BEIJING — When Brianna Decker went down during the first period of the U.S. women’s hockey team’s first game at the 2022 Winter Olympics, suffering a broken left fibula and several torn ankle ligaments in a gruesome fall against Finland, the defending gold medalists lost their alternate captain and star center for the rest of the tournament. But they also gained a coach.
“We call her Coach Decks now,” forward Abby Roque says, “because she’s got a new role helping out with everything we need, just being a voice to us all, telling us what maybe she sees in the stands and just amping us up.