Do you think Canadians are a little bit excited about aboot their big hockey win yesterday? If the moving scene of an entire stadium singing “O Canada” at the top of its collective lungs wasn’t enough to convince you, here’s a look at some of today’s newspaper front pages, via the Newseum:
More after the jump.
Speaking of Crosby, they’re apparently pretty excited in his NHL home city of Pittsburgh, too — so excited that they misspelled “than” as “that” in an embarrassing front-page typo (“More that just a shot”):
Meanwhile, in Buffalo, hometown hero and Olympic Tournament MVP Ryan Miller made the front page:
I thought in a way, the game was as perfect as could be.
I was rooting for the USA to win, but really, the win means 100 times more to Canada than it would for the US. It’s their sport, their Olympics, and it’s the last event of what have been a wonderful Olympic games. In something you don’t often see, the Canada fans were crying with joy after the game. They wanted it, and they deserved it.
And if they had to beat the US to do it, that happened in the best possible way. Ryan Miller (SABRES goalie) was MVP of the tournament, so we had the best player. We very nearly won the game, forcing overtime with just 24 seconds left. In the booth, former American star Jeremy Roenick was just about in tears with excitement and joy after that. We played the Canadians as evenly as we could, even though they really did appear to be a better team (especially in the overtime).
At the end of the day, you always want your own team to win. But if they lose, you want them to do so honorably and to a deserving opponent. And that’s exactly what happened.
Now back to NHL hockey 🙂
I agree completely. Although I was rooting for Team USA, I sort of felt all along that Canada was destined to win, and that a Canadian gold medal was — in a global, cosmic sense — the “right” ending.
Another point about how it happened in “the best possible way” for the U.S. (given that it had to happen at all) is the fact that the Americans beat the Canadians in a very dramatic game earlier in the Olympics, so ultimately we earned a “split” with the gold medalist, which is itself a huge accomplishment for the U.S., given the respective expectations for these teams coming into the Games — and also made their win even sweeter (for them). They earned their gold, but damn if we didn’t earn our silver, and both sides can be impressed and satisfied (us), if not deliriously happy (them). Whereas, if it had gone the other way, we’d be jubilant for 5 minutes and then move on to wondering who will win American Idol, whereas they’d be on national suicide watch for months.
Blame Canada! Blame Canada! 😉
Was thinking last night that we may not see a hockey game to match yesterday’s for a long, long time, particularly if the NHL doesn’t go to Sochi as expected. The only time there’s that much talent in an NHL game is for the all-star game, which is typically as intense as a small-town, Sunday afternoon skatearound.
This got me thinking that, even during the Stanley Cup Finals, the competing teams have two checking lines that are manned by guys who’d be in the AHL if they’d been unfortunate enough to have a two-way contract. The jobs of those checking line goons is to get in the grill of the opposing team’s stars, slow them down, obstruct, clutch and grab, never forecheck, etc. That boring crap is a big part of every NHL game.
But not yesterday. 10 years or so ago there was a big push in the NHL to crack down on clutching and grabbing and obstruction, with limited success – yesterday’s game shows you that, if you want to get rid of that stuff, only let super-talented guys on the ice – and have them play for something.
When will that happen again?
Eh…I like goons…..
Well, if past experience is any indication, they’ll crack down on obstruction again after the next lock out. Buffalo went from being horrible before the lockout to being a serious contender afterwards by taking a huge gamble that the NHL was being honest about enforcing rules. I blame Toronto, Boston, Philly and the Rangers for continuing to throw goon squads out there and the NHL caving to them.
Matt,
Is it the officiating, or has the game changed? I first started paying a bit of attention to hockey during the Oiler dynasty years of the 1980s. That team’s most famous tough guy was Dave Semenko, who was widely known as Gretzky’s bodyguard. His role was to keep opposing goons away from Gretzky and keep things clear for Gretzky to be the Great One.
Strikes me that a Dave Semenko today would not be so much tasked with protecting his star as obstructing, clutching, grabbing, etc. the other team’s star. (This arguably began with the appropriately-named Devils, who built a 90s dynasty on such tactics). Seems like even when the officials crack down, that only moves the goal posts (er, goal pipes) of what you can get away with.
Its true that its a pretty fine line between protecting your guy and harassing the other. It does seem as though the tough guy role in the NHL these days is more about harassing the other guy than keeping your guy in the clear. Yes?
P.S. to Gahrie: I like goons too, mainly when they drop the gloves. When they try to skate or handle the puck, not so much.
I agree 100% with Casey and Brendan.
As only a casual observer of hockey, it was interesting to hear one ESPN commentator say that Sunday’s game would do wonders for promoting the sport. Is hockey/NHL really in need of promotion, say, the way professional soccer is (at least in the U.S.)? And speaking of goons, it seems to me — again, as only a casual observer of hockey — that fighting/goon squads is to hockey what faking injuries is to soccer….both detract from the skill of the game and tend to keep casual observers from following the sport more closely.
Jazz: I think you overstate the role of goons. The teams with the biggest goons aren’t really all that good. Take the Rangers, for example. Take, on the other hand, the Capitals or Penguins, two of the best teams in the league, and they aren’t really driven by enforcers.
It’s really the officiating. NHL refs have a horrible attitude of not wanting to influence the game, which leads to teams realizing they can get away with all kinds of crap. Sending your goon after the other team’s stars is part of this, as it’s far more effective, and they get away with it.