06/13/26 01:06:00
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06/13 13:04 CDT Olympic gold medal-Stanley Cup double is at stake for Americans
in the final
Olympic gold medal-Stanley Cup double is at stake for Americans in the final
By STEPHEN WHYNO
AP Hockey Writer
Ken Morrow liked to consider himself the answer of a trivia question as the
only hockey player who won an Olympic gold medal and hoisted the Stanley Cup in
the same year. He was part of the 1980 U.S. "Miracle on Ice" team and then
joined the New York Islanders for their first of four titles in a row.
A half-dozen Canadians have done it since the NHL started sending players to
the Olympics, but at this moment, more Americans have walked on the moon than
accomplished what Morrow did. He is the only one.
That will soon change, no matter how the Cup final ends. After the U.S. won
gold at the Olympics for the first time in 46 years, Carolina's Jaccob Slavin
is one victory away from joining Morrow, unless Vegas wins Games 6 and 7 to put
Jack Eichel and Noah Hanifin in that exclusive club.
"I've had my 46 years," Morrow told The Associated Press by phone Friday. "I'm
always one that likes to see new people win the Cup, guys get a chance to do
something that they'll remember the rest of their lives. And for whoever does
it this year, yes, I think it's great."
Morrow won the Stanley Cup four times in a row as part of that Islanders
dynasty. Eichel is the only U.S. player in the final with a Cup ring, and he
had a major part in the Golden Knights' championship run in 2023.
After helping the U.S. win gold in Milan in February, Eichel says there are
similarities and differences to those journeys.
"One's nine, 10 months; one's two weeks," Eichel said. "One of them is
winner-take-all of just one game at a time. These are seven-game series, so
it's different in that sense. I think from an emotional standpoint and a
mentality, I think there's a lot of similarities: just the investment in
winning and the feeling in the room and everything that comes with it."
The single-elimination element is a good way of thinking of playoff hockey,
Eichel said, though Hanifin pointed out that it is drastically different
preparing for a game at a time at the Olympics than enduring the ups and downs
of a postseason.
"When you're playing seven-game series, you can kind of build over time and if
you hit a little bit of a setback or some adversity, you can kind of learn from
it and build and come back better," Hanifin said. "Whereas Olympics, when you
get into those medal rounds, it's a one-and-done situation, so it's different
in that regard."
If the Hurricanes win, it would be some measure of retribution for Seth Jarvis,
who played for Canada in the final and lost to the U.S. in overtime on Jack
Hughes' winning goal.
When Carolina had him, Slavin and bronze medalist Sebastian Aho pose for a
photo with their medals in their Olympic jerseys, Jarvis in a behind-the-scenes
video quipped about reliving his nightmares and brought up the stuffed animal
versions of an Olympic mascot that IOC officials gave to a group of players
after losing the biggest game of their lives.
Before the start of the final, Jarvis acknowledged the events are two separate
things.
"Obviously, losing in the gold medal is going to suck forever," Jarvis said.
"But now I get a chance to be a winner and win something big here with a group
of guys that I've been grinding with for five years, been through the ups and
downs of it and people that I just really care about."
Two more losses would put Jarvis back in the same spot, albeit without another
stuffie. One more defeat by the Golden Knights would mean losing twice in a
final this year for Mitch Marner, Shea Theodore and Mark Stone.
Before the series began, Slavin was working hard to keep his brain from
drifting to the possibility.
"It crosses my mind," Slavin said. "But we've got to go out and do a job first,
so not trying to give it too much thought."
In the nearly five decades since Morrow completed the Olympic gold-Stanley Cup
double, the entire situation has changed. The NHL has participated in the
Olympics six times since 1998, so players are already professionals.
Morrow at age 23 went less than a week and a half between beating the Soviet
Union in the "Miracle on Ice" in Lake Placid, New York, visiting the White
House, having his first practice with the Islanders and making his NHL debut.
"I was trying to earn a living," Morrow said. "I had to kind of really change
focus quickly into trying to earn a job with the New York Islanders, and it
wasn't a sure thing for me when I first came to them right after the Olympics.
Am I going to be able to play in the league? Those were questions that I was
facing in trying to make a living. And these guys certainly didn't have that
facing them after the Olympics."
They just had to get back to doing their job, which was a challenge in itself.
Vegas and Carolina each finished atop its division and got through three rounds
of the playoffs.
That gave Eichel, Hanifin and Slavin an opportunity to join Morrow, Steve
Yzerman and Brendan Shanahan from Detroit in 2002, Jonathan Toews, Brent
Seabrook and Duncan Keith from Chicago 2010, and Drew Doughty from Los Angeles
in 2014 in the history books.
"For myself, it's been a pretty surreal year: Winning gold was awesome, and
then having the chance to play for a Stanley Cup is awesome," Slavin said. "I
take it as a blessing and just thankful for it."
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