Nothing Is Better Than USA Hockey Bringing Johnny Gaudreau's Jersey Out Onto The Ice After Winning The World Championship For The First Time In 92 Years
Eurasia Sport Images. Getty Images.The IIHF World Championships is a tournament that is mostly just ignored in America. We get into the World Juniors. We care about the Olympics. But the World Championships always seems to be something that nobody in America really even knows is taking place.
Maybe that's because the tournament always occurs in the middle of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and teams are never able to have their best roster available since most guys are still playing. Or maybe, just maybe, it's due to the fact that Team USA hadn't won gold at the World Championship since 1933. They haven't even played in the gold medal game since 1952 if we're not counting the years where the Winter Olympics served as the World Championship. It's hard to give a shit about a tournament that you haven't even had a chance of winning in over 50 years. Just try being a Cleveland Browns fan.
But USA Hockey has been building over the years. You look at this roster they brought with them to Stockholm this year and it's filled with a bunch of guys who have had a ton of success playing for the USNTDP. Guys who have won gold at the U18 level. Guys who have won gold at the World Juniors. Guys who have won NCAA National Championships. This was a USA roster filled with a ton of championship pedigree that they've been developing over the years, and it finally paid off for the first time in damn near a century.
Tage Thompson. Just a 6'6" mutant born in Phoenix, Arizona. His old man is a good ol' boy from Calgary, but fortunately he was a member of the Coyotes when Tage was born. Shoutout to Gary Bettman for putting a team in the desert, because it has now led to one of the most important goals in American hockey history. America got to lay claim to TNT, and here he is 27-years later adding a World Championship gold medal to his collection with a U18 Worlds gold medal from 2015, and a World Juniors gold from 2017.
Now the unfortunate reality here is that these were the first World Championships to take place since the passing of John and Matty Gaudreau. John 100% would have been a member of this team, after how clear it was that he loved being one of the older guys on the roster last year. Being able to take guys under his wing and also enjoy a trip with some of his best friends like Kevin Hayes and Zach Werenski. He would have been a member on this team, and the gold medal game probably wouldn't haven needed to go to overtime because 13 would have put one in the back of the net earlier in the game. But Team USA wasn't going to touch that trophy or gold medal without having Gaudreau's jersey out on the ice with them.
Unbelievable moment for Team USA. Beautiful tribute to John and Matty Gaudreau. And I'm sure that Johnny is up there demolishing some celebratory ham & cheese sandwiches for the fellas.
13&21 forever. Now play Freebird!