{"id":461681,"date":"2026-02-18T05:06:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T05:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/461681\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T05:06:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T05:06:19","slug":"auston-matthews-led-team-usa-team-faces-heat-as-fan-moment-goes-sideways-in-milan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/461681\/","title":{"rendered":"Auston Matthews led Team USA team faces heat as fan moment goes sideways in Milan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p>PUBLICATION<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagohockeyinsider.com\/collaborators\/sam-walker\" class=\"lediv\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sam Walker<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFebruary 17, 2026\u00a0\u00a0(10:08)<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t  &#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/642927.webp.webp\" style=\"width:100%;\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Team USA players ignoring American fans at Olympics\" title=\"Team USA players ignoring American fans at Olympics\"\/>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>Photo credit: Screenshot X<\/p>\n<p>Auston Matthews, Team USA, and Olympics hockey fans are catching flak after a cold-looking exit that hit social media fast.<\/p>\n<p>Two short clips made the rounds out of Milan, and the contrast is the whole story.&#13;<br \/>One video shows Team Canada lingering, tapping gloves, signing, and giving the crowd something back.<\/p>\n<p>The other shows Team USA stepping off with way less engagement after the Denmark game, and people noticed.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not a crisis, but it\u2019s the kind of thing that sticks when ticket prices are brutal and fans travel across the world.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s Canada&#8217;s interaction with their fans:<\/p>\n<p>The timing is rough because the Americans are winning, and winning teams get held to a higher standard.<\/p>\n<p>Team USA beat Denmark 6-3 on Saturday, and they had to work for it after a messy start.<\/p>\n<p>Jack Eichel drove the push with 1-1-2, and the U.S. got goals from Brady Tkachuk, Matt Boldy, Noah Hanifin, Jake Guentzel, and Jack Hughes.<\/p>\n<p>That win put the Americans at 2-0-0-0 in the group, exactly where they want to be.&#13;<br \/>Auston Matthews and Team USA feel the spotlight<\/p>\n<p>Honestly, fans can handle a bad shift, but they hate a vibe that feels dismissive.<\/p>\n<p>Matthews wears the \u201cC\u201d for a reason, and Mike Sullivan is the adult in the room, so the spotlight lands on them first.<\/p>\n<p>Even if the players were gassed, distracted, or just missed the moment, optics matter at the Olympics.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s how USA greeted their fans after a loss:<\/p>\n<p>Canada\u2019s clips created a simple expectation, and the U.S. clip looked like the opposite.<\/p>\n<p>This is the easy fix, though.<\/p>\n<p>Next game, you take ten extra seconds, you make eye contact, you toss a puck, and the whole thing disappears.<\/p>\n<p>If Team USA keeps stacking wins, this becomes a footnote, but the crowd will remember who treated them like they mattered.<\/p>\n<p>Previously on Chicago Hockey Insider<\/p>\n<p>POLL<\/p>\n<p>13 HOURS AGO|27 ANSWERS<\/p>\n<p>Auston Matthews led Team USA team faces heat as fan moment goes sideways in Milan<\/p>\n<p>Should Auston Matthews change how Team USA greets Olympics hockey fans?<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PUBLICATION Sam Walker February 17, 2026\u00a0\u00a0(10:08) &#13; &#13; &#13; Photo credit: Screenshot X Auston Matthews, Team USA, and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5115],"tags":[532,521,37,96,5263,5,181,4,3255,31,56002],"class_list":{"0":"post-461681","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-blackhawks","8":"tag-auston-matthews","9":"tag-blackhawks","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-blackhawks","12":"tag-chicagoblackhawks","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-hockey-news","15":"tag-nhl","16":"tag-team-usa","17":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs","18":"tag-usa-vs-denmark"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116089899680527339","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}