The Olympic spirit takes a few forms. There's total dominance, as the best athletes in the world display their mastery. There's the unlikely upset, when deep underdogs overcome the odds. And then there's the Olympians with no chance in hell. The ones who are outclassed, outmatched, mostly just happy to be there. Sometimes those Olympians don't know or don't care that they have no hope, and put on the performance of their lives, and that it's still not nearly enough only makes it more moving. This can be the most inspiring form of Olympic pride: battling to the last in the face of certain defeat.
Italy's men's hockey team had no chance against Sweden. The Swedes, medal favorites, boast a combined 16,880 NHL games of experience. The Italians? A big fat zero NHL games. This was by design: Team Italy could have pursued NHLers with Italian heritage, and convinced them to spend the minimum two years with the national team to be eligible for the Olympic, but instead chose to actually try to build a program more or less from scratch—Italian-born players, and guys playing in lower-tier leagues across Europe. The idea was that this should be a sustainable program, one that even if it can't really compete now, hopes to be a genuine force on the European scene in decades to come. A roster like that was going to get its ass beat in Milan Cortina, where the Italians as hosts would receive automatic entry into the field of 12; that was understood. Their first game, against Sweden on Wednesday, should have been a laugher. It was not. It finished 5-2 Sweden yet felt like a victory for the home side.
Don't get it twisted: Sweden was dominant. I suspect that before their next game their coaches will tell them, "Do exactly what you did in that one." They controlled the puck. They dictated the pace of play. They peppered the Italian net to the tune of 60 shots, an Olympic record in the NHL era. That they did not put up historic blowout numbers—it was still a one-goal game with five minutes left—is almost entirely down to Damian Clara, the Italy goaltender who played the game of his or anyone else's life.
Clara was the last (and often first) line of defense for an Italian side that was never going to keep up, but he was nearly enough. The 21-year-old made 46 saves in 46 minutes of play, and there wasn't a softie among them. Sweden's speedsters buzzed the net, and sniped from the point, and tried to wrongfoot him with cross-ice passes, and Clara remained stout and alert. The Tre Kronor attack rolled again and again with the regularity of a tide, and Clara defied it with more success than Cnut. Olympic video is kind of a shitshow, but scrub around to any moment of the game highlight reel and you're likely as not going to land on a Damian Clara save.
“Unbelievable,” said Italy forward Cristiano DiGiacinto. “When you have a goalie performance like that, it’s hard not to want to fight for him.”
The game was still 3-2 when Clara injured himself making his best save of the night, denying Elias Pettersson on a breakaway with the skate save pictured above. They haven't announced the specifics of the injury, but I think I pulled my groin watching it. Clara was replaced by Davide Fadani, who hung tough but allowed the backbreaker to Mika Zibanejad on a shot from distance. An empty-netter cinched things for Sweden. If ever a loss was covered in glory, this was one for Italy.
Clara became the first-ever Italian-born player selected in the NHL Draft when he was taken in 2023's second round by the Anaheim Ducks. He's played in Austria, Sweden, Finland, and had a cup of coffee with AHL San Diego. At 6-foot-6 he's certainly got an imposing frame, but his age and inconsistency made him no sure thing to even start this game. He's clearly got the highest ceiling, though, and Italy head coach Jukka Jalonen was rewarded for trusting him enough to start. “Anaheim is lucky to have a prospect like that," Victor Hedman said. "He played unbelievable."
There's no word on Clara's status for Italy's next game, against Slovakia on Friday. Even if he can't take the ice again, he's already a national hero. It probably would have been thrill enough, for a 21-year-old representing his hockey neophyte home country, to have been scored upon by the likes of Landeskog and Nylander. To turn those guys away 46 times, though? Forza.
