It was 2010 and the Americans had just lost their chance at Olympic gold. Sidney Crosby scored an overtime goal against Team USA that sent Canada into an immediate celebration. The party in Vancouver lasted all night.

The scene in the American dressing room was much different. The players were crushed. They went into overtime thinking they were going to win.

And as players took off their gear for the final time of this Olympic tournament, those handling the equipment got to work. Players were going to scatter back to their teams across the NHL and their gear was going with them.

Team USA GM Brian Burke stepped outside the dressing room and saw the sticks being loaded into bags. Then he noticed who was doing it.

Jim Johannson, one of the highest ranking USA Hockey officials, coming off a crushing loss, was quietly assisting the trainers as they packed the sticks away.

“That’s the kind of guy he was,” Burke wrote in an e-mail. “One of the nicest and hardest-working hockey men I ever knew.”

The news of the shocking death of the 52-year-old Johannson hit the hockey world hard on Sunday. The calls went out early, one-by-one close friends were crushed by the news that the general manager of the 2018 men’s Olympic team was dead, his chance at winning his own Olympic medal as the architect of an Olympic team gone. The cause of his death wasn’t released.

Former USA Hockey executive director Dave Ogrean broke the news to Ron Wilson, who coached that 2010 Olympic team. Current executive director Pat Kelleher called Devils GM Ray Shero early Sunday to let him know. When Shero immediately called his coach John Hynes, who coached for years at the development program, he already knew. Longtime USA Hockey contributor Don Waddell was told the sad news by USA Hockey president Jim Smith.

It went around like that until everyone found out, almost as if it was too much burden for just one person in the USA Hockey organization to break this news to all those who meant so much to Johannson.

Hours later the emotions were still raw.

You could hear it in the voice of Toronto Maple Leafs GM Lou Lamoriello, who apologized while collecting his thoughts. “I can just picture him right now in Plymouth this summer, coming up and down the stairs to make sure he covered every base and made everyone feel good about what was happening,” Lamoriello told The Athletic. “I’m just lost for words.”

You could see it in how shaken Minnesota Wild defenseman Ryan Suter was when he talked about Johannson today.

“I’ve known him since I was probably 10 years old,” Suter said. “He helped a lot of young players get to where they are and helped kids grow up to be who they are.”

You could feel it when longtime USA Hockey trainer Stan Wong, who worked with Johannson on 10 men’s national teams, shared stories about their friendship. There was pain in his voice when he realized they’d been on countless trips together over a 17-year span, through countries all over the world, and only had a few pictures together. You don’t think of that stuff when you’re in the middle of doing all that work for your country.

He does have one photo he’ll keep forever.

About six months ago, Johannson sent Wong a photo of the two of them together. They were at Johannson’s wedding, where Wong sat at a table with Waddell, Burke and David Poile and laughed the entire night at the stories behind told. They’re smiling together in tuxedos. On the back, is Johannson’s writing that simply says, “Great photo.”

Wong took a picture of it, so it’s always with him on his phone.

“My heart is full of my memories of Jimmy and the laughs we shared,” Wong said. “I’m talking to you now — I’m crying in my heart, but I’m smiling in my face. Because he brought a smile to my face.”

A text from Dean Lombardi, who was the GM of the 2016 World Cup Team USA, summed it up quite well: “What really stands out at the forefront is that he possessed the most unique of all human qualities in that he was not happy unless everyone else was happy — a human being who will be sorely missed.”

That eagerness to help everyone around him manifested itself in a tireless workload. On Sunday, Burke and Shero had a phone conversation about Johannson and they marveled at how many people USA Hockey was going to have to hire in order to replace one guy.

His official title, besides GM of the 2018 U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team, was assistant executive director of USA Hockey. But he had his hands in everything, from growing the game at a grass-roots level to representing the country at all the different federation meetings around the world.

If you walked with Johannson around a hockey rink at an international event, people representing every country in the world would give a wave or stop to say hello.

One friend joked that there was one group of dignitaries that he suspected didn’t speak English, but when they saw Johannson, their faces lit up into a smile as they each gave a shout — “Hey JJ!”

If you needed to know anything about an American player at any level, the answer was always the same. Ask JJ. As Kevin Allen pointed out so eloquently, Johannson knew Auston Matthews before he was Auston Matthews. He was telling anyone who would listen that Zach Werenski was going to be a star.

This current Olympic team has the potential to be his crowning achievement because he was dipping pretty deep into the American pool of talent to come up with players. But even then, talking recently about each one of them, he was so excited about what they all brought to the table. He could break down their skillset and the role he envisioned each of them. Even better, he got to be the one to tell them they were getting a shot at achieving their Olympic dreams.

“I had two of the most fun days I’ve ever had at USA Hockey,” Johannson told The Athletic a few weeks ago.

He did it all. He called players. He called agents. He was the guy meeting the team bus driver early in the morning at a tournament to make sure transportation was set for the day. He was the guy calling room to room to make sure players didn’t oversleep.

“When you asked for something, he said yes and he didn’t even know what you were asking for,” Lamoriello said. “He was up and down. Running here and going there. He was talking to five people at the same time. He was doing anything and everything.”

Everything.

When the Americans first landed in Sochi for the 2014 Winter Olympics, it was a grueling day of travel. Everyone was exhausted. The management group got to the dorm rooms at the Olympic village and Shero could hear the phone ringing in Johannson’s room. In Russia. Moments after he arrived.

Shero assumed the worst — maybe a player was hurt or something had gone horribly wrong. He listened as Johannson responded on his side of the phone line.

“Uh huh.”

“Yeah.”

“OK.”

“Hold on. I’ll be right down.”

Shero quickly went to find out the problem. Who was calling moments after arrival?

It was one of the Team USA Olympic hockey players. He didn’t have toilet paper. Johannson was taking care of it, true to his promise that he’d take care of everything else so the players and coaches just had to worry about hockey.

“He was selfless,” Shero told The Athletic. “Nothing was too small or too big. It was all part of helping people.”

The results were impressive. During his time at USA Hockey, U.S. teams won 64 medals while competing internationally — including 34 gold, 19 silver and 11 bronze. He won a national championship at the University of Wisconsin as a player. He played in two Olympic games as a player — 1988 and 1992.

And this Olympic team he assembled to represent Team USA in February was the chance for him to have a signature moment. He wasn’t just part of the group selecting the team, this team was his. He was the general manager. It was a chance at defining his legacy. It still is.

For this one, he wasn’t going to have a group of NHL general managers around like previous Olympics. Not that he ever minded sharing the attention — quite the opposite. When tournaments ended, he always went out of the way to thank everyone who helped out, he knew the busy schedules everyone involved with the NHL keeps.

“He was like, ‘Thank you for the time,’” Shero said. “But to us, it was ‘No, JJ. Thank you for including us.’”

The Athletic’s Mike Russo contributed to this story.

(Top photo credit: AP Photo/Paul Sancya)