RALEIGH, N.C. -- Thanks to the magic of texting and FaceTime, Tom Kuhnhackl was at least able to take in a small part of Germany's historic upset of Canada in the Olympics on Friday.
Kuhnhackl, who set an alarm to get up early to watch the game, said that friend and former teammate Yasin Ehliz connected with him moments after the Germans' 4-3 win over Canada to show the scene in the jubilant locker room.
"It was obviously incredible," said Kuhnhackl.
Actually if it weren't for him, Germany wouldn't have even been in the Olympic tournament. His game-winning goal against Latvia in the 2016 World Championship qualified Germany for the PyeongChang Games. Not that he was about to take credit for that.
"It's not just one player, it's the whole country," Kuhnhackl said. "Everyone who was involved helped a lot, and now obviously everyone's living the dream."
Of course had the NHL allowed its players to participate in the Olympics, it's highly doubtful that Germany beats Canada or, for that matter, the Czech Republic beats the U.S.
"Would have loved to be there but with all this stuff that was going on and us not able to go, it's obviously frustrating, but now that we're in the gold medal game, maybe it's a good thing that we didn't go," Kuhnhackl said with a smile.
He also said that he hasn't talked any smack to his Canadian teammates, at least not yet anyway. He joked that he was waiting on the outcome of the Penguins' game against the Hurricanes to gauge their reaction.
The Germans will again be huge underdogs in Saturday's gold medal game against the Olympic Athletes from Russia, a team that includes former NHL superstars Ilya Kovalchuk and Pavel Datsyuk.
"Now everything is possible," Kuhnhackl said of his team's chances.
Kuhnhackl was hoping that the Penguins' charter from South Florida lands in time for him to see at least the end of the game.
It will be the first time that Germany has competed for a medal since the 1976 Innsbruck Games, when then-West Germany won the bronze. Kuhnhackl's father Erich, a member of the IIHF Hall of Fame, was on that team. Tom said he planned to FaceTime his dad as soon as he got back to the team hotel in Raleigh.
"It's the biggest moment ever," Kuhnhackl said.
Kuhnhackl had another reason to smile Friday. After missing the last month with a lower body injury, he is close to returning but won't play in tonight's game against the Hurricanes.
"It's obviously always frustrating when you're not in the lineup, but you're always happy when the team strings a couple wins together," he said.