Hockey – Regular Guy

Miracle Anniversary

brian — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:33:21 +0000

Thirty-two years ago today, a bunch of 20-somethings (and a couple of teenagers) shocked the world. The U.S. Olympic hockey team beat the Soviet Union 4-3 in the greatest sports upset ever. I won’t try to qualify that. It really isn’t up for argument. Nothing can beat the Miracle on Ice.

When this anniversary rolls around, I always think of the book “One Goal,” co-written by Arthur Kaminsky, who was the agent for many of the players on the US team. The book, now out of print, gave a more in-depth look at the team’s construction and what happened during the games than anything else. I’m lucky enough to have a copy.

People who have seen the movie “Miracle” or heard the apocryphal stories about Coach Herb Brooks know he handled the team with the skill of a master motivator. “One Goal” goes even deeper, chronicling the personnel moves Brooks used to keep his team ready for the Olympics.

The book shows how he dangled an Olympic berth in front of Aaron Broten, brother of the team’s star center Neal Broten. Aaron, who eventually had a Hall of Fame NHL career, played at the University of Minnesota. Brooks had taken the year off from coaching at UM. When the Olympic team came to Minneapolis to play an exhibition against the Gophers, the younger Broten dressed for the US, not his college.

When US captain Mike Eruzione struggled during pre-Olympic competition, Brooks made sure to let the guy who eventually scored the winning goal against the Russians know that the kid at Minnesota could easily take his place. This game continued until the players almost revolted in the weeks leading up to the Olympics. Brooks pitted the players against him the entire time, hoping to motivate them above their actual skill level.

If you can find a copy of “One Goal” anywhere, grab it.

Rocking the Red

brian — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:45:30 +0000

The irony of my interest in tonight’s NHL playoff Game 7 between the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers is that the Rangers got me interested in the sport, but I want to see nothing more than their painful demise tonight.

As I wrote a year ago, a cable channel showing the Rangers in 1979 sparked my hockey fandom. I have gone up and down in my interest in the sport, but after a year or two watching the rangers, I gravitated towards the Caps. I believe that you need a real connection to the team you support, and the Caps are the closest team to where I grew up. I got a chance to go see a handful of games in the early 1980s at the old Cap Centre, and followed them via the old Home Team Sports channel.

The arrival of Alexander Ovechkin and some playoff excitement from last season had me keeping an eye on the team this year. I have gotten more interested in this playoff series and plan on watching Game 7 tonight. I just hope we don’t have a repeat of last year’s playoff series against the Flyers.

If that happens, there is no way I am returning to following the Rangers. The thought turns my stomach. Let’s go Caps!

Miracle Completed

brian — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:56:58 +0000

Everyone remembers the “Miracle on Ice,” the night the U.S. Olympic hockey team beat the heavily-favored USSR in the 1980 Winter Games. The 29th anniversary of that game passed on Sunday, but today is an anniversary just as or even more important.

On Feb. 24, 1980, the U.S. rallied from a 2-1 deficit after two periods to beat Finland 4-2 and clinch the gold medal. The game against the Soviets was merely the first in the final round-robin (the U.S. game against Sweden from the preliminaries carried over). Herb Brooks‘ team needed to knock off the Finnish team to guarantee the championship.

So while Mike Eruzione gets so much (deserved) praise for his game-winning goal against the Soviets, remember that Phil Verchota, Rob McClanahan and Mark Johnson (who had two goals in the Miracle on Ice game) found the net as the U.S. stormed back to beat Finland.

That led to the scene later in the day when Eruzione stood proudly on the podium and called his teammates up to join him to celebrate the greatest upset in sports history. That image ranks in my mind alongside the famous picture as Eruzione’s winning goal in the USSR game hit the net.

I was 11 when all this happened, right in the middle of that special sports fanaticism of youth. I devoured everything I could learn about the team. The arrival of cable TV in our house a year or so earlier sparked my interest in hockey, and near-constant playing of Strat-o-Matic‘s new hockey game fanned the flame.

Then came the improbable Olympic run. Everything seemed to align perfectly. The games were in the U.S. so they played live at a normal time of day. The cold and snow at Lake Placid made for a perfect Winter Olympic setting. You could watch Eric Heiden kick butt outside in the afternoon, then catch another come-from-behind win by Brooks’ team in the evening.

I remember exactly where I was on that Sunday morning when Finland went down. My parents had some sort of brunch party. I don’t remember the occasion. The game started at 11 a.m., I believe. We had purchased a VCR the year before and had the game taping, but I couldn’t go without watching. I remember kneeling in front of the set in our downstairs family room, adults milling around me, as the final seconds ticked off the clock.

The miracle was complete. Even then, I knew nothing like this would never happen again. I didn’t know that pros would invade the Olympics and we would talk more about Winstrol and HGH instead of power plays and world records. I just knew that those 20 guys set the bar too high.

Next year will be nuts with the 30th anniversary. I only hope that someone takes One Goal, the definitive book about the the creation and success of this team, and re-publishes it. Sadly, you need to pay a pretty penny to get a used version. And I’m not parting with mine.

He Shoots and Scores

brian — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 19:03:54 +0000

My neighborhood growing up got cable earlier than a lot of places. I was lucky enough to see the first day of MTV and watch ESPN when it only ran for part of the day. I also had the good fortune of having a channel called MSG.

The network now exists as a regional sports network for the New York area, but cable systems had to fill channels with something back in the late 1970s so the Baltimore area got MSG, which ran a lot of stuff that took place in Madison Square Garden.

That included the New York Rangers, and I got to watch pretty much every game of the 1978-79 season, a year when the Rangers had Anders Hedberg and Ron Duguay and John Davidson. I really started to follow hockey and got really hooked in 1980 with the Miracle on Ice.

Over the years, I kind of paid attention to the sport, but drifted away as more activities took my time. Then the strike came and I could not care less about hockey.

Alex Ovechkin has changed that. Even though the Rangers got me started, I am pretty territorial about my teams and have followed the Caps when I cared about hockey. The late-season run by “Ovie” and his teammates has me enthralled again. I can’t wait for Game 7 against the Flyers tonight.

Some of my family members are huge hockey fans so they have helped pull me back in too, but this team is infectious. They just seem to have so much fun, you have to root for them. I just hope my interest sticks beyond this playoff run. I kind of miss hockey.