Think about the American men’s Olympic hockey team and you probably think about a ragtag group of college kids triumphing against the odds in 1980.
But on Saturday night in Milan, it was the American team, stocked with N.H.L. stars, who were the unbeatable juggernaut. In contrast, Denmark was the ragtag group, filled with European-based players and only a handful of not-especially-notable N.H.L.ers.
For a while it looked like history could be repeating. Denmark went ahead, lost their lead, then scored again to go up by 2-1 at the end of the first period. Tempers flared when a frustrated Brady Tkachuk of the U.S. ended the period with a punch to Oliver Lauridsen. Perhaps somewhere a Danish announcer was preparing to yell: “Tror du på mirakler? Ja!”
But in the end, there would be no miracle. Goliath beat David. The U.S., led by a goal and an assist from Jack Eichel of the Golden Knights, fought off Denmark, 6-3, to go up 2-0 in the Olympic hockey tournament.
The game came with some geopolitical baggage, because President Trump has been signaling for over a year that he wants to annex Greenland, a Danish territory. Hours before the game started, the prime minister of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen, told an audience at a European security conference in Munich that “the pressure on Greenland is unacceptable.”
With the return of N.H.L. players to the Games for the first time since 2014, expectations for teams like the U.S. and Canada are high. The U.S. won’t want to find themselves trailing against teams that are better than Denmark as the games become more important.
Victor Mather, who has been a reporter and editor at The Times for 25 years, covers sports and breaking news.
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