Rangers stars J.T. Miller, Vincent Trocheck prove Bill Guerin right at Olympics: ‘Pretty f–king proud’

MILAN — Billy Guerin knew exactly what he wanted to do with the first NHL-studded United States men’s hockey team to return to the Olympics in more than a decade.

His roster choices were intentional. Some of them were made immediately after the 4 Nations Face-Off championship loss to Canada. The USA general manager very clearly had a plan.

Both Guerin and head coach Mike Sullivan have been upfront about what factored into the decisions they made regarding personnel. The intention was to build a team in every sense of the word, not just a collection of All-Star players.

Chemistry. Roles. Dynamics.

It was never going to be strictly about the highest-scoring players.

With big names like Jason Robertson, Adam Fox, Cole Caufield and more sitting at home, Guerin and the USA front office fielded heavy criticism — especially considering how some players’ NHL seasons have gone. Certain decisions were picked apart incessantly, all the way through the Americans’ undefeated streak in the tournament.

After the U.S. captured gold Sunday at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics, however, the chosen players sure made Guerin look good.

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“I’m pretty f–king proud, I’ll be honest,” said Vincent Trocheck, who had the gold medal hanging around his neck after he finished second in faceoff win percentage on the team (66.67) and third in the entire tournament. “Yeah, we heard all the talk, that we shouldn’t be here. Listen, I’m not naive. I know that there’s players that have more skill to be in the NHL. We were able to come here and we had a job to do, and it was to be good penalty kill guys, face-off guys, character guys. We took that role and we ran with it.”

That penalty kill was key for the Americans throughout the whole tournament, but especially in the gold medal game.

Fending off a 5-on-3 power play for 93 seconds against the most dangerous five-man unit assembled maybe ever for Canada on Sunday, Trocheck and Rangers teammate J.T. Miller capped their Olympic debuts at the heart of a perfect 18-for-18 penalty kill unit.

“Just commitment,” Miller said of the PK. “It’s really easy to get off course with a group like that. They can do stuff that’s a little more abnormal to make you kind of get off the game plan and do something you normally wouldn’t do. I just think we trusted our instincts. Our chemistry is really good as a unit even though we’ve only played two tournaments together now. Just so thankful and lucky, and I can’t believe it happened.”

This was a carefully constructed lineup. Players who are used to top-line minutes and power play roles accepted fourth-liner work with smiles on their faces.

Everyone had a job, and played it to perfection. For the players, a gold medal was their reward.

For Guerin, the prize is some well-deserved confirmation that he was right.

“Maybe the most important aspect of it is just the character of the group, the personality of the team,” Sullivan said. “As I said to the players — you guys are probably going to laugh when I say it — but the team was built with personality in mind. We are loaded with personality up and down our lineup. There are whiskey drinkers and milk drinkers, and we’ve got a lot of whiskey drinkers.”