FREE BIRD!!! My Milan Olympics Recap

FREE BIRD!!! 🦅 🇺🇸

The 2026 Winter Olympics Ice Hockey opener in Milan did not disappoint. In a once-in-a-lifetime event, TEAM USA fought off a shaky first period of goals being taken away to dominate Latvia 5-1 with some of the cleanest goals I’ve ever seen! Putting the finishing touches on a trip to Italy I’ll never forget

On Thursday night we boarded a literally standing-room-only but free shuttle to the stadium. When I mean standing room only, we were air-vac packed into this thing. Though only a short ride, already pageantry was riding high as Lat-Via & USA chants broke out, fueling one another. It was only then that Take Me Home, Country Roads & Sweet Caroline asserted American dominance in the shuttle.

A fairly painless entry into the beautiful-from-the-outside, brand new & yes, totally unfinished Milano Santagiulia Arena. Once inside you could see from the bare-bones look, lack of permanent amenities, & even still pieces of construction tape laying around. Still, the event was a spectacle I’ll never forget & the Olympic volunteers were awesome everywhere!

Before the game we did walk around downtown Milano seeing the tourist sites & I must say, great job by Italy to mesh the must-see sites with Olympic activities, as we got to bobsled, curl, shoot some pucks, & even may have potentially won a gold in figure skating (I mean had to pick that one right!). The wife took gold in park snowboard of course.

The one complaint we did have of the experience was the official stores… we felt the online selection had much more variety. So a few collectible pins had to be enough to suffice.

I gave the wife my Spittin Chiclets USA Hockey is Do or Die pullover & went with my Kraken Joey Daccord(who just missed the roster, was on the preliminary list). The Daccord was quite popular as I was getting JOEY shouts all night!

As for the game, though only an opening-round preliminary & a 9:10pm local Italian time start, the energy was in the building. The chants were back & the arena was buzzing at the chance to see the nation’s best players in the red, white, & blue once again.

Last year’s Four Nations without a doubt did its job to create an extra buzz around this Winter Olympics ice hockey. With the nation finding out what a sport this can be, everyone from Uncle Sam to Honest Abe was in town.

Of course it was the Tkachuk brothers, Matt & Brady, to get it all going with a beauty of an early goal. It felt off to the races soon after as Quinn Hughes (he is Jack’s brother for the Devils, who maybe weren’t sure if he existed…see NJ Devils social media for context please) smashed one in, but an offside upon review was called.

This got a little uneasy the rest of the first period as the Latvians tied it up & another USA goal was called back. The crowd energy began to turn in favor of Latvia as the chants revved up. The section we were in was heavy pro-USA so that helped drown out the nerves.

The 2nd period though took all the doubt away as Free Bird was on repeat with 3 goals from the USA & maybe one of the smoothest periods of hockey I’d ever witnessed in person. Dangles, tic-tac-toe goals, & pure zone domination. The hunt for gold was back on & the Latvia crowd quieted.

The last goal of the period, with Jack Hughes starting the breakout, was the straight filth from the whole line, basically breaking the backs & any hope the Latvians had left. In the 3rd period things quieted down after the captain, Auston Matthews, from the slot hit a PP goal making it what would be the final 5-1.

Late in the game it got a little choppy, but sadly with a no-fighting or ejection rule put in place by the IOC/IIHF that’s all it came to be.

Only a preliminary game so I know the energy is going to heat up as the games get bigger. Even today the Finland vs Sweden game was bonkers at times as well.

An experience I won’t forget was made, to be able to not just watch your team but your country be represented in what is the most historic sports event there is, the Olympics.

I 100% recommend sports fanatics do the same. With two Olympics in the US within the next 10 years the chances are there. Though going to Italy was a nice treat as I took down as much pizza & Aperol Spritz as humanly possible, quite the clutch side quest. Now it’s up to USA to finish this thing so I can add seeing a gold medal team play to the list. U…S…A!