{"id":1163426,"date":"2026-02-22T21:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T02:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/?p=1163426"},"modified":"2026-02-22T21:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T02:34:11","slug":"blue-jackets-zach-werenski-made-the-play-before-the-play-in-team-usas-gold-medal-win-at-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/blue-jackets-zach-werenski-made-the-play-before-the-play-in-team-usas-gold-medal-win-at-olympics\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jackets' Zach Werenski made 'the play before The Play' in Team USA's gold medal win at Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blue Jackets’ Zach Werenski made ‘the play before The Play’ in Team USA’s gold medal win at Olympics<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>.
\n Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Zach Werenski made the play before The Play.<\/p>\n

Team USA may not have won the gold medal in men’s hockey at the 2026 Winter Olympics without the Columbus Blue Jackets<\/a>‘ superstar defenseman.<\/p>\n

Jack Hughes made the final headline for his game-winning goal in overtime.<\/p>\n

Connor Hellebuyck earned his deserved plaudits for his work in goal.<\/p>\n

Werenski, though, is the guy who made the Hughes goal happen.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0<\/strong>Jack Hughes, not a miracle, just magic<\/a><\/p>\n

In the 3-on-3 overtime format, things change quickly, and Team Canada appeared to have a transition opportunity in order.<\/p>\n

Somehow, though, Werenski stuck a stick out and deflected the puck back into the offensive zone for the Americans.<\/p>\n

Then, he turned on the jets and got to the puck first. He squared himself up. He saw Hughes and placed a perfect pass on his stick. Hughes did the rest.<\/p>\n

JACK HUGHES DELIVERS AMERICA’S GOLDEN MOMENT IN OVERTIME. pic.twitter.com\/4foFDOri53<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) February 22, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0<\/strong>Team USA honors Johnny Gaudreau in special way after gold medal<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s a moment that deserves just about as much praise as Hughes.<\/p>\n

It’s Eli Manning, evading a crazy pass rush before the David Tyree helmet catch.<\/p>\n

It’s Jarome Iginla, getting in position before feeding Sidney Crosby for the game winner in the 2010 gold medal game.<\/p>\n

And now it’s Werenski.<\/p>\n

He’ll be welcomed back to Columbus with a hero’s reception. The Blue Jackets have known for a long time what they’ve had in Werenski.<\/p>\n

And with a gold medal on the line, he showed it on Sunday in Milan.<\/p>\n

Whenever that highlight is shown, it’ll be Werenski hustling for the puck to make it happen. His legacy will always last in that moment.<\/p>\n

More Olympics news:<\/h2>\n

This U.S. luge star was parodied on SNL<\/a>Mikaela Shiffrin just broke the Olympics<\/a>Megan Keller’s childhood dreams culminate in a dream come true<\/a>U.S. women’s hockey star’s brothers go viral at Olympics<\/a>Eileen Gu responds to hate only way she knows how<\/a>A dog stole the show at the finish line of cross country skiing<\/a><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/blue-jackets-zach-werenski-made-213411820.html<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blue Jackets’ Zach Werenski made ‘the play before The Play’ in Team USA’s gold medal win at Olympics originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1163427,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1163426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1163426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1163426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1163426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1163427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1163426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1163426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1163426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}