Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - What were you doing when the U.S. men's hockey team won Olympic gold?

Episode Date: February 23, 2026

Leila Rahimi, Marshall Harris and Mark Grote reacted to the USA men's hockey team winning the gold medal with a thrilling 2-1 overtime victory against rival Canada on Sunday at the Winter Olympics.

I guess we're going to mollify your hockey quotient for the day with Catherine Tappen joining us at 1045. Olympic gold medalist himself Jack O'Callaghan joining us later in our show at 1225. And in the meantime, bears and baseball and more. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104. And I'm trying to use it in a sentence, but appease is not the word I would use for some, something I hadn't seen in my lifetime, which was an Olympic gold medal hockey team. And here we are. I think we talked about this in our pre-show meeting, Marshall Harris, Mark Grady. Where were you when you watched something that you hadn't seen happen since 1980

or perhaps hadn't seen at all? I will confess, I devoured it and I watched the game on tape delay. I got to see Mike Torrico's wonderful closing comments for that broadcast live. But I did not get to see what happened real time, but I kept up with the data. But I had to watch it when I was fully awake on Sunday. I'm not going to lie, I was at the gym, and I got the alert that the U.S. had won. The class itself was from 9 to 10. So like towards the end of the class is when I got the alert. Like I knew they were winning, and then I knew they were tied, and then I knew what happened in overtime. Then I went home and I watched it. And it was great. It was great. because it made me feel like no longer is the U.S.

this underdog story. The U.S. is on par with other nations who have prioritized hockey. And I know that's a bummer for our neighbors up north, but hey, them's the brakes. The USA has arrived and the USA is not going anywhere. Watching specifically the third period, but even before that, I was like,

I think Canada is playing a better game of hockey. than the U.S.? But hockey is one of those sports where if you don't get the bounce, the post is real. You have to find a way to not only have more opportunities than your opponent,

but to take advantage. And if you don't get the brakes, you end up losing an overtime, three-on-three game for a gold medal. I ended up on Saturday night, spent the night at my parents in the mighty northwest suburbs where they might build a new Bears stadium.

Spent the night, I set my alarm. for, I knew my dad was going to get up and watch it. Hey, hey, why I'm going to wake you up? I was like, you know what? You know what, Dad? I'm going to set the alarm for 9 o'clock and we'll see what happens. The alarm goes off.

I look at my phone. It could not have been more perfect. It says on my phone that it is a tie game. It's one, one after two periods. I jump out of bed like it's Christmas morning. I go downstairs and I get my coffee and I go into another room in my parents' house. there's my mom. My mom is in another room because my mom is one of these sports fans who can't handle it when the pressure gets too much. He's like, I am not going to watch this. I can't handle it right now.

But I went and hung out with my dad in the other room where the game was blaring and we just had a blast. And my mom actually did eventually come into the room. And when the goal is scored, I'm going crazy. for some reason because it's so sudden and it's for all the marbles, it did remind me of the Black Hawk's first cup of their three cup run in 2010 when you didn't know that Taves, or excuse me, that Kane had scored. He's running down, throwing the mitts up. That's what it felt like. It's like for the Hawks won a Stanley Cup, Team USA wins gold.

That was the feeling to a different level, not quite the same. Like the Blackhawks level was different. That was like Pride, Chicago, that was a 10. This was a little different, but in the same sort of family of feeling that I had, Blackhawks versus Olympics. Well, I had a good laugh because Mark Lazarus, who covers the Blackhawks for the athletic, and, you know, was the noted longtime Blackhawks reporter here in town, had the barf cry die during Twitter when Twitter was like fun.

You know, so that was always the stress of watching the, hockey playoffs. Oh, that's a great, yeah. And I did think of him and the barf cry die while I was watching, while I was watching the game and just understanding the stress, you know, and knowing that even when you're watching an Olympics time delay, where you know what you're going to see, just feeling it all together. And then even watching the replays of the medal ceremony,

we're just incredibly emotional. But the lead that Mark Lazarus has that I want to share is pretty amazing, too. to their graves, to their blanking graves. And he types another letter in there. But that's the point is, if this were on the other side, for the U.S. to get as close as it had gotten to a gold medal since 2010, and then arguably even closer when you consider what happened that year, you know, that was Cindy Crosby's team taking them down.

You don't want to win silver. You know, you want to win either of the bronze or the gold, because at least at that point you're winning the game. But in this case, to be so close and to have just an incredible performance from Connor Hellibuck as well. I mean, that's one of those performances that'll stand out for the ages. Like to have 41 saves in the game. Oh, yeah.

41 out of 42. Like, how do you even put that into discussion? Because that's something where even when Laz was tweeting where he's like, he has 40 saves. and we're going into overtime. And then what do you see? But one of those performances where you really have a goalie stand on his head. And, you know, that's the other point about this is in the Olympics,

we talk about the, well, Canada feels like they were the better team. You know, there's the Nathan McKinin quote of, of you tell me, you tell me who the judge was of who was the better team today. That's the nature of this. You know, Team USA lost in a shootout in 2020. to a Slovakia team who ended up winning the bronze medal. That's the perilous nature of knowing that that is your fate in this tournament. And it's not a best to seven like the NHL playoffs,

but for Team USA to come out and really be resilient the entire tournament, tells you a lot about who this team really was. The expectation, going back to the gold or bust mantra that they decided to really lock on to, because they weren't here for Saturday. second place. They weren't here for the play-play. They were here to bring home the gold. And it didn't seem, not that it wasn't realistic of a goal, but they were definitely not favored. And as the game went on, and that's why it is probably good that it's a one game thing and not a best

of three. Because as the game went on, you saw the team that was better on paper looked better on the ice, and a goalie stood on his head. Like a goalie stood on his head. Let's, let's be honest about what happened. 41 saves out of 42s. A goalie stood on his head. I mean, especially in the third period the saves on Taves and celebrating, oh my God, the breakaway.

Like, it was talk about, you guys didn't watch it in real time. That stuff is heart attack stuff in real time. I have a question. I don't know that I could have handled it. Oh, I was so, you would have been in that room with my mom. She would have been, yeah. Here's my question. Did she go to the room when Kelmachar

scored? What forced her out of the room? I think she finally... Because like, one, nothing, you feel pretty good. Well, once it goes to three-on-three, she's like, screw it. And here's what I told my mom. I said, mom, and this leads them to what I was going to say. I was like, you have to understand all of the pressure of the world, and this is on Canada. They are raised to be win gold medals in hockey.

That is their pride, their civic pride, their worth. All the pressure, every bit of it was on the Canadian team. never seen athletes so sad to have silver medals put around their necks. I felt like just looking, literally looking at the faces of the Canadian players as they are being presented as the second best team in the world and that they were depressed. And it made me think of the Olympics as a whole. Is there anything more depressing that a silver medal? Silver is the worst in team sports. And bronze, while we're out at bronze, you kind of suck too. No, bronze at least wins their game, though. That's the difference.

It's like winning the NIT championship in basketball. In the bronze medal game, the winner is happy. That's true. Yeah, kind of. You know, a little bit more. Like, really, the Olympics is about golds and golds only. I don't care. Quantity, forget it.

It's quality. The only thing worthwhile at all of the Olympics are gold medals. I don't care if the Americans had the quantity of metal. Tell me how many golds they had. That's how I was feeling. So somehow, some way, I was able to get Gene Grotie back in the room because she understood that, hey, there's no, we're not supposed to win. This is Canadians, this is Canada's sport. It's not ours. So she got to enjoy it too. What about the Canadians, like Nathan McKinnon,

I don't know if you saw what he said after the game, you be the judge of who's the better team day. The whole thing, just the sore loserness of it all. And I get it. You hurt. Hurt people, hurt people. And Canadian was hurting. But that's the point is, is that's how the tournament goes. Like Team USA didn't say that when they lost in overtime to Slovakia. last time. You know, that's the, I don't know if they end up changing the rules. Like Edzo talked about that on Mully and Haugh a little bit this morning with Zach Zadman and David Haw, the concept of, do you keep that happening because it is so perilous, you know, because it really does come down to chance. And I remember being in Beijing and watching, watching the 2022 team just agonized

after defeat because they, you are so close in a three on three. But there was good coaching and just a good level of U.S. play that went on too, that put them in those positions. You know, and Edzo talked about this. They had a lot of time in front of the net, even though they didn't have as many shots on goal to start. And he goes, you can't pass your way into the net here. Like, you guys need to get some purposeful shots on goal. And you started to see that just wear it out and wear it out.

And the other thing, too, is not only did Helibook make 41 saves, but Team USA had numbers every single time Canada was in their zone. So because of that, I feel like, yeah, Nathan McKinnon can say that, and I understand the anguish that they have, especially after their women's team lost to the women, too, which is a very big deal. But to have it go down like this, to have Team USA come through and also honor the late Johnny Goodroy, like we haven't even gotten to all the emotional parts of this. Again, Catherine Tappen joins us at 1045. We can't wait to talk to her. So let's listen coming up next to some of the sights and sounds, too, that we had, because poor team. Canada. Not only you get the silver, but then you get the little stout stuffed animal that was handed to you. Did you notice that too? You guys see that? Yeah, they're just looking like, uh, what's

this? And first you get your medal and then after that happens, then you get your celebratory stout. Those things are going to go for big money on the second market. I think they would have preferred those. They would have preferred those over the silver medals. Yeah, I don't think they wanted the silver. You know that's like a fancy name for a member of the weasel family in the stout. Really? I've never heard of the stolt. Just when I thought of, educational. They seem to Are they babies? Yes, they are just babies. Yes.

Or at least they look like they are. More Olympic hockey talk coming up next. This is Rahimi Harris and Grotie on 1043, the score. Marshall Harris, Mark Grotty, and me, Layla Rahimi. Thank you for joining us on this Monday. Ray Diaz and Tyler Buehderbaugh are our producers. Brandon Fryer helps us out as well as we broadcast live from the score. It's Hyundai Studios brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers.

We also have a Twitch chat that you can join us on. which.tv slash the score Chicago. Connor O'Donnell, Jacob Stutz, and Max Curtis, help man that as well. And you've been texting and calling. So hang out. 312, 644, 67, is our number. An incredible message that actually takes me back to the inspiration of some of the Blackhawks teams from Mike Toriko. And a wonderful interview with Catherine Tappen coming up next.