PLYMOUTH, Mich. — Gold or bust? Bill Guerin didn’t put it like that. But the general manager of the United States men’s Olympic hockey team made his expectations clear at the team’s orientation camp this week ahead of the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.

“We’re just trying to reach our ultimate goal,” Guerin said Wednesday. “That’s it, and we’re going to do whatever we have to, to do it.

“Everybody’s got great careers going on, and [you] play a big role on your team and this and that. It’s not about [that]. It’s about our flag, it’s about our colors, and it’s about our country. That’s it. We’re playing for our country, and that’s the most important thing. Just keep thinking of that.

“We have to make a push to get over this hump.”

The United States hasn’t won Olympic gold in men’s hockey since 1980 and a best-on-best men’s tournament since the 1996 World Cup of Hockey. But it took Canada to overtime in the 4 Nations Face-Off championship game last season, after defeating Canada in Canada earlier in the tournament.

It has a chance to prove something and leave a legacy in the Olympics.

The big questions: Considering how close it was to winning the 4 Nations and how tight the margins are, how much needs to change to put it over the top? What specifically?

The 4 Nations was an intense tournament, and the executives, coaches and players jumped back into the NHL season immediately afterward. They needed time to decompress and process everything.

“I’ll tell you what,” Guerin said. “It was hard. That was emotional. I was [messed] up for a couple days. It was crazy.”

Guerin, also GM of the Minnesota Wild, said the executives had a long dinner together at the NHL GM meetings in March. He said they asked each other, “What do you think we could have done differently, better? What’s got to change, or did we do a pretty good job?”

“I was extremely happy with the coaching staff,” Guerin said. “I was out-of-this-world happy with how the players performed. I don’t have any complaints. …

“I am proud of the way everybody worked and played and all that stuff. But we missed, and that’s where we have to find an edge. That’s where we can’t just sit here and say, ‘Hey, great job. It was close.’ That’s just not good enough. We have to figure a way out to get over the hump, and we’re looking at a lot of different things.”

Coach Mike Sullivan — then the coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins, now the coach of the New York Rangers — said he asked his staff to jot notes while their feelings were fresh and then let the emotions settle. The coaches met at orientation camp here Tuesday and talked a lot about the process they implemented ahead of the 4 Nations.

“Was there anything we would do different?” Sullivan said. “Did we like it? Everything from how we communicated with our players and some of the things we did to roll out our team concept with them to our roles and responsibilities as a coaching staff, what we were all responsible for and how that went.”

Sullivan tried to keep things in perspective.

“That [championship] game was very evenly matched,” Sullivan said. “I mean, we had, for example, three Grade A scoring chances before they scored in overtime, and we had it on the sticks of guys that, if we could select the guys to have the opportunities, we would want those guys to have them.

“So you know, I think sometimes we’ve got to be careful that we don’t overthink stuff. That team performed extremely well. In one game, anything can happen.”

The United States named the first six players to its roster June 16: forwards Jack Eichel, Auston Matthews, Brady Tkachuk and Matthew Tkachuk, and defensemen Charlie McAvoy and Quinn Hughes. The first five played in the 4 Nations. Hughes did not because of injury.

“From a sheer identity standpoint and style of play, we’re trying to implement a game plan to set our core group of players up for success,” Sullivan said. “That core group is going to be the core of the Olympic team also. They’re America’s best players, and you know the guys that we’re talking about, right? I think from that standpoint, you’re going to see a similar team.

“From a personnel standpoint, will there be some change? Possibly. I think a year in hockey is a long time.”

The United States brought 44 players to orientation camp (Matthew Tkachuk did not attend). Sullivan said he wanted the takeaway to be that they are in the running to make the team.

Guerin said the executives and coaches have “identified a number of players that we’ve got to really kind of get eyes on early and often” during the first half of the NHL season. Players can emerge, and injuries can occur before the 25-man roster is named in early January. The tournament will be Feb. 11-22.

“Listen, the guys that played in [the 4 Nations] did a great job, but we have to go back to the drawing board and start over again,” Guerin said. “Guys have to be playing well. They’ve got to be healthy. So it’s really tough to say, like, ‘How much is the roster going to change?’ I don’t know, and we’ll see as time goes on.”

Guerin said the United States will not try to assemble the 25 best players. It will try to build the best team.

“It’s not a full-time team,” Guerin said. “You don’t get all these practices and this and that, so you’ve got to have guys buying into roles and positions and things like that. I mean, every guy downstairs is on their first power play or their first penalty kill or whatever (on their NHL teams), and that’s just not the case when it comes to teams like this, so you need the chemistry. Player-wise, we could just pick, but you have to make sure it really fits.”

The good part is, the United States has developed so much depth, it feels it could ice two or three competitive teams.

“The [tough] part about it is, you’re going to disappoint some people, and that’s tough,” Guerin said. “Those are brutal phone calls to make.”

Sullivan said Milan represents a chance to prove the United States is at the pinnacle of hockey. It also represents a chance for these players inspire a generation the way the 1980 and 1996 teams did.

“I think they did it already at the 4 Nations, but if you win, you win a gold medal, that’s legacy stuff,” Sullivan said. “They all have a unique opportunity to put their stamp on history, to write their own story, both as individual players but also maybe more importantly as a team, and that’s what’s at stake. So from that standpoint, yeah, the stakes are high. They don’t get higher.

“But how much fun is that? That’s the way I look at it.”