{"id":474199,"date":"2026-02-27T02:22:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T02:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/474199\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T02:22:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T02:22:16","slug":"matthew-tkachuk-and-auston-matthews-celebrate-us-hockey-gold-with-ceremonial-puck-drop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/474199\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew Tkachuk and Auston Matthews celebrate US hockey gold with ceremonial puck drop"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI really think our team really showed what it\u2019s like to be true Americans and the pride we played with and how we would do every single thing for our country,\u201d Tkachuk said, gold medal dangling from his neck. \u201cSo, the support we\u2019ve gotten is incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"\/<\/p>\n

There were \u201cU-S-A!\u201d chants during the national anthem, and the arena was predictably loud when Tkachuk handed the puck to Sileno. Tkachuk said he thought \u201cthe roof might fall off before the game even starts.\u201d<\/p>\n

It has been a whirlwind since Sunday for Tkachuk: an all-night party in Italy before a charter flight back to the U.S., more parties with the team in Miami on Monday, then a trip to the White House for the State of the Union<\/a> with most of his Olympic teammates.<\/p>\n

And life has been one big celebration for Tkachuk in recent years anyway, with a Stanley Cup win in 2024, another in 2025, a wedding in there as well \u2014 and now, gold.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hardest thing to do in sports is winning the Stanley Cup,\u201d Tkachuk said. \u201cYou go through an 82-game grind and then your four playoff series, some Game 7s probably, and just the physicality and the travel and everything, it\u2019s crazy. Whereas you could almost argue it over there at the Olympics, it\u2019s so hard because it\u2019s just one-game elimination.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tkachuk is one of seven Panthers players who won Olympic hockey medals: Brad Marchand, Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett won silver medals for Canada, while Anton Lundell, Niko Mikkola and Eetu Luostarinen won bronze medals with Finland, with Panthers assistant Tuomo Ruutu serving as an assistant for that team.<\/p>\n

The Canadian and Finnish players were honored during the first TV timeout Thursday \u2014 drawing loud cheers as well from the Florida fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought our team played really well actually and sometimes you don\u2019t get the bounces and that\u2019s the game of hockey. Sometimes it doesn\u2019t go your way,\u201d Bennett said, reflecting on the loss to the Americans. \u201cSo, that\u2019s what makes hockey incredible. You never know what\u2019s going to happen. And they obviously played a great game as well and it was their night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Lundell: \u201cBronze is special too, and I\u2019m slowly starting to understand it\u2019s actually a kind of big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Panthers general manager and hockey operations president Bill Zito was part of the brain trust for the U.S. team in Milan, and equipment manager Teddy Richards had the same role for the Americans at the Olympics.<\/p>\n

They were all part of Thursday\u2019s ceremonies. Zito and Richards took part in the pregame puck drop.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a weird dynamic,\u201d Marchand \u2014 who scored Florida\u2019s first goal of the night \u2014 acknowledged after the team\u2019s morning skate. \u201cObviously we\u2019re disappointed and you want a different outcome, but at the same time, trying to remember to be grateful for the incredible part of it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NHL: https:\/\/www.apnews.com\/hub\/nhl<\/a><\/p>\n

Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI really think our team really showed what it\u2019s like to be true Americans and the pride we…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474200,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5102],"tags":[62,57,5141,5,4,63],"class_list":{"0":"post-474199","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida-panthers","8":"tag-florida","9":"tag-florida-panthers","10":"tag-floridapanthers","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-panthers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116140216211528031","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474199","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=474199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}