For a few moments, J.T. Miller and Vincent Trocheck had the Garden spotlight to themselves.
A video montage congratulating the Rangers’ five Team USA representatives from the Winter Olympics — who all were part of the run in Milan that ended with the country’s first gold medal in men’s hockey since 1980 — had just finished playing Thursday, recognizing Miller, Trocheck, head coach Mike Sullivan (USA head coach), assistant coach David Quinn (USA assistant coach) and president and general manager Chris Drury (USA assistant general manager) — with Drury, the architect of this disappointing Rangers season and retooling, getting booed loudly during the proceedings.
And as stars were projected onto the ice, as the rest of the Rangers and Flyers watched from their benches, Trocheck pumped his arms as “U-S-A” chants echoed throughout the Garden.
The ceremony, something that has been replicated throughout the NHL as players rejoined their respective teams, lasted around four minutes pregame.
Sullivan’s speech from inside the American locker room pregame played on the scoreboard. Highlights from the gold-medal game, too.
And then Trocheck and Miller were both shown receiving their gold medals.
Trocheck and Miller were key pieces of a penalty kill unit that went 18-for-18 throughout the tournament, including a critical 5-on-3 against Canada on Sunday that could’ve altered the trajectory of the gold-medal game if the Canadians capitalized.
Across the entire men’s hockey tournament, Trocheck finished with the third-highest faceoff percentage.
“I’m pretty f–king proud, I’ll be honest,” Trocheck said after Sunday’s win. “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.”
And Thursday, the celebration for Team USA’s medal — which stretched from Milan to Miami to the White House, morphing into a political controversy along the way — reached their home venue.