Canada Could Learn a Thing or Two From The Backchecking of This Mite Hockey Team Who Paused Their Game to Celebrate USA's Gold Medal Winning Goal

First off, great save by the goalie in black. By the looks of it, #10 in white might be the best player on the ice. He took that puck and skated right around those defensemen with ease. But the goalie stood tall. Thanks in large part to his defenseman who refused to give up on the play after getting beat, and applied just enough pressure from behind to help thwart the breakaway. That's called backchecking, Canada. You should try it sometime. 

I shouldn't pivot now to making excuses for Canada, but honestly, if I was Cale Makar I probably would have done the same thing. Sometimes it makes sense to hold back in the offensive zone if your team should 100% be able to win the play ahead of you. There was just zero reason MacKinnon shouldn't have won that puck and thrown it up ice to Makar for a breakaway. All he would have had to do was rip the puck around the boards, and Makar probably picks it up with nobody between him and the goalie. If Nate MacKinnon moves his feet, Cale Makar could be a Canadian hero right now. 

But that's not what happened. Zach Werenski won the battle. The United States won gold. So I guess that's why you always backcheck your hardest, and never take a play for granted. That's a lesson in hockey from me to you, Team Canada. See, who says we can't be gracious in victory?

Anyways, back to the original video of mite hockey players celebrating America. #10 in white has to be kicking himself for not scoring that goal. To score a goal like that where he walks both defenseman at the same time as Jack Hughes was winning us the gold medal... that would have been pretty sick. He would have turned to celebrate the goal with his team, then immediately looked in the stands to see that the United States had won gold. What a moment that would have been for that kid.

But had he scored that goal, the black team may have been less willing to participate in the arena wide celebration. At minimum, it would have hampered the moment a bit to have USA's gold medal winning goal be associated with your own team being scored on. So that save helped lead to a moment that was nothing but wholesome, and equally great for both teams. 

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Here's the same thing happening at a pee-wee hockey game in North Carolina.

The only thing that might have been better for the kids was if they were on this team who was able to actually watch the goal immediately before taking the ice for a game.

I can't imagine anything that would get me fired up to play hockey more than watching Jack Hughes score an OT gold medal winning goal. I watched it from my couch, and it had me wanting to find some ice and lace them up. To have a tournament hockey game ready for you to play the second that gold medal game ended is best case scenario for any hockey player.