As part of THN.com's Olympics Week, Adam Proteau looks back at the 2014 Winter Games – the last time NHL players participated in the Olympics – when Team Canada was led to a gold medal by star goalie Carey Price and a smothering defensive attack.
As part of Olympics Week at THN.com we’re taking a look back to the last time NHL players were participants at the Games. It was a whole decade ago back in 2014, when the best-on-best tournament took place in Sochi, Russia, and the Canadian men’s team took home the gold medal.
But how did Team Canada get to the top of the podium? Well, the list of reasons begins with Canada’s goaltending in the tournament. Star netminder and Montreal Canadiens icon Carey Price posted a sterling 0.60 goals-against average, a .972 save percentage and two shutouts in the 2014 Games. For those results, Price was named the Games’ best netminder, and while Price had capable backups in Roberto Luongo and Mike Smith, Price was at the top of his game and he delivered exactly what Team Canada needed from him.
Meanwhile, the Canadians also benefited from a roster in which two top defensemen – L.A. Kings star Drew Doughty and Nashville Predators star Shea Weber – finished tied for the team lead in points, with six apiece in six games. Veterans Jeff Carter (five points), Patrick Marleau (four points), and Sidney Crosby, Ryan Getzlaf and Jonathan Toews – each of whom had three points – also chipped in with timely offense. But in truth, it was defense that carried the day for Canada, as Price shut out the Americans 1-0 in the semifinal and then blanked Team Sweden 3-0 to take home the gold.
In the end, the Sochi Games would be the final Olympic appearance for Price, Weber, Carter, Marleau, Getzlaf and Toews, but this gold medal performance was the second consecutive Olympic championship for Canada. In the following Games – in 2018, in Pyeongchang, South Korea – the Canadian team finished with the bronze medal, but that was a team filled with non-NHLers.
Needless to say, the difference in talent from 2014 to 2018 was stark indeed, but from 2002 on, in the years when the Canadians had NHL players in their lineup, Team Canada won gold three out of four times. And while all three of those gold medal wins were impressive for Canada, the 2014 win – and its dependence on solid play in the Canadian zone – was especially memorable.