Before men’s ice hockey dropped the puck at the 2026 Winter Games in Milano Cortina, I talked about Mike Sullivan.

The two-time Stanley Cup winner in Pittsburgh and current head coach of the New York Rangers was leading an American team into the Winter Games, searching for their first gold medal since the famed Miracle on Ice team in 1980.

Before this tournament, it was fair to wonder whether Sullivan was the right choice.

Sullivan was supposed to coach Team USA at the 2022 Games in Beijing, but a last-minute withdrawal from the National Hockey League and all their personnel robbed him of that chance.

A lot can change in four years.

In 2022, Sullivan’s Penguins blew a 3-1 series lead to the New York Rangers in the first round of the playoffs. They were drowning in injuries, down to their third string goalie by overtime of game one, their big trade deadline acquisition Rickard Rakell for five of the seven games, and missing their captain in Sidney Crosby for a crucial game six.

But, anytime a team blows that kind of a lead in a series, questions have to be asked.

That series marked the beginning of the end for the Sullivan era in Pittsburgh. The following year, the Penguins missed the playoffs by just one point, snapping their 16-year playoff streak, the longest active streak in North American pro sports.

That year, the Penguins had a golden chance to punch another ticket into the postseason. All they needed to do was beat the two statistically worse teams in the NHL, and a spot was all theirs. They lost both games.

That collapse caused the firing of general manager Ron Hextall and his right-hand man, Brian Burke. But Sullivan survived the house cleaning, which isn’t typical for an NHL franchise to do. His saving grace might have been his contract, which still ran for several more years.

In came Kyle Dubas and one more year designed to go for the playoffs. He swung the Erik Karlsson deal and retained Sullivan behind the bench. It nearly worked, but the Penguins fell one point short for a second year in a row, despite a post-deadline surge to put themselves back into the conversation.

Then, things changed in Pittsburgh. The mission of the front office turned more towards the future and the acquisition and development of young talent. Last season was a great first step in that direction, but it led to a lifeless Penguins team on the ice and a bench that no longer seemed to resonate with Sullivan.

The one thing that didn’t change was Sullivan’s job security as the American coach. Even as the playoff success fell further and further away in the rear view mirror, and Sullivan’s Penguins had tumbled out of the playoff picture altogether, he still was seen as their guy.

He was tabbed as the coach for Team USA at the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off last year, a tournament that saw the Americans beat the Canadians in Canada during the round robin, only to have the Canadians return the favor stateside in the championship rematch.

While the Americans were missing several of their greatest talents heading into that game (Quinn Hughes was injured before and couldn’t make it, Charlie McAvoy was injured before the final, etc.), it didn’t change the growing uneasiness around Sullivan as a coach.

His Penguins were floundering at home, and in the first true best-on-best competition in nearly a decade, he lost. His two Stanley Cups were in 2016 and 2017. Since then, he had just one playoff series win, coming all the way back in 2018. Was he really the guy who could break the nearly 50 year drought?

As it turns out, yes he was.

If I was going to question whether Sullivan was the right man for the job, I also need to commend him when he steps up and delivers. And he did that in Milan. His team had an unbelievable run during these Olympics.

Team USA went a perfect 6-0, and did not take a trip to the gold medal game for granted. In the preliminary round, they dominated all three of their opponents in Latvia, Denmark, and Germany. In each of those games, the Americans started a little slow, but around the midway part decided to turn it on and play their game.

By the time the knockout games came around, Team USA was getting off to better starts. They had an unlucky draw by getting Sweden in the quarterfinal round. An incredibly formidable opponent, the Swedes pushed the Americans into overtime.

But even then, it didn’t feel like their chances were super in danger. The Americans played confident in overtime despite Sweden tying it in the dying seconds off of an empty-net situation. Quinn Hughes, who refused to come off in overtime, eventually scored the game winner.

They crushed the upstart Slovakia 6-2 to set their sights on a gold medal and a rematch of the 4 Nations final.

What Sullivan was unable to do last year, he was able to achieve this time around. And for all of the time Canada spent dominating this game, it was the Americans who came out on top. Matt Boldy and Jack Hughes had the goals. Connor Hellebuyck played the game of his life. But Sullivan deserves some credit as well.

Sullivan went head-to-head with Jon Cooper of Canada and a lineup that, even without Crosby, still could throw Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, and Cale Makar on the ice at the same time when they wanted to. It was the toughest opponent he will ever face in his coaching career. And he won.

Sullivan now has the highest place one can have in American hockey. He, along with Jack Reilly in 1960 and Herb Brooks in 1980, are the only men to coach the American men’s team to a gold medal. Regardless of whatever happens this season when he returns to the Rangers, or his future years as a coach in the league.

This is a career-defining, legacy moment that will never, ever be erased.