A niche sport that is mostly beloved by the hard core rather than the casual fan unified a nation at 9 a.m. on Sunday, something that America’s most popular game — football — can never achieve.

Hockey, a sport that most Americans don’t completely understand and only a few have actually played, bonded a nation because for all of our ...Read more

The face of American hockey has a bloody lip, missing teeth and disheveled hair.

Jack Hughes represents the best of us. Grit, toughness, pride, the willingness to sacrifice for others, no matter how messy or irrational.

Forty-six years to the day of "The Miracle on Ice," the Americans transformed hockey into a three-hour anthem in Italy.

No ...Read more

MIAMI — They walked into the international arrivals area of Miami International Airport on Monday afternoon in various Team USA gear — some in gray or blue hoodies or jackets, others in red T-shirts.

The one piece of their outfits in common: The gold medal draped out their necks.

Just more than 24 hours after winning those gold medals at ...Read more

Milan-Cortina Olympics hero Jack Hughes is likely looking at a dental implant to replace teeth knocked from his mouth in the third period of the men's hockey final between the United States and Canada on Sunday.

Once the euphoria of scoring the winning goal in overtime subsides and celebrations cease, Hughes will undergo a surgical procedure ...Read more

Lindsey Vonn’s horrific leg injury was even more serious than originally realized.

The American skier said surgery saved her left leg from being amputated after she crashed during her downhill race on Feb. 8 at the Milano Cortina Olympics.

The complicated injury left Vonn with compartment syndrome in her leg, she said Monday in a four-minute...Read more

It is totally acceptable to be emotional, Minnesota.

We should be.

Especially when I drive around town and see, hear and talk hockey in the winter. Especially when I fly into Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport during the snowy times, look down during the approach and see backyard hockey rinks dotting the landscape. From 24-hour rinks ...Read more

The Cincinnati Reds earned the name “The Big Red Machine” in the 1970s, and particularly with back-to-back World Series titles in 1975 and ’76. A favored quip a few years later — as the Soviet Union was readying its hockey team to seek a fifth consecutive Olympic gold in the 1980 Games — was, “This is the ‘real’ Big Red Machine.�...Read more

MILAN — Arena di Verona, the ancient amphitheater built in the first century, has survived the Roman and Austrian empires, floods, earthquakes and World War II. Bull fights were staged at the arena for the entertainment of Napoleon Bonaparte, who later used the venue as a detention center for Austrian prisoners. The arena has seen gladiator ...Read more

VERONA, Italy — In fair Verona, L.A., unofficially, takes the torch.

While the Olympic flag passed from Italy to France at Sunday’s closing ceremony, handing off the Winter Games from Milan-Cortina to the French Alps, the flame will burn next in L.A.

In just over two years, the United States will host the country’s first Summer Games ...Read more

The dramatic Olympic gold medal win by the United States men’s hockey team on Sunday, which snapped a 46-year drought for the Americans, will be remembered forever.

But amid the celebrations and flowing tears of joy in Milan after Jack Hughes’ overtime goal against the Canadians, Team USA’s players had one of their fallen teammates at the...Read more

MILAN — Talk about a closing ceremony.

The final medals of the Milan-Cortina Games were handed out Sunday and these Olympics truly saved the best for last, with the U.S. men's hockey game grabbing the last gold with an epic 2-1 overtime win over Canada.

Of course it went to overtime. How else should a U.S.-Canada final end?

Jack Hughes, ...Read more

MILAN — William Shakespeare didn't attend the Milan-Cortina Winter Games, having died more than 400 years before they began. But he did use Italy as a backdrop in more than a third of his plays including "Romeo and Juliet," which he set in Verona, transforming a city once known for violent feuds between noble families into a locale synonymous...Read more

The toll of gold was on Jack Hughes’ face.

His lip was blood-stained, his front teeth missing, a casualty of a high stick that could have led to a much less dramatic ending for the United States.

Instead, the Americans went the white-knuckle route, and that’s how Hughes also wore the elation of victory at last.

Hughes became an instant ...Read more

Jack Hughes, Team USA’s overtime hero Sunday in a 2-1 win over Canada in the Olympic men’s hockey gold medal game, is more than just Minnesota Wild defenseman Quinn Hughes’ younger brother.

Jack Hughes, 24, was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 NHL draft by the New Jersey Devils and has 387 points in 404 NHL games. He is the only Hughes ...Read more

WALLINGFORD, Conn. — The U.S. claim to the gold medal in women’s hockey at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, so promising when the day began, was in grave danger. Canada had but 2 minutes, 4 seconds to kill to take it away.

Team USA, which had outscored previous opponents 31-1 five games, pulled the goalie in desperation for one score to ...Read more

This gold-medal game, after these Olympics, feels greedy.

The NHL’s return to the Winter Games in Italy has gone exactly as expected: mismatches and meltdowns with late-game heroics and early-tournament surprises from a generation of men’s hockey stars who are as proud as they are elite. What’s transpired over the past 11 days has been a ...Read more

When they eventually install microcameras into the corneas of our eyes, we’ll still be watching this hockey highlight.

This was Kerri Strug vaulting on one leg in 1996. Bob Beamon shattering the long jump record in Mexico City in 1968. Sid the Kid in 2010, only much, much cooler.

It was more than historic. It was iconic.

In overtime of the ...Read more

MILAN — He's as smooth as a bobsled track and sharp as a skate blade.

Snoop Dogg, the rap rapscallion who puts the OG in Olympic Games, plopped down on a couch in the NBC green room and muted the TV. It's exhausting being everywhere at all times at the most spread-out Winter Games in history.

Whether he was carrying the Olympic torch, skiing...Read more

MILAN — Canada and the United States meet Sunday in a men’s hockey game that has been played in the hearts and minds of the two countries for decades.

Played out in the lounge of the Empire Hotel and the Barn Hockey Bar in Chicago.

Played out on indoor rinks from North Vancouver to Scottsdale to Newmarket and suburban Boston, on Lake ...Read more

There’s something refreshing about the 2026 Winter Olympic Games.

Strangely, it’s not the sports.

Don’t get me wrong: the sports are great. Figure skating is a fickle marriage of athletic precision, artistic expression and unflinching mental fortitude. Hockey is 60 minutes (or more) of concentrated physicality. Curling is an ...Read more