It was the morning of the men’s hockey gold-medal game at the 2014 Winter Olympics. While I held our spot in the queue to get inside The Foggy Dew eager to claim a few of the coveted stools at the V-shaped bar -- among many like-minded Canadians in red and white -- my wife left to cross the street and shake our neighbour awake.
In those days, we didn’t see 5 a.m. very often, nor did many on that scene, but it was almost six. Travel mugs appeared to be standard issue — Bailey’s, splashed with coffee.
Everyone wanted a front-row seat to watch Canada beat Sweden for gold.
Our crew of fans included a lawyer, an ironworker, a sales guy, a butcher, a producer, a teacher, an occupational therapist, a mover, a real-estate agent and a bartender — all united by a love of hockey, Canada and, sure, booze.
Not often in life do so many people from so many different walks of life get together and simultaneously feel like they’re exactly where they’re supposed to be, but as the puck dropped on that game, there were no doubts for all of us in that bar — and so many others across the country.
As Canadians, we were home.
I was with The Score then and hadn’t yet worked for the Toronto Marlies. My son, who now plays U10 hockey, was about two years from existing, and I was still a good five years from sober. It was an entire lifetime ago, but it’s among my favourite Canadian memories.
Canada scored a goal in each period on its way to victory, so the tension was never high. It was a celebration all the way on through.
Best-on-best men’s international hockey all but stopped in the 12 years since, with NHLers forced to skip the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics (player-insurance and business concerns) as well as the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing (COVID-related schedule complications). The world was further shaped by tech, turmoil and tragedy, and time just kept creeping by.
And then, the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off.
The 4 Nations came with a fervour that was jarring. There was a hunger to see our best players in red and white again, but there was also the recent jabbing of a particularly mean American finger in the collective faces of Canadians that felt like it needed to be beaten back with hockey sticks.
The event was meaningful yet utilitarian, a cathartic release that checked the right boxes at the right time. Meanwhile, the Swedes and Finns hung around like third wheels on a date where the couple was barely aware they weren’t alone. Maybe that wasn’t the hockey reality, but it was the emotional truth.
But if that was a microwaved meal served almost hot, the Olympics should be a return home to a full Thanksgiving spread.
We’re welcoming back the world to the get-together: the Germans, Czechs, Slovaks, Swiss, Danes and more. There’s the pomp and circumstance of the Olympics. There’s Leon Draisaitl and Marty Necas and David Pastrnak. There’s the chance for things to happen that resonate beyond our already well-established hockey bubbles. As Canadians who love the game and want the world to get there too, it’s a great opportunity to establish a fresh set of iconic moments for the next generation of hockey fans.
By most critical analysis, the American side has caught up to Canada on the hockey stage. Maybe they’re not quite there yet — not at the high-end of superstardom, anyway — but they’re on the same tier now. And when teams are that close in hockey, anything can happen, particularly in a single-elimination event.
In the 2014 gold-medal game against Sweden, a goal post bailed out Canada here, a puck squeaked through for the good guys there. Canada was easily the better team, but that’s hardly a guarantee in our sport. If you have a day where those little bounces go the wrong way, every small decision made along the way is going under the microscope.
For a lot of us, and I do include myself here, some of the second-guessing around Canada’s roster right now is part of the fun. Canada is too good and too deep for team selection to have been clean and easy.
Are team management fools for not bringing Evan Bouchard, who leads all NHL defencemen in scoring? Should the Canadians have Matthew Schaefer there, an 18-year-old D-man who could be a part of these events for the next 15-plus years? Are they nuts leaving Zach Hyman at home, the guy who’s scored more NHL goals than any other player dating back almost two months now? Mark Scheifele is currently being outscored by a whopping three Canadians: Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon and Macklin Celebrini, but he's not there.
But what I like most about these conversations is that they’re communal. The whole thing is. In our "Leafs Hour" of the Real Kyper & Bourne Show this week, our resident Leafs SuperFan Sam McKee chastised Brandon Carlo for throwing a borderline hit on McDavid.
How dare that wretched American Leafs D-man put our Canadian leader, Oilers captain or not, in harm’s way?
Maybe even more than the Toronto Blue Jays’ run to Game 7 of the World Series, Olympic hockey is the rare chance to get people from Vancouver on board with people from Toronto and Edmonton and Montreal, and farther east still. It suddenly makes sense for everyone to come together to root against the captains of Ottawa and Toronto, and folks from Ontario will lead the charge.
It’s hard enough to find unity as people and sports fans, so I can’t help but romanticize anything that finds a good centre ground for everyone.
Pile in, guys, we’re an “us” with this one.
And while there are plenty of national sporting events throughout the years that could theoretically do this, no other sport does it for us like hockey. No event comes close to the perpetually flawed but idyllic concept of the Olympics. Yes, the NHL is going to try to get the World Cup to this level, and it has several good arguments. The league wants to be able to control the variables for the good of the players. They want NHL rules and refs and rinks and, oh yeah, revenue. I’m not oblivious here, a lot of the arguments make sense, but the deep connection of emotions isn’t yet on their side.
There’s a reason the players made concessions in the CBA for the chance to play free hockey overseas amidst a congested NHL schedule at the Olympics. Many of these guys were kids watching in 2010 and 2014, and they know what the event can do for the country. They saw how those events resonated beyond North America.
In Milan, puck drop on a few of the quarterfinal matchups are once again showing up as 6:10 a.m. ET / 3:10 a.m. PT, with the gold medal start time just a couple hours later. There will be chances for the next wave of Bailey’s drinkers in red and white to get in line, to settle in with neighbours, and to cheer together.
Provided Canada gets back to games that matter, most of our same group from 2014 is planning to reunite, this time away from the more raucous crowds. This time, my son will be with me, and likely with his hockey team. My daughter will be there, too — born four days apart from the daughter of my buddy who was just a few seats down from me at the last big gold-medal game. Our girls are in Learn To Skate together.
The ice in Milan may be bad. Maybe the wrong guys were picked. Maybe Canada will lose. Maybe we’ll second-guess the whole thing.
But maybe not. Maybe we get it done again.
Maybes aside, one thing is for certain: We’re back! Canada and hockey and the Olympics, all together again.
Twelve years may feel like a lifetime ago, but here’s to hoping for some new memories that the next generation can reminisce about one day. Another worthy checkpoint in a life that moves too fast.
