A sea of red, white and blue left Olympic hockey fans struggling to comprehend what they were observing in Friday’s Team USA-Slovakia men’s semifinal in Milan.
With both teams donning their respective nation’s colors, social media was quickly flooded with complaints about the optics of the highly anticipated matchup.
‘How did nobody say, “You know, maybe the United States and Slovakia shouldn’t wear the exact same jerseys?”‘ Kansas City star reporter Pete Sweeney asked on X.
‘Crazy color clash here in the USA vs Slovakia men’s hockey semifinal,’ another fan remarked. ‘The uniforms look the same.’
One fan blamed the International Olympic Committee for the similarities between Team USA’s white jersey and the mostly blue sweater of Slovakia.
‘The Olympics [cannot] be serious right now,’ they wrote on X. ‘I love me some Red White and Blue, but this is out of control.’
With both teams donning their respective nation’s colors, social media was quickly flooded with complaints about the optics of the highly anticipated matchup
Jack Eichel watches for a rebound against Samuel Hlavaj of Team Slovakia in the second
Slovakia’s Adam Liska (23) challenges with United States’ Jake Guentzel (59) on Thursday
‘This uniform situation in USA vs Slovakia is borderline unwatchable,’ another added.
Of course, a solution to the problem isn’t so obvious. Each Olympic team has two jerseys, and even if they’d worn their other uniform, the red-white-and-blue blur would remain.
As for whether or not it impacted the action on Friday in Milan, players did not seem to be too bothered. Team USA pulled ahead 2-0 in the opening frame on Dylan Larkin’s goal, assisted by Zach Werenski and Tage Thompson, as well as a power-play goal from Thompson with 41 seconds remaining in the period.
Thompson’s score was particularly impressive as the Buffalo Sabres winger beat Slovakian goalie Samuel Hlavaj on a blazing one-timer from Jack Eichel.
The winner of Friday’s game will advance to Sunday’s gold medal game against Canada, who came back to beat Finland, 3-2, in the other semifinal.
The Olympic favorites’ comeback began when Sam Reinhart deflected a Cale Maker slap shot in the second period. From there, Shea Theodore tied the game in the third period to set up Nathan MacKinnon’s game winner with 35.2 seconds remaining.
‘There wasn’t really any panic,’ Canadian center Nick Suzuki told reporters after the win. ‘We were going to get our chances eventually.’
