How fitting that the US won last night against Canada (5-3) in hockey, the game our northern neighbors practically own at every level (from the NHL down to Mites), on the eve of America’s last Olympic triumph in my opinion. This is equivalent to them beating us at all the other three major professional sports (baseball, basketball and football) in the same year. Imagine the World Series, NBA Championship and Super Bowl trophies residing in the Great White North simultaneously? Some idiot would seriously take Stephen Colbert’s advice to go up there and steal them back; which I think was attempted by Canadians the last time Chicago won the Stanley Cup. (Nope, it was only visiting in 1962. The Leafs still cinched it.)
I didn’t watch the game because we don’t have cable but I was catching the updates from NHL.com while enjoying Drag Me To Hell on the PS3. Once the USA had 4-2 lead with half of the third period over, I knew we had it in the bag.
Personally I was surprised. After how poorly America did in 2006, the hockey program decided to follow the approach basketball has done with the NBA. The team is a mix of veterans and up-and-comers, not the most famous Americans: rule number one from Herb Brooks. My hope for Team USA was to play well, lose with dignity against Sweden in the medal round then go home without any snits agains the coaching staff as Mike Modano did. Everything after this would be gravy. Canada once again went with the big names and egos (Crosby namely). They’ve struggled as I predicted; they needed a shootout to beat Switzerland which was the first sign of problems in their line-up. Get ready for the blame-throwing in Ottawa right after Canada is knocked out of the medal round this week.
Today though, 30 years ago, the US upset the Soviet Union 4-3, putting America on course to winning its first Gold in hockey since 1960. Some people say it wasn’t that much of an upset though. I disagree. There were people on the Soviet team who had played together for 15 years while the Americans were a bunch of former college rivals put together by Herb Brooks in less than a year. Most of those Russians were NHL caliber players, namely their goalie Tretiak. Anybody American capable of even getting a tryout contract in the NHL passed on playing “amateur” hockey like the Olympics so Brooks had an AHL-level team to work with. They were also clobbered 10-3 in Madison Square Garden, days before the opening ceremonies by the same Soviet squad. Logically, Lake Placid would be a repeat.
Many interpret the victory in a negative, jingoistic way. Through most of the Seventies, the nation felt pretty bad and 1979 had been an awful year to finish out the decade filled with inflation, violence and a loss of American prestige courtesy of Vietnam and Iran. Beating the Soviets at hockey, the sport they had won four Olympics in a row would “show them,” especially with their invasion of Afghanistan. Sports don’t determine which socio-political-economic system is superior and shouldn’t an extension of such chest thumping. I do agree that the Soviet Bloc nations were cheating by bending the definition of amateur athlete but Herb showed Western skeptics how to solve this; find the flaws in their strategies, exploit them and use it to win. Therefore, Team USA winning was the last big victory of the underdog. A younger team with heart, soul, spirit, tears, guts and moxie beating a machine by working together instead using NHL mercenaries. In defense of the Russian players and coaches, despite the cheating allegations, their style, techniques and innovations have contributed to making hockey a better game. It is too bad modern Russia is such a cesspool incapable of cultivating more Tretiaks, Ovechkins and “Vishys.”
Sadly, I didn’t see the legendary game. It happened late on a Friday afternoon and for some reason I can never remember, my family went to JC Penney for something. When we arrived there was a commotion around the televisions. This created enough of uproar over the weekend that Brian and I bothered to watch most of the US v. Finland game the following Sunday. We had been watching the highlights of the Winter Games at night on ABC since the opening ceremonies but being kids, bobsledding and the luge held more of our interest; it resembled the fun we had taking our toboggan down the big hills at the municipal golf course near the house.
On to the Gold Medal! I think we have a chance but Sweden really has taken the Soviets’ place in ability.