Amber Searls-Imagn ImagesHerb Brooks was the last head coach to win a gold medal at the Olympics for the US Men’s Hockey Team, all the way back in 1980.
Under the coaching of Mike Sullivan, Team USA broke a 46-year gold medal drought on Sunday, capping it off with a triumphant overtime victory against Team Canada.
With this gold medal victory, Sullivan now puts himself at the top of Mount Rushmore when it comes to legendary USA Hockey coaches.
Sullivan is now receiving unprecedented attention, he didn’t even get after winning two Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
“I can’t tell you how many people have reached out to me personally when we were able to win,” Sullivan said. “We were joking about the amount of texts, they are broaching like thousands. I didn't realize that I knew that many people, but people have reached out to me that I haven't seen in 30 plus years.
“Childhood friends, coaches that coached me when I was growing up as a kid. It’s pretty cool. When you think about it in those terms, both those teams, the men's and the women’s have inspired a nation in a a lot of ways, and we couldn't be more proud of them.”
It’s a lot for Sullivan to digest, as he is still going through the reflecting process, given the magnitude of this moment and all that has transpired since Jack Hughes’ legendary golden goal.
“I'll tell you that with these types of experiences, one of the big parts of it is the reflection process,” Sullivan emphasized. “There will be a time when I have time to digest it a little bit more than I have at this point. And I'm sure there'll be a lot of takeaways that will come out of it.”
While it was Bill Guerin's responsibility as general manager to construct Team USA, Sullivan was responsible for ensuring the group was unified and pooling all individual talent to create a cohesive team, with each player carved into a specific role.
Throughout the tournament, it was evident and repeated constantly by players about how close this group truly was, whether it was the way they interacted off the ice and the time spent together living in the Olympic Village like college students, which ultimately translated to their structured, selfless style of play that they put on display.
Sullivan had a strong hand in developing the team’s dynamic, and he’s proud of how all the players came together as a team.
“I couldn't be more proud of the group of players that we have,” Sullivan said. “Those guys played their hearts out, and all of us were really proud of how we became a team. There were a lot of obviously, really talented players, but one of the messages that we gave to them from the start, before the Four Nations tournament, was talent alone won’t win.
“You have to become a team in the true sense of the word. You have to have a commitment to playing on both sides of the puck if you want to win. You can’t score your way to success. You have to defend, and that takes collective effort. It takes attention to detail, and it takes a team. We were so proud of their willingness to embrace that message. I thought that group became a team in real short order. It was impressive to watch.”
Sullivan’s name will go down in history just as Brooks’ did 46 years ago.
This victory isn’t just for the people who represented Team USA; it’s for the entire country and will surely have an impact on growing the game of hockey for the next generation of Americans.
“I think both the men's team and the women's team were an inspiration to a generation, the next generation of hockey players and beyond,” Sullivan said. “One of the greatest things about sports is it can bring people together. It's a remarkable achievement. It's hard to win something like that, and so we're proud of that accomplishment and I think in a lot of ways, we're still trying to digest the impact that it could potentially have on our country.”