The 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics are well underway, with the men’s hockey competition expected to be one of the most entertaining events in Northern Italy this winter. That is, if you can find clips of the action on social media.
The Olympics has extremely strict rules that ban media outlets (including official ones like the NHL) from posting videos of the Games in order to protect broadcast rights. This means that any unauthorized videos shared by users online will be taken down, making it difficult for people to see clips or highlights of live events that aren’t directly posted by the Olympics’ social media account.
Enter the NHL’s social media team. As Team Canada faced off against Team Czechia in the men’s hockey opening game on Thursday, the NHL account shared an incredibly sophisticated rendering of a highlight of Canada center Macklin Celebrini scoring his country’s first goal in the NHL’s highly anticipated return to the Games.
Take a look at that extremely impressive and artistic video below:
Celebrini cinema 😮💨
— NHL (@NHL) February 12, 2026
Czechia vs. Canada is LIVE at the #MilanoCortina2026 #WinterOlympics on @peacock, @USANetwork, @cbcsports, & @cbcgem!
(🎨: @nba_paint) pic.twitter.com/Rl54etdvTo
Put in the Louvre. And big props to nba paint for the all-time great collaboration.
The New York Islanders’ social media team also got in on the fun, sharing their unique homemade highlight of Islanders star and Canadian center Bo Horvat’s goal during Team Canada’s 5-0 rout of Czechia.
A completely realistic and copyright free look at Horvat’s goal! pic.twitter.com/0I1fvOl3Rz
— New York Islanders (@NYIslanders) February 12, 2026
As you can imagine, the Olympic’s ridiculously strict copyright rules had hockey fans feeling a lot of FOMO and getting pretty angry at the organizers for not taking advantage of the opportunity to grow the game on the sport’s biggest stage.
Fans did, however, tip their hats to the media outlets who were trying their best during these tough times:
If you squint, it’s like you’re actually at the Olympics. https://t.co/ryLJC7AfES
— nba paint (@nba_paint) February 12, 2026
Real art is thriving in 2026. https://t.co/vCyykOyzou
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) February 12, 2026
significantly funnier than using ai everyone else needs to take notes https://t.co/MEQAyJEOU3
— sarah ⁶⁰ (@wollapologist) February 12, 2026
when the nhl is not allowed to post olympic clips so they have to draw it out for us pls 😭😭😭 https://t.co/arcW6MoL0C
— Shan (@shan_savvy) February 12, 2026
Epic way to work around a social embargo https://t.co/IyJC1XdbdU
— Elaina Layne (Rhoades) (@lovelaina) February 12, 2026
Freaking brilliant. Well done @NHL. This needs to be the new @HockeyCanada profile pic. Seriously. #IceHockey #MilanoCortina2026 https://t.co/H0q1N6rwjC pic.twitter.com/FNaJtKFBWh
— Michael Leach (@Mike_Leach1976) February 12, 2026
More Winter Olympics on Sports Illustrated
- Cross-Country Skier Goes Sleeveless En Route to Sixth-Place Finish
- Fans Loved What Myles Garrett Did for His Girlfriend Chloe Kim During Halfpipe Final
- Norway's Johannes Høsflot Klæbo Has Chance to Stand Alone as Most Golden Winter Olympian
- Mystique Ro Hates Roller Coasters, But Dove Headfirst Into Skeleton for an Olympic Dream
- Why Don’t Olympic Figure Skaters Get Dizzy?
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Hockey Fans Loved NHL’s Creative Post to Evade Copyrights in Milan Cortina Olympics.
