Canada finds no solace in second place after 2-1 Olympic hockey loss to USA

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This article was published 22/02/2026 (194 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MILAN — There were no silver linings for Canada. No solace in second place. No comfort or salvation in what coulda, shoulda been.

Sure, you could argue they deserved a better fate, given how much they controlled play for large stretches of Sunday’s gold-medal clash against the United States. But hockey can be cruel that way.

The final scoreboard — United States 2, Canada 1 — is ultimately all that mattered.

As players quietly shuffled through the mixed zone Sunday evening, solemn and stunned, heads down, barely noticing the silver medals hanging around their necks or the small plush Olympic souvenir mascots they’d been handed moments earlier, the sense of heartbreak was palpable.

You could hear it in the few who stopped to speak, struggling to find the words. None more so than Nathan MacKinnon, haunted by a missed opportunity midway through the third period.

“Sad. Disappointed. Just couldn’t finish, didn’t have that touch. I missed a wide-open net,” he said.

”I thought we generated so many looks. It felt like it really wasn’t meant to be. It felt like a really good opportunity slipped away. It’s going to be a long time before we can try to get this one back, and obviously with a much different team, I’m sure. So it’s just sad, for sure.”

Winnipegger Mark Stone was practically talking in a whisper, the disappointment written all over his face.

“It sucks. It really sucks,” he said.

“I thought it was one of our best games of the tournament. Thought we really controlled the majority of the game. We just couldn’t get that extra goal.”

Canada sure had its chances, including a 5-on-3 for 93 seconds that shockingly came up empty in the second period. Then, another chance on the man advantage in the dying minutes of the third period, with the likes of MacKinnon, Connor McDavid, Macklin Celebrini, Cale Makar and Sam Reinhart unable to click.

“At the end of the day, we didn’t capitalize. We didn’t bury our looks,” said Celebrini, the 19-year-old phenom who had a tournament to remember despite the unfortunate way it ended.

“I didn’t bury the looks I had. Had a lot of good guys set me up and I couldn’t finish.”

Devon Toews had the best chance of all, only to be robbed by American goaltender Connor Hellebuyck.

“We had a great game, had a great tournament. We were trying to get this one for our country and for this group here,” said Toews.

“Hockey’s such a cruel game, it’s hard to win at every level. You can control play all you want, but you have to score goals, and (Sunday) we just weren’t able to.”

Adding to the sense of “what if” was the fact Canada — which had to replace the injured Brayden Point and Anthony Cirelli before the Olympics began — was without two more key players who went down during the Games.

Captain Sidney Crosby was unable to recover enough from a lower-body injury he suffered in Wednesday’s quarterfinal against Czechia, despite Herculean efforts on behalf of himself and team doctors and trainers.

“He didn’t think he could battle properly and do the little things he felt like he needed to do,” said MacKinnon.

“So it was tough for him to not play, because he could have just said he wanted to play just for himself, but he put the team and country first, like he always does. But it definitely sucks not having our leader in there.”

Crosby, who scored the golden goal the last time these two countries met for Olympic gold in Vancouver 2010, said he wrestled with the decision, especially knowing this could be his last Olympics.

“Obviously in your head you always want to be out there and find every way possible. But not at the expense of what needs to be done,” said Crosby.

“(Final Olympics) might’ve crossed my mind a little bit. But ultimately I think it was about what’s best for our group and what gives us the best chance to win. If I’m not able to go, I’m not gonna compromise our team, put myself ahead of that. Might’ve crossed my mind but ultimately that’s not how you make your decision.”

His good friend and Canadian teammate, Brad Marchand, said the group tried to rally around Crosby.

“You feel bad letting a guy like that down,” he said. “Just one of the best ever to play, one of the best leaders to ever play the game. Wish we could have got it done for him.”

Then there’s the case of Jets defenceman Josh Morrissey, whose Olympics ended before they really got going. Morrissey suffered an upper-body injury in Canada’s first game against Czechia and never fully recovered. He looked close to a return last week, only to suffer a setback.

“In the end if you’re not physically able to do it — and the one selfless thing about this team and the way I’ve watched these players…when it comes to the flag, nobody’s getting in the way,” said Canadian coach Jon Cooper.

“If they’re not capable of giving what they think is optimal effort, they don’t want to put the country at harm. They understand what we have here. Josh, in the end, he just wouldn’t be able to perform at what he could. We made the decision.”

Making this even more difficult is the fact Morrissey missed last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off Final with illness.

“Oh my gosh. That’s a tough one,” said Cooper. “This is (the second time) in a year now we’ve had the same conversation and I feel for him. He’s just an all-world kid and hell of a hockey player.”

Morrissey will bring one of four silver medals back to Manitoba, along with Stone, Winnipegger Seth Jarvis and Elkhorn’s Travis Sanheim.

The Games are over but debate will no doubt continue about the roster Canada took to Italy, especially when they ultimately came up a goal short.

Might a Mark Scheifele or a Connor Bedard up front or a Matthew Schaefer or Evan Bouchard on the back end have made a difference? We’ll never know.

“It’s extremely disappointing. You dream about these moments, and it didn’t go our way,” said forward Sam Bennett, who took a four-minute high-sticking penalty in the third period which Canada ultimately killed off. “The team pushed. We gave everything we had, and unfortunately, it wasn’t enough.”

Added veteran defenceman Drew Doughty, who most certainly just played in his final Olympics: “Shocking. I really thought we played a hell of a game. I thought it was going to turn out different.”

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