a Stanley Cup, possibly win different championships, however that is the top.”
