This narrative around the Team USA Olympic gold medal win is all about Canadian tears

It’s no secret that the narratives around Team USA’s win over Canada in the gold medal game on Sunday have lost their way. There will always be politics in these conversations, and it’s unfortunate that sports end up being used as points. However, we don’t want to dive into that here. There’s plenty of hockey to discuss, still.

And if you look north of the border, the Canadians are still talking hockey. In fact, many are bringing up whether the type of hockey that led to an American win should downplay the gold medal. Specifically, many are bringing up whether the fact that Jack Hughes' Golden Goal came during 3v3 play should diminish its impact.

Nobody is saying the USA win is less impactful or important. Hughes scored during the overtime period that had Cale Makar, Connor McDavid, and Nathan MacKinnon on the ice. Some would argue those are the three best players in hockey right now. And Hughes and Zack Werenski beat them all to win the gold medal.

Yet, the narrative out of Canada is this:

For this coming from a Canadian journalist, this is a very American take. It's what we expect to see after the Dallas Cowboys lose and how it's discussed on First Take or the Bill Simmons podcast the next day. Ironically, Simmons talked about it on his podcast this week, but that shows where this narrative comes from.

The rules were the rules coming into the Olympics. We knew that overtime would be determined by 3v3 hockey in the medal rounds. For those saying it's not proper hockey, can we remind you that Sidney Crosby's Golden Goal came at 4v4? There are rule changes every year, and this year, one of the big ones ended up mattering in the end.

Yes, the excuse for this will act like we're only talking about it because we're looking at future Olympics, but we don't believe that. This is only a conversation because Canada lost. If McDavid scored 3v3, the conversation around 3v3 hockey would be quiet, if not nonexistent. If Cale Makar got a slapshot past Connor Hellebuyck, we wouldn't be having a conversation about changing the rules for 2030.

And let's talk about the real reason we aren't treating this like the NHL playoffs, where it's continuous 5v5 until there's a winner. The NHL is probably really hesitant to send players if that's the rule.

Our last point is this: if Canada didn't like the overtime rules, they could have scored more than one goal in regulation. Connor Hellebuyck stole the show, but Nathan MacKinnon missed an open net, Connor McDavid and Macklin Celebrini failed on their breakaway attempts, and Devon Toews didn't lift the puck with the corner of a stick in his way of a goal. The Canadians had their opportunity, just like they did in the women's game that ended with a USA victory in overtime. They can regroup and hope for a revenge win in 2030.