U.S. Olympic ice hockey has all the time been measured by the famed 1980 Winter Olympics “Miracle on Ice” squad, and there are large hopes once more as each the American women and men’s ice hockey groups for subsequent month’s Video games have been introduced.
On Friday, Jan. 2, the rosters set to compete on the 2026 Winter Olympics at Milan and Cortina had been revealed on The At the moment Present by gamers Jack Hughes, Laila Edwards and Declan Farmer.
The Olympics will formally start on Friday, Feb. 6, and NBCUniversal is about to cowl the video games as soon as once more with a whole bunch of hours of protection throughout numerous platforms. Hockey will take heart stage. In keeping with Workforce USA Hockey, the U.S. ladies’s workforce will open with preliminary Olympic competitors in opposition to Czechia on Feb. 5 and the boys’s workforce will debut taking part in Latvia on Feb. 12.
The American males’s workforce is in search of its first gold medal since 1980, when it shocked the world by beating the Soviet Union after which defeating Finland on the Lake Placid, New York Winter Olympics.
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New Jersey Devils star Jack Hughes, who made the 2026 workforce, instructed NBC’s TODAY, “We received a very good group of younger hungry Individuals that haven’t performed within the Olympics earlier than,” noting that NHL gamers will probably be within the Video games for the primary time since 2014. Jack’s brother Quinn Hughes, now on the Minnesota Wild, may also be on the boys’s Olympic hockey workforce. As well as, one other set of siblings will go for the gold! Florida Panthers star Matthew Tkachuk and his brother Brady Tkachuk of the Ottawa Senators had been named to the squad. It’s the primary time since 1960 that two units of brothers will probably be on a U.S. Males’s Olympic hockey workforce.
In the meantime, the U.S. girls’ workforce has received a medal in each Olympics since 1998, when ladies’s hockey was launched as a sport within the Video games.
Learn on to search out out extra about U.S. hockey and who’s on the groups!
Who will coach the groups?
Followers will see NHL Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Rangers head coach Mike Sullivan because the U.S. males’s workforce’s head coach. It is going to be a household affair as his son-in-law, Boston Bruins participant Charlie McAvoy, will play on the squad.
As Workforce USA Hockey introduced in December, John Wroblewski (Neenah, Wis./USA Hockey) will function head coach of the U.S. Olympic Girls’s Ice Hockey Workforce for the primary time.
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Which gamers ought to excel on the boys’s squad?
Jack Hughes, 24, who’s nursing a right-hand damage he suffered in November, wore a brace on it on the roster reveal. Nevertheless, as ESPN reported, coach Sullivan mentioned, “Jack is a novel participant together with his means to drive offense…we now have had conversations round utilizing Jack within the center at this Olympic expertise, and we’ll proceed to have these conversations main as much as the primary recreation.” Nevertheless, ESPN believes extra within the different brother act, saying, “the Tkachuks are the guts and soul of this workforce.”
However Olympics expertise might repay. The 2026 U.S. Olympic Males’s Ice Hockey Workforce consists of two gamers with Olympic expertise in Jake Sanderson (Whitefish, Mont./Ottawa Senators) and Brock Faber (Maple Grove, Minn./Minnesota Wild). Each performed for the U.S. in Beijing 2022.
Who stands out on the ladies’s workforce?Laila Edwards, 21, a senior on the College of Wisconsin, has achieved a milestone. She is going to turn into the primary Black girl to compete on the Olympics for the U.S. in ladies’s hockey.
Leila Devlin/Getty Photos
Workforce veteran Hilary Knight, 36, is also having a watershed second. The captain of the PWHL’s Seattle Torrent will probably be on the American Olympics workforce for the fifth time, probably the most for any U.S. participant, male or feminine.
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What was the “miracle on ice”?
It’s probably the most well-known triumph in Winter Olympics historical past. In 1980, on the top of the Chilly Warfare, a ragtag group of American beginner hockey gamers took on the perfect on the planet on the Winter Olympics, together with the mighty USSR workforce. The blokes weren’t anticipated to do properly, however impressed by coach Herb Brooks, they beat Russia 4-3 after which Finland 4-2 to win the gold medal.
Late within the recreation wherein the U.S. beat the Soviet Union, ABC announcer Al Michaels delivered the enduring line, “Do you imagine in miracles?” The reply was sure as America embraced the unlikely heroes.
Two main motion pictures had been made in regards to the workforce: the 1981 TV film Miracle on Ice wherein Karl Malden performed Brooks, and the 2004 theatrical movie Miracle starring Kurt Russell because the beloved hockey coach.
What’s the USA Males’s Hockey 2026 Olympics Roster (of 25)?
- Matt Boldy
- Kyle Connor
- Jack Eichel
- Brock Faber
- Jake Guentzel
- Noah Hanifin
- Connor Hellebuyck
- Jack Hughes
- Quinn Hughes
- Seth Jones
- Clayton Keller
- Dylan Larkin
- Auston Matthews
- Charlie McAvoy
- J.T. Miller
- Brock Nelson
- Jake Oettinger
- Jake Sanderson
- Jaccob Slavin
- Jeremy Swayman
- Tage Thompson
- Brady Tkachuk
- Matthew Tkachuk
- Vincent Trocheck
- Zach Werenski
What’s the USA Girls’s Hockey 2026 Olympics Roster (of 23)?
- Ava McNaughton
- Aerin Frankel
- Gwyneth Philips
- Lee Stecklein
- Cayla Barnes
- Caroline Harvey
- Megan Keller
- Rory Guilday
- Haley Winn
- Laila Edwards
- Kirsten Simms
- Kelly Pannek
- Grace Zumwinkle
- Hayley Scamurra
- Britta Curl-Salemme
- Hilary Knight
- Tessa Janecke
- Hannah Bilka
- Pleasure Dunne
- Alex Carpenter
- Kendall Coyne Schofield
- Taylor Heise
- Abbey Murphy
Subsequent, Olympic trivia!
