By Chad Underwood
National pride is a weird concept when it comes to sports in the United States. Its inception feels artificial but so right in the moment. It is extremely rare when it occurs, when everyone in the country has rallied around a team just because it is made up of Americans. On Saturday morning around 9:30 a.m. Central Time, our country found that pride in the 2014 United States Men’s Hockey Team at the Sochi Olympics.
The storyline was familiar, one that dates back to a cold night at Lake Placid in February of 1980, where a team of young American college students competed against the Soviet Union’s professional players in the semifinals of Olympic hockey. That game, known as the “Miracle on Ice,” might just be the greatest sports moment in the history of our country. The Cold War was at its height and that hockey game, as silly as it may seem, meant everything that night. The United States won and went on to capture the gold medal.
Flash-forward to 2014: the Cold War is long gone and Soviets are now referred to as Russians. Team USA is still trying to recreate the magic of 1980, which is the last time it found the gold medal around their player’s necks. Russia is hosting the Olympics, and one medal matters the most to a hockey-obsessed nation. Now National Hockey League players are allowed to participate in the games, so the United States did not have to send their best collegiate talent to fight the mighty Russian professionals. Despite it being a preliminary matchup used to determine seeding for this week’s tournament, it had the feel of something bigger; the pace of the game from the beginning was unlike anything hockey fans had seen in these Olympics so far.
Back and forth the action went as thousands of Americans woke to their Twitter and Facebook news feeds, most likely confused as to why it was filled with hockey banter. The game had scoring from some of world’s greatest players, stellar goaltending on both sides, controversial calls and massive hits. Sixty-five minutes was not enough to decide the outcome, and like a fireworks show on the Fourth of July, the Americans and the Russians were set to put a grand finale on display in the form of a shootout. Eight rounds of the one-on-one battle proved to be enough for the Americans, as forward TJ Oshie scored four times, cementing his status as a legend of USA hockey in only his third game on the national team. Hollywood’s best screenwriters could not have written it better.
As an avid hockey fan, I had this game circled on the calendar as soon I found out we were in the same group as the Russians a few months ago. The “Miracle on Ice” happened eleven years before I was born, so naturally I am constantly pursuing an experience I could compare it to, something I would love to tell my kids about someday. Saturday morning might be as close as I’ve gotten to it so far.
I can say this from personal experience: hockey fans are stubborn. In the United States, we are outcasts. Our game is constantly labeled as a “niche sport.” It may seem ridiculous to refer to it as “we” or “us,” but that is how we feel. We are obsessive and possessive. When talking heads from other networks try to talk hockey because it just happens to be relevant this weekend, it is blasphemy. This is our sport.
That said, we welcome potential fans; any chance to introduce someone to the sport we hold most sacred is one we would attempt to capitalize on. My advice is to hop on this bandwagon now. Times like these for sports in our country do not come around very often and that pride, as brief as it will be, has meaning. Whether you lean to the left or the right or somewhere in between, we are all Americans, and this is something that rests in all of us and barely gets a chance to wake up and shout.
Starting on Wednesday, the United States will continue its quest for the gold medal in the elimination rounds of the tournament. On the other side of bracket is a Russian team trying to fight its way to another match with the USA, and if it happens again, it will be for a medal. Now that would be something I would like to tell my kids about someday.
[Photo credit: Washington Post]