Five Takeaways from the NHL's Return to the Olympics
via Elsa, Getty Images The 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympics are officially in the books. What a finish it was for Team USA. Mikaela Shiffrin and Alysa Liu both brought home gold medals earlier in the week, and Megan Keller's golden goal against Canada gave the women's hockey team its third gold medal in program history. Then came Sunday, when Jack Hughes beat Canada in overtime to secure a Team USA-record 12th gold medal at the Winter Games. It was the perfect ending to what turned out to be an unforgettable tournament, and the best possible advertisement for what NHL-caliber best-on-best hockey can look like on the Olympic stage. Here are five takeaways from Milano-Cortina. 1. The NHL Needs to Make This a Priority Twelve years. That's how long it had been since NHL players competed at the Olympics, between a labor dispute in 2018 and COVID wiping out ...