{"id":466124,"date":"2026-02-21T21:53:31","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T21:53:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/466124\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T21:53:31","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T21:53:31","slug":"american-born-oilers-torn-between-uncle-sam-and-captain-mcdavid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/466124\/","title":{"rendered":"American-born Oilers torn between Uncle Sam and Captain McDavid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Uncle Sam? Or Captain Connor?<\/p>\n

Who do they cheer for?<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s gold medal game between Canada and the United States will be a morning of emotional conflict for a handful of American-born Edmonton Oilers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On one hand they are deeply proud of their home country and want to see the U.S. capture its first Olympic title since the Miracle on Ice in 1980. On the other hand, they know how much this means to Connor McDavid<\/a> and would hate to see their leader return to the Oilers after a heartbreaking defeat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want America to win, I\u2019m an American through and through,\u201d said forward Jack Roslovic, a native of Columbia, Ohio. \u201cBut I was talking to the guys about it today and I would really like to have Connor come back in a good mood.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo for me it\u2019s a win-win, to be honest. I\u2019m excited for him from an individual standpoint and from a country standpoint I want the USA to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, no matter what happens, the American Oilers will have something to be happy about, it just remains to be seen whether they\u2019re celebrating for their country or for their captain.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of a balance, all of the guys here are obviously really close with Davo and we have a lot of Canadians in the room, you can definitely feel a shift that way,\u201d defenceman Spencer Stastney of Woodbridge Illinois, adding the dressing room chirps are heating up as the game gets closer.<\/p>\n

\u201cA few of us American guys are getting it from them, but first and foremost we\u2019re excited for our teammate and excited for the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

The Edmonton Oilers\u2019 Spencer Stastney (24) celebrates his goal against the Anaheim Ducks during second period NHL action at Rogers Place, in Edmonton Monday Jan. 26, 2026.<\/p>\n

Canada-USA. Once and for all. Sunday\u2019s final figures to be one of the most epic showdowns in hockey history, right up there with The Summit Series in 1972 and Sidney Crosby\u2019s golden goal in Vancouver 2010.<\/p>\n

Few hockey games have ever registered on the Richter scale the way this one will. The collision course played out the way every one hoped it would with NHL players returning to the tournament for the first time since Canada beat Sweden to win gold in 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what everyone wanted when the NHL players were pushing to go to the Olympics,\u201d said Wisconsin\u2019s Ty Emberson. \u201cThis is what you wanted to see. The best on best. It\u2019s going to be a really fun game.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone wants their home country to win, so I\u2019m cheering for the Americans, but I\u2019m also cheering for Connor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does it turn the stomach a little to be cheering for a team that has a shameless turtle like Matthew Tkachuk on it?<\/p>\n

Emberson paused a moment before he answered.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like our flag,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ll just leave it at that.\u201d<\/p>\n

While they love their country, Emberson, Stastney and Roslovic all admit that there is nothing better than playing hockey in Canada. From the atmosphere in the rink to the vibe on the streets, there is nothing like the Great White North.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving played in Nashville and Milwaukee, then my first game after being traded here was in Toronto on Hockey Night in Canada and it was an intensity I\u2019ve never seen before,\u201d said Stastney.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get a feel of that of that just walking around the city, seeing all the Oilers hats and merch. I\u2019m obviously not a big name, I\u2019m pretty new up here, but people still recognize me every now and then. It\u2019s crazy. It\u2019s a different feel when you see how big hockey is up here. Nowhere in the US is like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

And nowhere in Canada is like Edmonton.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the fun part of it,\u201d said Emberson. \u201cAny given night at Rogers is a crazy fan base. They love the team, they love the sport and they\u2019re passionate about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly it\u2019s cool to see. When they play the Canadian national anthem before the games you can see the Canadians have a lot of pride in their country. It\u2019s cool to see. And overall it\u2019s just a great hockey market up here. It\u2019s fun to play in.\u201d<\/p>\n

E-mail:\u00a0rtychkowski@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don\u2019t miss the news you need to know \u2014 add EdmontonJournal.com<\/a> and EdmontonSun.com<\/a> to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here.<\/a><\/p>\n

You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Edmonton Journal<\/a> | The Edmonton Sun.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Uncle Sam? Or Captain Connor? Who do they cheer for? Sunday\u2019s gold medal game between Canada and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5125],"tags":[56508,29605,56507,155,198,146,5300,56224,5,1648,56509,94,2409,151,4,24,768,9700,66,4702],"class_list":{"0":"post-466124","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton-oilers","8":"tag-american-oilers","9":"tag-canada-and-the-united-states","10":"tag-captain-connor","11":"tag-connor-mcdavid","12":"tag-edmonton","13":"tag-edmonton-oilers","14":"tag-edmontonoilers","15":"tag-gold-medal-game","16":"tag-hockey","17":"tag-jack-roslovic","18":"tag-johnathan-kovacivic","19":"tag-matthew-tkachuk","20":"tag-nashville","21":"tag-new-jersey-devils","22":"tag-nhl","23":"tag-oilers","24":"tag-sidney-crosby","25":"tag-spencer-stastney","26":"tag-toronto","27":"tag-ty-emberson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116110846928000579","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466124","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=466124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}