So you’re wondering one day later if the final Olympic event ended fairly, and we’re here to tell you that it did. Sweden beat Switzerland in the women’s curling final, and there’s no disputing it.
But for those of you who stream and have mastered the difference between “live” and “not live,” the actual final event was the men’s hockey final, and you can ask the same question, as many Canadians are doing even as we speak. Was the U.S.’s 2-1 overtime victory the “right” outcome, and of course the answer to that is no. The overtime lasted only 101 seconds, which was an outrage against all living things.
The score, though, was hockey through and through, because the first rule of hockey has always been “my hot goalie beats whatever you’ve got.” The Canadians had the run of play almost throughout the day, but they didn’t have Connor Hellebuyck, the U.S. goalie and industrial refrigerator impersonator who kept the faster, craftier and more attack-driven Canadians at stick length for most of the game, though sometimes only at paddle length.
Hellebuyck stopped 41 shots although in real time it felt more like 60, and he, every bit as much as Half-Tooth Hughes, was the reason why the Americans were able to mock the concept of “run of play.” In fact, based on this expected goals stat provided by David Staples, the Canadians should have won the game 6-2. That makes Hellebuyck plus five by himself, and makes Cale Makar’s actual goal for Canada maybe the most improbable event of the entire Games.
This is perhaps particularly risible for Canadian viewers because Hellebuyck, who is regarded as the best goalie in the measurable solar system, has a reputation of Not Being That Guy in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, where his imposing shadow has not been enough to put the Winnipeg Jets past the second round since 2018, and his numbers reflect a goalie who is either (a) not big enough in the big moments or (b) not big enough to overcome the 18 galoots in front of him in the big moments. His reputation is reductively that of the great player who is never great enough to fix results in his team’s favor. But unlike Connor McDavid, who is particularly cursed in this milieu, Hellebuyck now has something to show for it.
And did we mention Winnipeg? You know, Winnipeg, Canada? The longitudinal center of North America and therefore as Canadian as it gets? They get Hellebuyck all the time, but they rarely get this Hellebuyck in big games. Fair or no, he catches the grief for crinkling the leaf on the flag because he hasn’t jump-started a Cup parade at Portage and Main.
We remind you here that in hockey, fair has nothing to do with it. Who can forget the 1981 Los Angeles Kings who beat the Minnesota North Stars despite being outshot 65-19? Well, everyone, as it happens because shots are a particularly tepid measurement of eventual results. Also because the North Stars got over it well enough to reach the Final. Sunday the right team won, despite Canadian star Nathan MacKinnon’s curt riposte—”You be the judge of who was the better team today”—because the team that won is the right team. “Better” is a whole different issue, designed mostly to serve as the national anthem before most bar fights.
All that was wrong about Sunday’s game is that it didn’t last nearly long enough. An indisputably sensational game should not end in a minute and 41 seconds. It should last awhile, building tension until it becomes agony until it becomes paralysis. Overtime is objectively good, more overtime is calculably better, and that equation grows exponentially with every additional period. That’s why even people who hate hockey acknowledge that the Stanley Cup is sports’ best entertainment value. If you can’t stay to watch a long overtime because your your kid fell out of a tree, or the pipe broke in your basement, or your shed just caught fire, go ahead and leave. You won’t be missed. Life is about choices. You do the best you can, and there is no law against bailing early. Just don’t snivel about it for the benefit of those of us who don’t. And to those who say, “But the players have to get home and get their rest before Wednesday’s big game in Vancouver,” shut all the way up. The plane will wait until everyone boards.
Which leads us to the other matter of fairness: 3-on-3 hockey in a championship game. That’s not taking the game seriously, even if all that open ice led to Jack Hughes’s winning goal. He has scored 115 even-strength goals in his NHL career; he’s got the hang of it. It’s not like he has to ask people to get out of the way so he can get his shot off. Do overtime right, and go all day. On this, Canadians and Americans agree, even if the Italians don’t.
As for Sunday, it was fine as is, and would have been just as fine if Jack Hughes had turned out to be Macklin Celebrini, or if Connor Hellebuyck had turned out to be Jordan Binnington. The game would have been just as fine had it been the Canadians sprawled on the ice for the victory photo. A great game is a great game and should not be restricted by small matters like citizenship—especially when you consider that as a practical matter the final score was actually the National Hockey League 2, the National Hockey League 1.
Recommended
