A hockey post.... yes, hockey
I was going to write another "Elliott is awesome" or "Elliott is cute" post today but something else completely un-toddler related has been on my mind for the past 48 hours so I'm just going to vent briefly.
I sat down and watched the gold medal hockey game in its entirety yesterday. Very little about this year's Winter Olympics really grabbed me thanks in large part to NBC's abysmal coverage and every other media outlet doing all but setting up enormous loud speakers throughout the country and blaring the results even though some people might not want to know what happened until the evening.
Anyway, the gold medal game was phenomenal with the U.S. rallying from a 2-0 deficit, tying the game in the final 25 seconds before eventually losing in sudden death overtime. It was thrilling, well-played, emotional and reaffirmed my feeling that I could probably really get into hockey if Portland had an NHL team.
However, what I couldn't understand were the constant comparisons to the 1980 Miracle on Ice team. The media and hockey enthusiasts insisted that, if the U.S. beat Canada for the gold medal it would be nearly as big of an upset and would go down as one of the United States' biggest sporting triumphs. Are... you.... freaking... kidding... me?! Instead of me blathering on about how people are stupid, let's just compare the two hockey situations.
Time period:
1980: The United States was on its way out of a recession and entering its fourth decade of the Cold War in which even something like Yakov Smirnoff defecting to the U.S. could be enough to trigger a nuclear attack. The U.S. would boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics and Russia would boycott the 1984 summer Olympics out of spite for each other.
2010 team: The United States is in a recession but is still, unequivocally, the most powerful nation in the world and the Winter Olympics have never seemed more irrelevant. Half-pipe? Ski-cross? It should be called Highly Specialized Sporting Competitions That America Can Dominate Along With Some Cross Country Skiiing For The Scandinavian Countries.
The U.S team:
1980: A bunch of banged up collegiate players who, in all likelihood, would spend the rest of their lives managing ice rinks and driving zambonis in Buffalo after getting creamed at the Lake Placid Olympics.
2010: An All-Star team of American-born millionaire professional hockey players taking a two-week break from the regular season to hit on celebrities and Norwegian figure skaters and occasionally play a few games.
The most formidable opponent:
1980: The Russians. America's greatest adversary since the Revolutionary War and, quite frankly, the Brits never struck fear into the American populace like the Russians. This was a team that was bred to play hockey. If someone could design a virtually infallible hockey team the way a computer is programmed to play a near perfect game of chess, it would look like the 1980 Russian team. The Russians had crushed an NHL All-Star team 6-0 in an exhibition and buried this same U.S. team 10-3 just two weeks before the Olympics.
2010: Canada. Arguably the most nondescript country in the world. A team of NHL All-Stars who, on paper, were slightly better than the American NHL All-Stars although the U.S. would quickly dispel the myth that it was a significant underdog this year when it beat Canada in pool play. I know Canada's crazy about it's hockey but what was going to happen if it lost? If Russia in 1980 loses, it might start a war. If Canada in 2010 loses, it might choose to export less delicious maple syrup to our country.
Forgive me for not getting swept away in how momentous a United States victory would have been yesterday. Americans love quickly throwing the moniker of "Best Ever" on things that just occurred and have a tendency to overvalue things in the present. For example, ESPN had a poll a few days ago that asked readers if they would prefer for the U.S. to win a gold medal in hockey this year or win the upcoming World Cup. The results were about 50/50. My hands were shaking as I typed that. Really? You would rather win a title in a sport that only four countries are good at in a tournament that isn't even as significant as winning the Stanley Cup as opposed to winning the greatest sporting competition on the planet that features 50% of the world's best athletes and is a tournament that the U.S. has never won? But it's representative of American thinking. "The gold medal hockey game is in three days. I want us to win that because it's happening right now."
But, to me, the most obvious reason why, even if the U.S. had won yesterday, it wouldn't have even cracked the top 10 of American sporting achievements (heck maybe not even the top 50) came from my wife. She was rooting for Canada. She was upset when the U.S. tied the game partly because she wanted me to go to Costco with her but mainly because "It would be nice for Canada." I'm pretty sure there wasn't an American in 1980 who thought "The U.S. doesn't need another medal. I kind of hope the Russians get this one."
How am I supposed to respect the Winter Olympics when this guy (Canada's version
of Ned Rireson) is a gold medalist.
I told Toni before the game that I wanted the US to win purely to devestate the Canadians that wanted it so badly and wore it on their sleeve, while the majority of our country could care less. Kind of the opposite sentiment to Shelbi.
I watched the entire game as well and upon reflection, it made me realize why hockey and soccer will never fully catch on here. If you sat down and drew out a perfect hockey/soccer game on paper, that was it. I'm sad to say that it just required too much of my attention span to watch that. If I can't watch a sport and get the jist of it while making lunch, doing my taxes and watching the nba score on the computer, I don't think it's going to interest me long term. But with hockey/soccer you must watch every last pass/shot on goal to really appreciate it. With baseball, basketball and especially football, you can listen to the commentary and figure out when an important situation is coming up that requires your full visual attention. Not so with hockey or soccer.
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You certainly don't have an opinion on this do you?
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