Hilary Knight is making sure her final Olympics are memorable for all the right reasons

MILAN — Kendall Coyne Schofield “almost fell off the table” when Hilary Knight told her Wednesday morning about a plan she’d been keeping close to the chest for the past few months.

One day before playing her last game with Team USA at the Olympics, for a gold medal against Canada, Knight — the American captain, their talisman, their all-time leading goal scorer and one of the driving forces behind the growth of women’s hockey — was going to propose to her girlfriend, speedskater Brittany Bowe.

The couple had talked about proposing, but in general terms. “Never at the Olympics,” Knight said. She’d thought about something more traditional, maybe doing it on a hike. It didn’t feel right.

The two had met at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, when strict pandemic protocols were in place, and they needed to wear masks to interact. So to do it here in Milan, at the Games four years later, felt full circle. She’d had the ring for a few months.