United States vs. Canada will have a winner: everyone who is watching

This gold medal game, after these Olympics, feels greedy.

The NHL’s return to the Winter Games in Italy has gone exactly as expected: mismatches and meltdowns with late-game heroics and early-tournament surprises from a generation of men’s hockey stars who are as proud as they are elite. What’s transpired over the past 11 days has been a treat.

But if the two best countries didn’t end up at the end, the Olympics would have also been unsatisfying and incomplete.

Fortunately, or maybe inevitably, that didn’t happen.

Instead, here comes dessert on a full stomach.

It’s United States against Canada, appropriately in the Sunday morning finale of the Milan Cortina Olympics, to restart a gold-or-bust rivalry that’s been simmering since their last best-on-best showdown a year ago.

Will the rematch be worth the wait and give the Winter Games the finish it deserves?

The Americans have never been more talented, their skill, speed and sandpaper a combination no one has been able to crack. They had a few stumbles, letting Latvia hang around for the first half of the game and falling behind twice to Denmark, but were undefeated through the preliminary round.

In the quarterfinals, the United States was gut-checked by a tying goal from Sweden with 91 seconds to go in regulation but unfazed in overtime: Quinn Hughes, who has seen almost half the games he’s played with the Wild since a midseason trade from Vancouver reach overtime, barely left the ice before the defenseman served up the biggest goal of his career to send Team USA through to the semifinals.

There, the Americans were far superior to Slovakia, the 6-2 drubbing their most dominating performance of the Olympics.

The scoring struggles they might have had by choosing role players over 30-goal scorers and OT/shootout specialists Cole Caufield and Jason Robertson haven’t materialized. Hughes is the playmaker the United States lacked at the 4 Nations Face-Off when the U.S. was downed 3-2 in overtime by Canada in the final; his seven points in these Games, six of which are assists, are the most on Team USA.

Hughes’ brother Jack and captain Auston Matthews, who had quiet 4 Nations tournaments, have been catalysts, Matthew and Brady Tkachuk are producing and patrolling and Tage Thompson’s addition to the power play has made it even more potent; Thompson left the semifinals early because of injury but is expected to play in the gold medal game.

The blue line is deep, and goaltender Connor Hellebuyck has allowed a tournament-low five goals. But they’re about to face their toughest test: Only one team at the Olympics has scored more goals than the U.S., and that’s Canada.

A country with the NHL’s leading goal scorer and top point-getter should be a juggernaut, and Nathan MacKinnon and Connor McDavid are dangerous together. Teaming them up with 19-year-old Macklin Celebrini has created the most intimidating line in the tournament, Celebrini’s inclusion in the Olympics a no-brainer now after his age made the decision questionable at the time.

Celebrini has a tournament-best five goals, MacKinnon is right behind him with four, and McDavid’s 13 points are the most ever in an Olympics with NHLers.

Canada blitzed the preliminary round, outscoring the opposition 20-3, but the Canadians have been scared. Twice.

They had to rally from 2-1 and 3-2 deficits, including late in the third period, to sneak by Czechia in overtime during the quarterfinals. That probably prepared them to recover yet again in the semis, where Canada trailed 2-0 before Finland cratered under the Canadians’ relentless offensive attack for a 3-2 victory on a MacKinnon power-play goal with 36 seconds left.

A two-time gold medalist in his third Olympics, Crosby left the quarterfinals early hurt, but the heart-and-soul leader of the Canadians will be a game-time decision for a final that could be decided in any number of ways.

Team USA’s penalty kill hasn’t been scored on at all, while Canada’s power play is a potential Hall of Fame ballot.

The Canadians’ poise and pedigree have delivered when they’ve needed them most, but the Americans have thrived on their grit and their gall.

Then there’s the history: Canada has it and Team USA is trying to overcome it. With three golds with NHLers and nine all-time, Canada is the powerhouse with a 4-1 record vs. the U.S. at the Olympics in the NHL era — including 2-0 when gold has been on the line.

Team USA does have the hype, this collection of players becoming a sensation for their passion and belief and their chops. The opportunity to secure the United States’ first gold since the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” at Lake Placid wasn’t inherited but earned, and the job’s not done ... for either side.