Just an Ordinary Miracle

Honestly, this has nothing to do with Team Canada's Olympic gold medal win over the U.S. yesterday. You really think I could have written this with the ringing in my ears still?

No really, it doesn’t…this isn’t meant to kick the Americans when they’re down or anything like that. More just a commentary I’ve been considering throughout the entire Olympics, on why every game featuring the U.S. team had to make some mention about the Miracle On Ice, which to the rest of the world really doesn’t seem that miraculous. And that’s not even because we beat the Soviets eight years earlier. Of all sporting moments in the history of sports to honour as the Greatest, ten reasons why the Miracle On Ice should not be anywhere near the top:

Contrary to popular belief, the game did NOT end (or win) the Cold War.

Remember kids, the history books say that the Wall came down in 1989, and the USSR did not dissolve until 1991. The war in Afghanistan was still on, the hostages were still captive in Iran, and Reagan was still denouncing the “Evil Empire” well past Lake Placid. If the win came at the 1992 Olympics, that would have been one thing. But perestroika was still a ways away.

The Red Army was NOT crushed.

It may have been one thing for the 1980 team to bring down the Big Red Machine that ran roughshod over Olympic opponents for the past 30 years, finally ending the massive dynasty and giving other countries a chance to finally compete. However, the loss, while crushing to the USSR, was just a blip in their near-flawless Olympic record, as they still went on to medals in 84, 88 and 92, they did not lose another game (at all!) for 5 years following, and the US could not beat them until 1991. It may have been a Miracle, but it was one hell of a quick one.

Another reason to cheer…

Perhaps the game only became infamous not so much for its result, but for the legacy it left behind…the vaunted “U-S-A!” cheer. How this concept was not thought up before this game, who knows, but it has become a staple since, for a vast smorgasbord of valued Americans, from the Dream Team to George W. Bush to Hulk Hogan. Could it be that this game is more endeared for the inception of this patriotic chant than the result itself?

Even with the Miracle, the Soviets still could have won gold.

Olympic hockey tournaments, at their core, are about as organized as ranking the NCAA bowl games. The tournament format seems to change every 4 years (even this year’s tournament was vastly different to 2006), and 1980 was no different. Instead of an elimination round to determine medals, the top four teams in the tournament played a round robin (including games from the qualification tournament!), with the highest ranked team at the end taking gold. So, even with the US’ improbable victory, the US would have still settled for silver had they lost their final game to Finland, as the USSR thumped Sweden 9-2 to finish the tournament with 4 points. Luckily for the US, their 4-2 win put them over the top with 5 points, and gold.

The Soviet starting goalie was not even in net.

Not to say that this is the fault of the American team, but a puzzling decision by the Soviet coach to pull future Hall Of Famer Vladislav Tretiak for backup Vladimir Myshkin at the start of the second period had a huge implication on how this game turned out…namely, Johnson and Eruzione may have never gotten those fateful goals. While the Soviet coach, Viktor Tikhonov, later admitted that pulling Tretiak was the biggest mistake of his life, this does not change the fact that the Americans’ fortunes greatly changed with this error. To act like the giant was slayed without Tretiak in goal would be like gloating you defeated the Bulls when Michael Jordan was playing for the White Sox.

Only few saw it live…and they had to watch it from Canada.

Turns out NBC isn’t quite as boneheaded as everyone assumed for hesitating to air both Canada vs. USA games from these past Olympics live…because they are simply following in the traditions of the past. The game aired three hours behind just to air it in prime time, and the only ones who could watch it live had to steal the signal from across the border. What does that tell you for national interest?

No major drama.

Unlike yesterday’s overtime thriller, or so many thrillers across the spectrum of sports history (and especially American sports history), there was no wild finish to this game. Sure, the Soviets had pressure on Jim Craig, but it wasn’t a wild scramble for a goal, there was no spectacular diving save, no major clearing effort by the Americans. The Soviets didn’t even pull their goalie for extra pressure. It was an exciting finish because of the result, obviously, but not a heart-pounding wind-down that the hype behind this game truly warranted. Paul Henderson’s goal, it was not. And it was especially not as dramatic because…

It was NOT a medal game.

None of the wild appeal of the gold on the line, none of the drama of having best in the world on the line. It was more of a wild card race than anything else, having to scramble between two separate games to see who won, who lost, and whose point balance was higher at the end of the day before medals were slotted. Obviously the system in place now is much better, but it’s a bit melodramatic to declare the greatest sports moment in American history…and then wait two days for the team to still have to play for a gold. You think it would be as huge if they LOST to Finland and settled for Bronze?

Best of all time? REALLY?

In the ESPN Top 100 Memorable Moments of the past 25 years poll in 2004, the Miracle On Ice finished at #1. Sports Illustrated called it “The Greatest Sports Moment of the Century.” #1!?! The Greatest!?! Ahead of the Curse Of The Bambino being broken. Ahead of The Immaculate Reception. Ahead of The Play, The Shot, The Thrilla In Manila. For a poll that only featured three hockey moments (the other two being Gretzky breaking Gordie Howe’s scoring record at #52, and Ray Bourque winning the Stanley Cup at #86), it sure seems like quite a leap to embrace a sports moment for a sport so few Americans really care about. Which leads us to…

DO YOU REALLY CARE?

Hockey is Canada’s game; that’s not much to dispute. Much like how Canadians would not dispute that baseball or football are America’s sports. So to see how a nation becomes so enveloped by a moment part of a sport so far outside the national spectre of interest is what is so puzzling to me. Regardless of the fact that NHL highlights come after all other sports under the sun on ESPN (or any other sports show for that matter), the fact that most NHL arenas south of the Mason-Dixon line sit half-full, and the fact that most Americans would have probably preferred a regular-season NFL game to yesterday’s gold medal game, the “Miracle” is still regarded as just that, an almost divine intervention channeled into Mike Eruzione’s stick. When looking at their spectacular athletic history, chock full of incredible moments from baseball, football, basketball, golf, boxing…hockey ends up at the top with no hesitation, no questions asked. Sure, there are some states that are die-hard about hockey, probably more-so than football or baseball, case in point being states like Minnesota, Massachusetts, Michigan and Wisconsin…which ironically enough, comprise of the four states representing the entire 1980 23-man roster. Hardly representative of an American national mosaic. Even the roster from The Mighty Ducks 2 was more diverse than this squad.

This is not to say the game was not a huge moment, because it was. A win over a squad like that should not be undermined by any means. BUT, as I’ve been trying to say, it should not be so over-mined by Americans who so clearly don’t care about the sport outside of one huge game. Hell, Canada beat the US squad at the World Baseball Classic, but you don’t hear us trying to cast Jason Bay and Justin Morneau lookalikes for the movie. It’s one thing for us Canadians to over-hype the Summit Series, because it warrants the hype. It was a back-and-forth, eight game, cross-continental, hard fought series, which went right down to the wire and was won on a wild last-ditch goal. And it was a win at OUR game. Unfortunately most kids in Moscow don’t dream of becoming the next Babe Ruth or Roger Staubach, so the USA had to settle for a victory over their communist enemies on unfamiliar territory, the ice. And while the Olympics are always touted as being untainted by politics (but let’s face it, that’s almost never true), this instance had politics written all over it, and is basically the main reason why it stands so famously this day. The problem with all the other major moments in American sports history is that it is so often Americans playing other Americans; it’s us vs. us (or U.S. vs. U.S.), so rarely US vs. them. So in one of the few cases where it was in fact US vs. them, and U.S. won, it slid right to the top of the chart. Not even other international accomplishments (Jesse Owens in Berlin, Louis vs. Schmeling) could come close to the Miracle; seemingly only a hard-fought football game between NFL stars and the best up-and-comers from the Iraqi combine could top this.

It was a great victory, yes. But the best of all time? Not a chance. It’s a discredit to those who truly achieved greatness to put them lower on the pedestal than the 1980 Olympic team. While a great moment, even a “miracle,” it is eons from the greatest. Stop treating it as if it were an act from God himself, guiding a group of young college kids to defeat the mighty evil Commies. You beat the Russian hockey team, not the Russians. Pitch with a bloody sock, call the shot, win a gold that same day, then we'll talk.