Matthew and Brady Tkachuk tell the story of Team USA smuggling beer into the Olympic Village

The 2026 U.S. men's hockey team is going to go down as one of the most iconic teams in American sports history.

However, NHL stars Matthew Tkachuk of the Florida Panthers and Brady Tkachuk of the Ottawa Senators — both members of that team — said there was another moment they knew the team was different.

That moment? Smuggling some brewskis into the Olympic Village.

Say it with me: USA! USA! USA!

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Team USA hockey players celebrate their 2-1 overtime victory against Canada to win the gold medal in the men's gold medal match at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, on Feb. 22, 2026. (Elsa/Getty Images)

The Tkachuks — whose summers started earlier than I'm sure either one would've liked — welcomed ex-NHLer Shane O'Brien onto their "Wingmen" podcastWingmen podcast, and the two told a wild story about how trying to get some beers galvanized the boys in their quest for gold.

O'Brien, a Canadian, commended the Americans for shacking up in the Olympic Village, and Matthew said that helped the team bond.

They then told a story about how they brought some beers into the Village, which they were under the impression was dry.

Buffalo Sabres star Tage Thompson was a key figure in a wild Team USA beer run at the Olympics that Matthew and Brady Tkachuk say helped galvanize the team. (Winslow Townson-Imagn Images)

It started with a team dinner and a plan to go to a bar. However, the bar they went into was about to close. When it was closing time, they loaded up on beers to take back to the Village.

Most of these were in brown paper bags, except for the ones being shepherded by star Tage Thompson, who simply had a case of cold ones that he carried on his shoulder.

"All of a sudden, Tage just has a case on his shoulder," Brady said. "(We) walk right through the security, (he) sets it down like on the X-ray machine, and like we're like, 'What is going on right now?'"

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The concern, of course, was that Thompson, a key player for the Americans, would get booted from the Village.

Instead, security said nothing, and Thompson walked around with a case of beer on his shoulder like it was a boombox, according to Brady.

"This is what I knew we had a tight group when we were going through that," he said. "It was that was a blast."

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Brady Tkachuk, Jack Hughes, Matthew Tkachuk and Quinn Hughes attend a celebration of the U.S. men's hockey team's Olympic gold at E11EVEN Miami in Miami, Fla., on Feb. 23, 2026. (Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images for E11EVEN Miami)

Matthew agreed.

"So yeah, I knew once Tage did that we had a very good chance of winning it," the Panthers forward said. "I'm like, 'Oh f--k, everything's working right for us right now, fellas.'"

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He was right.

So, maybe at the 2030 Games in the French Alps, Team Canada will go on a few more beer runs.