It's the 50th anniversary of the 1960 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team's Gold Medal victory in Squaw Valley.
It's the 30th anniversary of the 1980 Miracle on Ice.
Is America's third Gold Medal in Men's Ice Hockey in the cards?
Well, two weeks ago, everyone thought it was impossible. One week ago, everyone thought it was improbable.
Twelve hours ago, all the doubts disappeared faster than Miikka Kiprusoff.
One week ago, the Americans, youngest team in the tournament by an average of four yeas, shocked the Gold Medal favorite Canadians on their own ice, in their own country. They did it by Ryan Kesler, Jaime Lagenbrunner and Zach Parise skating faster than the Canadians. They did it by Tim Gleason, Brooks Orpik and Ryan Suter blocking more shots than the Canadians. They did by Bryan Rafalski, the tiniest player on the ice, threading shots through the Canadians. And most of all the did by Ryan Miller, making the saves they needed him to make.
Against the 2006 Silver Medal winning Finns? The U.S. chased Miikka Kiprusoff, a Vezina trophy winner, after four goals in about 10 minutes. His backup, Vezina nominee, Niklas Backstrom, he gave up two goals in the span of 15 seconds.
Ryan Miller has played about 110 consecutive minutes without giving up a goal.
No team has taken less penalties in the tournament than the Americans.
Most remarkably, at no point of this tournament have the Americans trailed.
They've been an American classic in an Olympics full of them.
While this all could end magically or horribly tomorrow afternoon, one thing should be sure: the whole nation will be rooting for them.
However, in Pittsburgh, this certainly isn't the case. There's a shocking amount of Pittsburgher's rooting for Team Canada. They've abandoned their American heritage and hopped on the Canadian bandwagon in favor of one player: Sidney Crosby. Now I'm most certainly not a xenophobe (I think Al Gore is the most fascinating politician of the last 20 years), but I find this incredibly insulting and unpatriotic. And I love the Pens and Crosby.
In sports, we follow teams, not players. It's a rarity in today's sports landscape that a player stays with one team for their entire career. As much as we'd like to think otherwise, in the end all they care about is the money. Now I know this is borderline heretical, but what would happen if Sidney Crosby left the Penguins, and say went to Montreal or Toronto or the Rangers. Would all these fans stop being Penguin fans and start rooting for the Leafs, Habs or Rangers? I think not. We've even seen this in Pittsburgh already. Jaromir Jagr, while always second fiddle to Mario, was nonetheless a Pittsburgh treasure for nearly 10 years and helped reel in two cups. Without Mario in the lineup, Jagr was arguably the best player in the league. It took one messy contract dispute for Pens fans to turn on him. It's why you root for the team over the player.
Do I want Crosby to succeed? Sure. Most of all, I want him to stay healthy. But no matter what I feel about Crosby or any player, I'm an American, not a Canadian. The Olympics are one of the few events in the world where you can unabashedly root for your nation without political or religious subtext. As an American, it's hard not to get goose bumps watching the American crowd during the waning seconds of the Miracle on Ice, a nation united. We've got all got different view points in our every day lives, but the Olympics are one of the few venues we're united. To go into Canada Hockey Place, and beat the Canadians on their own ice at the game they invented, would be a national moment.
To not root for the scrappy, underdog, undersized, Americans playing for Olympic Gold with house money, well that's just plain absurd. It's a great story. And truth be told, I bet if you asked Sid himself, if you were an American, he'd tell you to root for Team U.S.A.
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