Yes, win silver. To some of my Canadian friends, that may sound odd. I remember hearing in ‘02, you don’t win silver, you lose gold. But, on the 30th anniversary of the Miracle on Ice and the 50th anniversary of the US’s first hockey gold in Squaw Valley, this team had captured the country’s attention.
I’m known as the hockey nut among many of my friends, but if you read my twitter stream or my facebook stream during the game you’d think I only knew hockey fans. People that I didn’t even know cared about sports were tweeting away about the gold medal game between the US and Canada. Up north, this game is a religion, down here it’s a big deal every four years or so, and here was one of our years.
I’m definitely bummed we didn’t win, the boys in the red, white, and blue played an unbelievable tournament. They didn’t trail on the scoreboard until today. Ryan Miller was amazing in net, and yes, fellow Ohio State fans, I cheered loudly for the kid from Michigan that went to MSU. Not to mention pulling for Jack Johnson, who wore the Maize and Blue for a couple seasons.
Side note: Doc Emerick, play by play announce for the US games and the New Jersey Devils, made a comment during one of the games. Johnson had made a pass to Ryan Kesler, and Doc said something like, “Johnson from Michigan makes a pass to Kelser from Ohio State…but that doesn’t matter to them today.” I got a good laugh out of that one.
But now that the game is over, and the US has won a silver medal, I can’t help but think about all the people that helped those kids get there. I think of Mrs. Parise getting up at 5am to get Zach to a game. Ryan Suter grew up in a house where his dad was part of the Miracle, but he had his share of 6am games, too. Being a goalie parent might be the toughest thing ever, but Mr. and Mrs. Miller have to be very proud today.
So, while our neighbors to the the north celebrate the medal they had to win, I can’t help but be extremely proud of the silver medal our US team won.
And they were the youngest team in the tournament…see you in Sochi!