‘Gold or bust’: U.S. ready for another men’s hockey test at Winter Olympics

Bill Guerin simply stated the quiet part out loud. 

With the NHL returning to the Olympics for the first time in 12 years, the silver medallist at the 2002 Games for the United States — and now his country’s general manager — has been tabbed with getting the Stars and Stripes back atop the field at a best-on-best tournament. 

Nothing short of gold in Italy will do. 

“We have to win,” Guerin told NHL.com in August. “We have to win another one of these.” 

The U.S., which hasn’t topped a showcase event involving NHLers since the 1996 World Cup of Hockey, also claimed silver in 2010 when Sidney Crosby scored Canada’s overtime golden goal on home soil at the Vancouver Games, but finished out of the medals in 1998, 2006 and 2014. 

The Americans also lost in the semifinals of the 2004 World Cup and chalked off three regulation losses at the 2016 event before again falling to its northern neighbour in the title game of last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off — an appetizer for the Milan Cortina Olympics — when Connor McDavid provided more Canadian extra-time heroics. 

USA Hockey, in short, is tired of playing second fiddle. 

“There’s an expectation that we can compete on a world stage with any country … and our expectation is that we’re going to win,” said U.S. head coach Mike Sullivan, whose day job is behind the bench with the New York Rangers. “That just is a tribute to how far hockey has come in the United States. 

“We had some real good players 25 years ago, but we probably didn’t have as many.” 

That talent includes Auston Matthews, Jack Eichel and two sets of brothers — Quinn and Jack Hughes, along with Matthew and Brady Tkachuk. 

“Just the belief and the confidence that he has in the group of Americans that we have going,” Matthews, captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs, said of Guerin’s comments. “All of us feel the same way. We feel like we’re up there and we should be competing for gold. 

“You want to be the best country in the world.”

The U.S. has been breaking down the door at almost every other level.

The women’s team won gold at the 1998 and 2018 Olympics to go along with four silver-medal performances (2002, 2010, 2014, 2022), while the men’s under-20 program captured the world junior hockey championship in 2024 and 2025. The senior men’s team then claimed last spring’s world championship crown for the first time in 92 years. 

“The biggest thing we need to do now is just get over the hump of winning at the biggest stage,” said Jack Hughes, a centre for the New Jersey Devils. “We were close at 4 Nations, but I think winning the Olympics, that would be massive and completely put us over the hump. That’s the expectation now.”

The Americans won men’s hockey gold in 1960 and 1980 — the latter included the so-called “Miracle on Ice” victory over the Soviet Union in the semifinals — long before it could send its top players.

“We’re not going over there to get second or third … our goal is pretty clear,” said Eichel, a centre for the Vegas Golden Knights. “Anything less than a gold medal would be, I don’t want to say a failure, but that would be disappointing. We’re going over there to win.”

Sullivan credited grassroots programs in non-traditional markets — Matthews, for example, grew up in Arizona — with helping the country’s push.

“There’s so many reasons for why it’s developed,” he said. “But at the end of the day, I think what it does suggest is that American hockey is as good as it’s ever been, and we’re developing players at a decent rate, just from a sheer numbers standpoint.”

The U.S. is in Group C at the 2026 Games with Germany, Latvia and Denmark. Group A includes Canada, Czechia, Switzerland and France. Sweden, Finland, Slovakia and Italy round out the field in Group B. Russia and Belarus continue to be banned from international competition because of the war in Ukraine.

The Americans open their tournament Feb. 12 against Latvia.

Utah Mammoth captain Clayton Keller, who wore the “C” and led the Americans to victory at the 2025 worlds, said the gauntlet was thrown down by Guerin at the program’s summer orientation session. 

“The time for USA Hockey is now,” Keller said. 

The U.S. will get a big boost in the form of Wild star Quinn Hughes after the defenceman missed the 4 Nations with an injury. The American roster is largely the same as that tournament, which meant the likes of Dallas Stars winger Jason Robertson, Montreal sniper Cole Caufield and Canadiens blueliner Lane Hutson all missed out. 

“Everyone knows we have the team,” Quinn Hughes said. “I don’t think anyone would be surprised if we won. That should be our goal — gold or bust. 

“Just like it is for Canada.” 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 1, 2026.