When Jack Hughes scored his overtime goal against Canada, propelling the U.S. men’s Olympic ice hockey team to its first gold medal in 46 years this weekend, it seemed like the toothless wonder had achieved that rare monocultural breakthrough: Millions of Americans were watching the game across NBC’s platforms (official numbers will come out tomorrow), many of them in groups, all on a Sunday morning.

By evening, Hughes’s bloody, gap-toothed grin was everywhere, and not even a blizzard slamming into the Northeast could dim the glow. (Even Kash Patel showed up to slam brewdogs in the winning locker room.) Surely all the NHL had to do now was await an Olympic halo effect to boost TV ratings and attendance—both of which had already seen increases this season going into the break.

Alas, the league has been here before, and there’s little it can actually do to turn victory on the Milanese ice to its advantage. My partner Julia Alexander recently wrote about the NHL’s unexpected entrance into the zeitgeist and its long-term project of imbuing hockey games with as much intensity as steamy hockey soap operas. These opportunities not only exist, but also help explain why commissioner Gary Bettman is opportunistically trying to front-run the NFL in the media rights market. Yet many around the industry expect the league to descend into a post-Milan swoon as it reenters the usual gravitational dynamics of the early-spring TV schedule. “We’ve always been a big-event society in the U.S.,” said a sports business executive. “The reality is that there’s only so much leagues can do to market their sport in these cases.”

Just one year ago, for example, the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off between the U.S., Canada, Sweden, and Finland was a television hit—the final between the U.S. and Canada remains ESPN’s most popular hockey telecast, with 9.3 million viewers. But regular-season viewership still dropped by double digits last season, even with Nielsen changes that benefitted sports more than other genres. The last time NHL players participated in the Olympics, the league didn’t register any kind of bump.

The Games, of course, are a massive event that draws casual viewers and boosts national pride. And the U.S. gold medal slots perfectly into the league’s recent emphasis on international competitions, like the World Cup of Hockey and the 4 Nations Face-Off, both of which are jointly owned by the NHL and the Players Association. But NHL games rarely qualify as big events themselves.

Not every NHL owner gets Olympic fever either. In fact, owners have generally grown frustrated when their players compete in the Olympics and risk midseason injury by prioritizing patriotic glory over pertinent economic concerns. Kevin Fiala broke his leg representing Switzerland in Milan, and will miss the rest of the season just as his L.A. Kings are battling for a playoff berth. Penguins star Sidney Crosby had to sit out the gold medal game for the Canadian side because of a lower-leg injury sustained in an earlier game.

Owners also gripe that the I.O.C. forbids branding at a tournament stacked with NHL players. And forget about any media rights to broadcast Olympic highlight reels to help promote the league. Yet they put up with it because it matters to their players—so much so that it’s been a negotiating point in recent collective bargaining agreements. The league has committed to allowing players to compete in the 2030 Winter Olympics in the French Alps, and it’s hard to imagine they’ll draw the line at the 2034 Games, hosted by Salt Lake City—home to the newest NHL team, the Utah Mammoth. “It means so much to the players that they went to the bargaining table for it,” ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski told me.

Wyshynski believes that owners relented on the Olympics because the NHL has decided to embrace more lucrative eventized opportunities in international hockey—the World Cup, 4 Nations, and perhaps more. There’s speculation, for example, that the NHL could use the U.S.–Canada rivalry to create a Ryder Cup–style event. “What’s changed is that there’s more of a focus on taking a few things that are like the Olympics and figuring out how to be the only one who profits from them,” said Wyshynski. Unfortunately, the two countries have never been more divided. That’s not as alluring as an unexpected gay romance, perhaps, but it might serve as a good plotline.

The NBA’s real window: “With the NFL season and the Olympics behind us, and March Madness still weeks away, the NBA’s new broadcast partners face their first real ratings test across three key weekend windows: ABC Saturday night, ABC Sunday afternoon, and NBC’s Sunday Night Basketball. This past weekend featured the Knicks, Lakers, Celtics, and Warriors, all perennial ratings draws when healthy. In year one of this new TV deal, it will be worth watching whether the ABC windows face any cannibalization now that NBC offers a strong primetime alternative in a far more viewer-friendly slot.” —A sports business executive

On the problem with salary caps: “Salary caps are an utter disaster for sports, especially hard caps. This myth that they give everyone a chance, which is spun by owners and bought by people like the media executive you quoted, is pure fancy. The only people who will benefit from a salary cap are the owners. And MLB owners might not even benefit, because getting a cap will involve losing a season—and 1994 suggests a lot of fans won’t come back. Add that to increased competition from soccer, women’s basketball, the PGA Tour, and more, and losing games—let alone an entire season—would be a catastrophic blunder.” —A Varsity subscriber

On the power of sports: “New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s tweet about allowing bars to open early for the U.S.–Canada hockey game encapsulates it all. Live sports are one of the few things powerful enough to move government policy, change operating hours across an entire state, and bring communities together at 8 in the morning on a Sunday.” —A media executive

Have a great week. See you tomorrow.
John