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The NHL Gold Medal Hangover

The U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team’s exhilarating gold medal victory may be dampened by an inconvenient truth for the NHL: Olympic success hasn’t usually translated into ratings and attendance gains.

Olympics Hockey
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. Photo: Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
John Ourand
February 23, 2026

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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.