The Gold Medal in the 2026 Men's Ice Hockey tournament will go to someone closely affiliated with the Philadelphia Flyers; one past head coach, or the present head coach.
On Sunday, former Flyers head coach John Tortorella, an assistant coach on Mike Sullivan's Team USA coaching staff, will go head to head with his replacement, current Flyers head coach and Team Canada assistant coach Rick Tocchet, for the Olympic Gold.
These two, of course, coached against each other last year at the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament, though that was before Tortorella and his Flyers suffered a catastrophic run of form that eventually cost the veteran bench boss his job.
Tortorella, 67, does want to coach in the NHL again, though that opportunity has not come his way just yet. Instead, the two-time Jack Adams Award winner has been back doing some TV work in the interim.
As for Tocchet, his Flyers are a so-so 25-20-11 this season, though, aside from the benefit of Dan Vladar's goaltending, have not been all that much better.
At the time of this writing, the Flyers rank 23rd in the NHL in goals for and 19th in goals against.
Tocchet, Travis Sanheim, and Canada eliminated Vladar and Czechia and Rasmus Ristolainen and Finland to reach the Gold-Medal Game, so taking down Tortorella and USA would probably be the least carnivorous thing they've done in the games with stakes.
Sanheim, Tocchet, and Tortorella will go head-to-head for Gold at 8:10 a.m. EST on NBC and Peacock on Sunday morning, with the closing ceremony taking place six hours later at 2:30. You can expect the two nations to close out the 2026 Winter Olympics with a bang.