Avalanche players marvel at Olympic tournament, both up close and from afar: ‘It was unreal’ ...Middle East

Hockey fans had to wait 12 years to see NHL players in the Winter Olympics again, and the tournament exceeded even the highest of expectations.

The United States defeated Canada for the gold medal in an instant classic Sunday morning. Four of the seven elimination games went to overtime, and Avs star Nathan MacKinnon won a fifth with a goal in the final minute of regulation.

Many of the Avs players who weren’t in Milan had split allegiances throughout the tournament, but especially Sunday with Brock Nelson and the Americans playing MacKinnon, Cale Makar and Devon Toews and the Canadians.

Mackenzie Blackwood was the first alternate for Canada had any of the three goaltenders been unable to play, but he also spent four seasons in New Jersey with Jack Hughes, who scored the golden goal for the Americans in overtime.

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"Cooler now that he has no teeth," Blackwood said, after Hughes took a high stick from Sam Bennett in the third period. "He joined the club.

"Just a good hockey game ... I think Canada had the pressure, but (Connor) Hellebuyck had an amazing game. I feel like if it had kept going 5-on-5, Canada probably would have won, but yeah ... 3-on-3 overtime, anything goes."

Colorado had eight players in the tournament. Nelson became a third-generation gold medalist in his family, joining his uncle Dave Christian from the 1980 team and his grandfather, Bill Christian, and great-uncle, Roger Christian, from the 1960 club.

The three Canadians won silver medals, but all three had what-if moments in the final game. Artturi Lehkonen and Joel Kiviranta won bronze medals with Finland.

Martin Necas and Czechia pushed Canada to the brink in the quarterfinals before a Mitch Marner overtime goal sent them home early. Still, Necas was outstanding in the tournament with three goals and a team-high eight points in five games.

"It was unreal," Necas said, who returned to practice Sunday with the Avs. "It was something I, and all of us that were there, had always dreamt of. It was great -- just the result wasn't just like we wanted.

"I felt good. I was so excited for it. In my mind, I had no doubt that I was going to be good. Before every game, I was so pumped up. It was such big and important games and we've been waiting so long for this."

Another positive development for Colorado was captain Gabe Landeskog's return to action with Sweden. Even though the Swedes were also knocked out in the quarterfinals by a Quinn Hughes overtime goal for the Americans, Landeskog played his first hockey games since sustaining an upper-body injury Jan. 4 at Florida when he crashed into the goal post and then the end boards.

Landeskog had two goals and four points in five games while wearing the "C" for his country. After missing three full regular seasons with knee issues, including the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off, Landeskog missing any time with an injury was going to leave Avs fans with some restlessness, but he is healthy coming out of the Olympics and those games may have served as a great tune-up for the stretch run.

"I compare it a little bit to the playoffs last year, where you get back and you're just kind of thrown into an environment that's a very high-pressure situation and adrenaline-filled," Landeskog said. "Now it's about finding your game in the rhythm of the season again.

"I thought it was great. I had a lot of fun over there and yeah, back into game shape, I guess you could say."

Avs coach Jared Bednar said Sunday it is a possibility that some of the four guys who played in the gold medal showdown could sit out the club's first game back, Wednesday at Utah. Colorado has five games in seven days coming out of the break.

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The four gold-medal participants played a game at 6 a.m. MT on Sunday and need to travel back to Denver by Tuesday to go with the Avs to Salt Lake City. It was reported during the NBC broadcast of the gold-medal game that the chartered planes the NHL players were expected to take from Milan to New York City will be diverted to Miami because of a massive storm.

Going from Milan to Miami to Denver to Salt Lake in such a short time will be taxing, especially after playing several high-stakes international games in a short period in Italy. Bednar also made it clear that any potential load management will end after Wednesday.

"I'm definitely not doing that," Bednar said. "If we make a decision to sit guys on Wednesday, then we're back to business (as usual). The five in seven nights is probably the toughest part of this, but if we're fighting for first play, they're going to need to play. Our guys are going to have to play, or otherwise we're going to be chasing first place instead of in it, in my opinion.

"If you start sitting players for a long time, or these guys for one game and those guys the next, you're basically playing with the same kind of lineup we had the last month and that didn't work out very well for us."

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