PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — Losses in Olympic gold medal games can make countries do surprising things, especially when those losses happen twice in a row, to the same team, and that team presents the only real competition in a sport where there is Canada and the United States and then everyone else.
So after the United States women’s hockey team endured a soul-crushing overtime loss to Canada at the last Olympics in Sochi, Coach Robb Stauber did not chalk up the past shortcomings to a couple of bad bounces as he prepared the team for its next Olympic campaign.