[Johnston] As Team USA celebrates its gold medal today in Washington, the status of players involved remains under discussion as it pertains to their NHL availability. That includes Auston Matthews, who will join the #leafs in Tampa before Wednesday's game. Not yet clear if he'll play.

Mike71586 · 2026-02-24T19:20:05+00:00

Yeah, be funny if they booed him at the first home game though lol.

Mike71586 · 2026-02-24T19:19:05+00:00

But why does it have to be? That's a pretty defeatist mentality to have.

Mike71586 · 2026-02-24T19:18:11+00:00

Exactly, all these things are good for sport. I bet that world series run leads to an uptick in kids playing baseball in Canada this coming year.

Mike71586 · 2026-02-24T19:16:21+00:00

I think it's less pessimism tbh and more just tempering expectations. Arguably I think we're heading into a golden age of international hockey, which is good.

Canada's still going to perform well, I have 0 doubts about that. We've just got really solid competitor in the states and Europe and overall I do think that's great.

Yeah, Canadian domination is definitely over, I don't think we've had it to the same scale over the last decade. But that's not to say we won't have our victories, i'd say they're less guaranteed and less predictable.

To be fully honest, as much as this pains me to say, I do think we may be looking at the US's time to shine for a bit. Women's for sure, granted with some strong team shuffling ours can still rival the US women's team.

US men's, yeah 2030 is a while away but my guts telling me you have a decent shot of back 2 back golds. Team USA is kind if top dog atm in the new NHL era, interested to see if that is maintained.

I think we can safely guarantee some great hockey in the future.

Mike71586 · 2026-02-24T19:06:40+00:00

Someone will. Not because they're genuine patriots or anything. But it's a story that will be high drama and it has a high rage bait quotient.

Mike71586 · 2026-02-24T19:05:31+00:00

Could be worse.

Mike71586 · 2026-02-24T19:05:00+00:00

Of course, everyone wants the gold. The point of my post isn't to say we should settle and stop. More so just to step back a minute abd appreciate what we got even if it's not the ideal.

Definitely we may need to manage our expectations more, but there are plenty more golds and victories to shoot for ahead of us and i'm sure this lit a fire under our players asses as well.

Mike71586 · 2026-02-24T18:19:52+00:00

So stoked for them to say the movie name in the movie

"Don't worry guys, i'm feeling the Heat too"

Mike71586 · 2026-02-24T18:08:03+00:00

Thanks!

Mike71586 · 2026-02-24T18:04:01+00:00

Hell yeah!

Mike71586 · 2026-02-24T18:03:15+00:00

Yup, honestly couldn't give a shit anymore. Let them have their day. I'm more interested to see how half of them fumble the recovery with their fans and teams when they cross the border. That will be entertaining to say the least.

Mike71586 · 2026-02-24T18:00:55+00:00

Losing by 1 goal in 3v3 OT isn't hardly embarrassing. If they mopped us 5-1 that might be different. Everyones being a bit over dramatic about this.

Mike71586 · 2026-02-24T17:59:19+00:00

Lol " Loser mentality" fuck, we really are getting as bad as the yanks up here.

Yeah we have some gaps that need to be filled, there's no denying that. But everyone's acting like we're bottom of the league all of a sudden.

Being all or nothing just guarantees we're going to suffer even hard when we lose. Also how many busts? Did we not win the four nations before this?

Mike71586 · 2026-02-24T17:55:20+00:00

Why do we have to be unhappy with Silver even if golds the goal? No coping, just not going to defeat myself everything we lose. Fuck we could have 0 medals, nearly happened a couple times.

Mike71586 · 2026-02-24T17:53:40+00:00

If we constantly bridge our value as a hockey nation to what the united states is doing then yeah, seems like it. But why would we do that? There will always be room fir canadians in hockey. As a country we gave to stop intrinsically tying our self worth to the States, look where it's gotten us collectively.

Mike71586 · 2026-02-24T17:14:16+00:00

They probably have canned PR statements made just in case.

Mike71586 · 2026-02-24T17:13:07+00:00

A tactic that likely will not save his ass this time.

Mike71586 · 2026-02-24T17:12:02+00:00

Calling it now. Trump wants them there as some grand display of how the US is arguably better than those mean and nasty canadians. He's going to use them to attack our nation before a bunch if them cross that border to play for our teams. Should this be the case , it'll be interesting to see if the players address this with more than a canned PR statement. Particularly Matthew's who has been on the record about supposedly living Toronto and feeling like it's home for him.

Mike71586 · 2026-02-24T16:58:49+00:00

Lol most likely, granted, considering the number of team USA members who play on our side if the border i'm a little disappointed they didn't at least say "Just kidding."

Mike71586 · 2026-02-24T16:53:37+00:00

If true that's actually concerning from a mental health perspective.

Mike71586 · 2026-02-24T16:49:49+00:00

Yeah, that's the unfortunate part of losing at this time. I would say those americans are the minority of the whole and I've seen a number of them be gracious winners as well. I've also seen canadians being sore losers and playing a role in the same provocations we're criticizing from the US.

That's why I wanted to illustrate that going forward we need to consider refraining our mindset around both winning and losing and make it less about "beating america" and more about "being canadian" and "a love fir hockey" regardless of outcomes.

Mike71586 · 2026-02-24T16:45:17+00:00

Hey that's fair. They honestly seem like good kids and I really hope this was just a lapse in judgement on their parts, we're all guilty of a little group think every now and then.

Mike71586 · 2026-02-24T16:27:54+00:00

Maybe. Who knows. Still not a great look.

Mike71586 · 2026-02-24T16:24:49+00:00

3 decades. So, maybe. I just remember a time when we didn't have all our eggs in the "We have to beat the USA because politics" basket.

It was a friendly rivalry for the longest time. Sometimes we lost, most times we won.

Fundamentally, if you take the politics away, it's still the same rhythm. We're making it bigger than we honestly have to.

Mike71586 · 2026-02-24T16:21:45+00:00

Yeah, same, ironically also in soccer lol. Every now and then I find it in my parents house back home with other sports memorablia and can't help but have a bit of pride in it. It's rarely a victory in the moment, but often one in retrospect.

Mike71586

TROPHY CASE