Colorado Avalanche fans had several teams to choose from in terms of who to cheer for at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. With the Avs being in the USA, it seems logical that the majority of their fans are also in the USA, as a lot of people who root for a specific team often live in that same city.
The Avs had eight players take part in the Olympics this year—Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Devon Toews (Canada), Brock Nelson (USA), Martin Necas (Czechia), Gabriel Landeskog (Sweden) Arturri Lehkonen and Joel Kiviranta (Finland). I reside in Jets territory, so you would think that I would be fully on the Team Canada train. The truth is that I would be on any train that consisted of the most Avs players. If Team USA and Canada swapped players, I’d have been all in on USA.
At the end of the day, it is hard to lose as an Avs fan given the distribution of the team’s players throughout the tournament. My heart does hurt a little bit not because Canada lost, but because six Avalanche players were either going home with no medal or something short of the ultimate prize, gold.
The final game was one for the books. The competition ended in heartbreak for most of the Avalanche players. Both teams’ goalies, Connor Hellebuyck and Jordan Binnington, played exceptionally well—especially Hellebuyck, who made one of the best saves I have ever seen, on Avalanche defenseman Devon Toews. It would not surprise me if Hellebuyck never makes a save like that ever again. Toews got absolutely robbed of a goal. In my heart, I was sad because it was against an Avalanche player. I was excited to have witnessed such a save, though.
Makar’s goal was one of the most mindblowing thing because of two things. On one hand, it takes a lot of skill to put the puck in such a specific spot which puts the goaltender in a very tough position. On the other hand, Team USA for some reason didn’t figure that having a player on the best defenseman in the world was a good idea.
But, in the end, while Makar did all that he could to help Canada pull through to a victory, it just was not enough, as Canada lost 2-1 in overtime, sealing the fate of Team USA. MacKinnon, Makar and Toews likely will be back at the Winter Olympics in four years. Maybe their luck will be greater in 2030.
Whether you bleed red and white or full-on bergundy and blue, you got to see one Avalanche star win a gold medal on Sunday. It’s hard to lose in that situation.