--- title: The Internet Can't Believe U.S. Hockey Lost to Slovenia description: The U.S. Olympic hockey team fell on Wednesday to Slovenia in the opening round of play in PyeongChang, to the surprise of many fans. canonical: https://time.com/5157946/us-hockey-slovenia/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-14T17:39:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-12T08:58:20.116Z og:title: The Internet Can't Believe U.S. Hockey Lost to Slovenia og:description: The U.S. men's team surprised viewers by falling to the Slovenian squad og:url: https://time.com/5157946/us-hockey-slovenia/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte91b00e65edc37c3/6989278597cdffa0d46b44ff/us-hockey-olympics-slovenia.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4327 og:image:height: 2434 og:image:alt: Ice Hockey - Winter Olympics Day 5 - United States v Slovenia og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Internet Can't Believe U.S. Hockey Lost to Slovenia twitter:description: The U.S. men's team surprised viewers by falling to the Slovenian squad twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte91b00e65edc37c3/6989278597cdffa0d46b44ff/us-hockey-olympics-slovenia.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Internet Can't Believe the U.S. Men's Hockey Team Just Lost to Slovenia > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=df323650-f96d-48e3-ba7f-d029cd71365e&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Here's What An Olympic eSports Competition Could Look Like [Watch (HLS stream): Here's What An Olympic eSports Competition Could Look Like](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/to3V05qI.m3u8) (1:40)  _Published 2018-02-08. A look at what an eSports Olympic event could potentially look like in the future._  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Feb 14, 2018 5:39 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Feb 14, 2018 5:39 PM UTC While Team USA [has been cleaning up](http://time.com/5155334/usa-womens-hockey-beats-russia/) at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics this year, handily scooping up medals in snowboarding, ice skating and luge, men’s hockey turned out to be a weak spot on Wednesday after the U.S. team fell to Slovenia in overtime of the preliminary round of Group B play. Americans are pretty good at hockey: we are part of a league that’s widely considered the best in the world, after all. But this year, the [NHL declined to allow](http://time.com/4947041/nhl-players-2018-winter-olympics/) its players to participate in the Winter Olympic Games, citing concerns about having to put the league on hold for three weeks. Instead, the U.S. men’s team in South Korea [is made up of a mix](http://time.com/5084226/team-usa-hockey-teams-2018-olympics/) of college athletes, Europe-based players and those who play for other leagues, with only one member of the squad with NHL experience. The ban has also impacted many other countries whose star players compete for NHL teams as well. So going into competition, fans were worried that the U.S. might not live up to its mighty record in this event. Turns out those fears could be well-founded, as the U.S. went down to the Slovenian team 3-2 at the Kwandong Hockey Centre in Gangneung in a dramatic overtime finish. This especially shocked viewers given the small pool of talent in Slovenia versus that of the U.S., based on population alone. Next up, the U.S. men face off against Slovakia while Slovenia takes on the Olympic Athletes from Russia. And if these results are anything to go by, there will be many more unpredictable finishes in this Olympics’ hockey play to come. It’s not all bad news on the hockey front, though: the U.S. women’s team handily beat Russia in an opening round, [even setting an Olympic record.](http://time.com/5155334/usa-womens-hockey-beats-russia/) > [](https://twitter.com/PierreVLeBrun/status/963782525821730816) > [](https://twitter.com/MrJacobCharles/status/963803917321625601) > [](https://twitter.com/Miles%5FMcQuinn/status/963803574512824320) > [](https://twitter.com/pillar32/status/963784917615292416) > [](https://twitter.com/NFattey/status/963802780124221441) > [](https://twitter.com/i%5Fam%5Fwhite%5Frice/status/963801895142871040) > [](https://twitter.com/Hawkslax19/status/963803993997758465) ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] Hi my name's Ralf Reichert, I' [ m founder and CEO of ESL. And we're guests here right before the Olympic games and this is kind of a lead in tournament to showcase what E- sports is. Knows that the battle is coming and here she goes. [ UNKNOWN ] In most sports, being part of the Olympic is a dream for every athlete. Looking back, 2000, when we founded DSL, the reason was there was no infrastructure for the players. So we really wanted to build this stage web players can shine, where they can be celebrated as stars, And follow their passion. [ MUSIC ] I have to play Starcraft II, at least for five to eight to 15 hours a day, some times, just to prepare for the tournament. And one single mistake can cost me a game or money or fame. [ MUSIC ] More and more people watching online tournaments and as much audience we have which coming closer to be on olympic games. 18 players remaining here on the world stage. [ MUSIC ] I think a lot of went to sports on their tradition and probably not because they are so popular as a spectator sport and the younger demographics is [ INAUDIBLE ] Has a very high penetration and some of the traditional sports are probably not growing in their demographic so to stay with the digital generations and the more digital world we are moving into, I think it's a total no blader. 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