Team USA run to gold medal inspire memories of Olympics past

Legendary hockey reporter Stan Fischler writes a weekly scrapbook for NHL.com. Known as "The Hockey Maven," Fischler shares his insight and humor with readers every Wednesday. Members of Team USA have returned to their NHL teams for the homestretch after winning a gold medal at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026. The histrionics of Jack Hughes, Connor Hellebuyck and the team as a whole inspire memories of Olympic medalists before NHL participation. This week looks back at heroes of two golden teams, 1960 and 1980, and the near-forgotten silver medalists from 1972.

The NHL is back from the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 for the push to the Trade Deadline at 3 p.m. ET on Friday and the Stanley Cup Playoffs next month, still in the glow of Team USA winning its first Olympic gold medal in men's hockey since the 1980 Lake Placid Games. 

This is especially so for goalie Connor Hellebuyck and the architects of the golden goal, defenseman Zach Werenski and forward Jack Hughes. Their feats harbor memories from 1960, 1972 and 1980, when the United States won its first three medals, and the aftermaths.

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JACK MCCARTAN (1960): Nobody expected the obscure goalie from St. Paul, Minnesota, to be a factor in America's quest for hockey gold. At training camp late in 1959, McCartan was a late addition and listed as backup to Larry Palmer, who was the starting goalie at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York.

"Since the Olympic head coach Jack Riley also was Army's head coach, everyone figured that Palmer would be starter for the 1960 team," said Kevin Hubbard, co-author of "Hockey America: The Ice Game's History, Growth and Bright Future in the U.S."

Riley wouldn't play favorites. 

"When Jack saw that Palmer didn't have the goods, he took a chance on McCartan," Hubbard said, "and just in time. Had he stayed with Palmer, they'd never have gained gold." 

McCartan made Riley look good by defeating Sweden, Germany, Canada, the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia in the final round of the 1960 Squaw Valley Olympics. Within days of winning gold, McCartan received a phone call from New York Rangers general manager Muzz Patrick with an offer of $1,000 per game for the final four games of the regular season. McCartan accepted the opportunity on the spot, flew to New York and was hailed by a swarm of media. 

"I had never dreamed about playing in the NHL" McCartan said, "but once Patrick gave me the chance to go pro, I figured since we won gold, why not?" 

Even more shocking was McCartan's NHL debut, when he stopped the legendary Gordie Howe on a clean breakaway in the first minute, one of his 33 saves in a 3-1 win against the Detroit Red Wings at Madison Square Garden on March 6, 1960.

"It was late in the '59-'60 season and I got in three more Rangers games," McCartan said. "Patrick guaranteed me that I'd be a starter in '60-'61, which I was, but not for long. I played eight more games, and it was clear that I was out of my league."

McCartan took his demotion like a trooper and was quite content to continue as a minor leaguer, finally winding up with Minnesota of the World Hockey Association.

"I was pretty much finished by then," McCartan said, "but between the gold and then getting an NHL shot, it sure was fun while it lasted. Then again, in retrospect, nothing topped winning gold at Squaw Valley."

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ROBBIE FTOREK (1972): A dozen years after Team USA captured its first Olympic gold, it produced another upset at the 1972 Sapporo Olympics, where they were projected to finish sixth -- dead last. Instead, they emerged with a silver medal thanks to the leadership of Ftorek, a forward out of Needham High School in Massachusetts.

Nobody among the New England hockey experts who had seen Ftorek skate in the competitive Bay State League was surprised. 

"Ftorek was just a lot smarter than everybody else," former Boston Bruins defenseman and later NHL coach and executive Mike Milbury told Michael A. Smith for the book, "Life After Hockey: When the Lights are Dimmed."

"He was a great skater and moved the puck so well and was ahead of the rest in terms of seeing the ice."

Said Ftorek: "I still had a few things going against me. I was too small, and I originally really wanted to be a figure skater. Then one day my dad took me to a Bruins game. When it was over, they let me in the clubhouse and a Bruin gave me a stick. That was the day when I crossed over from figure skating to hockey."

By age 20, Ftorek graduated to the Olympic team. Tom and Jerry Caraccioli, authors of "Striking Silver: The Untold Story of America's Forgotten Hockey Team," rated him an inspirational force.

"He became one of the quiet leaders through his pure joy in playing," they wrote. "His leadership was always focused on the team. On top of that, Robbie was like a big brother to 16-year-old Mark Howe, who would become an important member of the squad. That leadership made Ftorek as integral off the ice as he was on it."

The result was an unexpected silver medal and a lifetime in assorted hockey roles including head coach of the Los Angeles Kings, New Jersey Devils and Bruins. He also guided Albany of the American Hockey League to the Calder Cup in 1995, the same year the parent Devils won the Stanley Cup for the first time.

"When all was said and done, the goose bump for me was the silver medal because it was so personal," Ftorek said. "It was not only 'we're better than you on the ice, but we're better than you as a country;' and that was very, very important."

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MIKE ERUZIONE (1980): Arguably the most popular player on the acclaimed "Miracle on Ice" team coached by Herb Brooks, Eruzione differed from most of his colleagues in one significant way: He didn't want to take the natural next step and graduate to the NHL, or even audition for a career in The Show.

"Mike didn't waste any time; he retired from hockey playing," wrote Michael A. Smith, author of "Life After Hockey: When the Lights Are Dimmed."  

The fact was that Eruzione didn't need any more silver nor trophies. By that time, he had played on seven championship teams in nine years.

Bob Murray, one of Eruzione's coaches at Boston University and later his legal adviser, was not surprised at his decision to walk away while in the prime of his hockey life. 

"The Olympics enabled Mike to get his foot in the door with the business world," Murray said. "The things he did after the gold were all as a result of what happened in Lake Placid."

Having shared a table with Eruzione at the 1980 team's induction into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame with the Class of 2003, I can relate to his simple, no-nonsense down to earth character. Everybody treated him not so much as a hockey hero but more as your jovial next door neighbor. 

"Mike understood that if something didn't work out," Murray said. "He could always teach and coach and be pleasant doing it."

"Money was never an objective in my life," Eruzione said. "It was always to be happy and to be able to say that I'm doing what I want to do. When it came to the Olympics, I had a lot of confidence in my own ability and thought I could make the team. And when we were training in Finland, Herb called me into his office and said he wanted me to be captain.

"I was thrilled because our guys had great work habits. I knew then and there that I'd never play on another team like that -- individuals who just loved to play the game and just had great skills; a lot better than a lot of people thought. The Good Lord gave me the ability to play and when all was said and done, I did what I wanted to do and was in control of my destiny. The door was open for me after we won the Olympics, and it was my job to keep it open." 

Nearly a half-century later, the job is assigned to Auston Matthews, Connor Hellebuyck, Jack Hughes and their teammates who have lifted hockey in the United States to the very pinnacle of the sport.