Team USA’s Olympic Hockey Jerseys Are Finally Good Again
Now THAT'S a sweater!
The NHL is heading back to the Olympics, and thankfully, that also means the return of good-looking Team USA Olympics sweaters.
Team USA has plenty of iconic sweaters. From the glory days of the 1960 Squaw Valley Games and the Miracle on Ice at Lake Placid to the memorable sweaters of the late 90s and early 2000s.
However, for the last few Olympic cycles, Nike has really struggled to come up with good-looking jerseys.
I don't know if you remember what the last couple of batches of Olympic sweaters looked like or blocked them out like a traumatic childhood incident, but they were not great.
Who could forget the bizarre, winged jerseys worn for the 2018 Games in PyeongChang?
What's with the wings?. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
I get wanting to try something different… but what the hell was that?
If you think those wings were a nod to a bald eagle or something, you're mistaken. Most teams had them. One of the only ones that had the stones to not let Nike mess with their look was Sweden, which used their traditional "Tre Kronor."
Then, at the 2022 Beijing Games, there was a step in the right direction, but still, it wasn't a great look.
These are about as "meh" as you can get. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)
I'm not sure if these were so rough because the NHL wasn't around to say, "Hell, nah," but the league is back, and Team USA is officially going back to some iconic sweaters.
Those sometimes get mistaken for the Miracle on Ice sweaters, but they're closer to the 1960 ones. Either way. They're incredible.
This should be the standard Team USA jersey for both the men's and women's teams. It should be one of the untouchable looks like the aforementioned Sweden has.
It's just *chef's kiss* perfection, and will look mighty fine out on the ice in Italy next February.
Hopefully, we'll be seeing a lot of it as the Americans will enter the tournament as one of the favorites on the men's side after a Runner-Up finish at the 4 Nations Face-Off and an IIHF World Championship earlier this year.
As for the women's side, well, they're pretty much always a favorite in any tournament they play in and are likely on a collision course for a showdown with their arch rivals, Team Canada.