Paul Henderson scored a huge goal in 1972 to stop Canada from going into a nervous breakdown over their Hockey superiority.
Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux team up to win the Canada Cup in 1987.
But Sidney Crosby's goal made the Olympics. Yea we were on a roll but can you imagine if we lost that game?
I'm an Vancouver resident, taxpayer, homeowner, hockey enthusiast, Canadian patriot and parent among other things. I voted against the Olympics in that referendum back all those years ago... i remember waking up thinking "right on we are going to shut this thing down once and for all today"... i was wrong. My point was it's a bad idea to give corrupt politicians with deep ties to developers a free pass to make hordes of money... I'm not wrong about that. I'm glad we have bettered our transit system but I'm not sure about closing ice rinks for a few years canceling kids hockey seasons so that a good working rink can be "upgraded".
My wife an I also seriously considered buying into the Olympic village which was being billed as a sustainable community at one time... we even went to a few meetings... enough to realize that that was not the case.
I could rant about the Olympics but my point was more to set the tone that I was not a Ya Ya go Olympics kind of guy. But sports and my country are things I like and I suffered through the CTV coverage... remind me to go ape shit over that one in a later blogaroo... and got into the Olympics.
So come the final event of the Olympics and Canada is set to break the record for the most gold medals by any country ever, having just broken the record for most gold medals from a host country, and it's hockey... our game... you saw the adds.
If we lose that game on our own soil in the city hosting the games it's going to be an all time low. Can you imagine sitting through the closing ceremonies watching a group of lumberjacks tow an inflatable moose around a stadium waving at people after they just lost one of the greatest big games ever? I don't think so. People wouldn't have been cheering and acting gaily... remember what happened when the Canucks lost to the Rangers in game 7 in 1994 (the game in New York)... there was a fucking riot and some dude took a rubber bullet to the head (perhaps he had it coming... i don't know). What i do know is that me, an Olympic non believer, headed out of the house that last Sunday night to witness the vibe and take a few hundred high fives from the packed city streets... i saw police high fiving drunks... the police chief himself posing for pictures with smiling Canada jersey wearing happy people. I saw people shake hands with police thanking them saying "you guys did a great job" and the police smiled back and said "you guys did a good job too"... lots of garbage but very little damage... everybody was happy as can be.
Canada as a nation has lost Canada Cup's before...(now called the World Cup for some insane reason).
If we lost in 72 you could say well we came back from what look like sure defeat and made a game of it.
If we lost in 2010... well we didn't we don't even need to go there.
2 comments:
Hear hear!
It was a huge goal, but I'll stick with Henderson's '72 goal as the greatest. That series, and the way in which that team came from behind, laid the foundation for the 'never give up' mindset that has often saved Canada in many subsequent international hockey tournaments (including at these Olympics).
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