The Toronto Star
http://www.thestar.com/
February 28, 2010
VANCOUVER- When it was over, when the third Olympic Games held on Canadian soil had been brought to a competitive conclusion by a wondrous hockey game, it seemed so obvious.
Sidney Crosby. Of course.
Therein lies the difference between two of the greatest hockey heroes in Canadian history, Paul Henderson and his winning goal at the 1972 Summit Series and Crosby for the flick of the wrists that produced a goal Sunday afternoon that meant everything to his country.
Henderson was a spectacular surprise and the moment found him.
VANCOUVER, BC - FEBRUARY 28: Sidney Crosby #87 of Canada waves a national flag following his team's 3-1 overtime victory during the ice hockey men's gold medal game between USA and Canada on day 17 of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics at Canada Hockey Place on February 28, 2010 in Vancouver, Canada. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)Crosby was no surprise. He was expected to do it. And when it didn’t seem as if he would produce the moment in an Olympic tournament that appeared determined to push him to the rear and make him something other than the main story, he did it anyway.
He found the moment. And therein lies the difference.
Steve Yzerman, who organized Team Canada 2010 and thus laid the blueprint for the country’s record-setting 14th gold medal at these Games, could tell you that.
Yzerman was one of the best Canadian-born players to don skates over the past quarter-century. He won Stanley Cups and Olympic gold medals.
But he never had a moment like the one Crosby produced on Sunday.
“He’s got a little bit of destiny to him,” Yzerman said, shaking his head slowly. “It’s another monumental moment in his career. He’s a special, special guy. Like (Wayne) Gretzky.”
Crosby’s overtime goal in the 68th minute came after a game in which he couldn’t have been described by anyone as the best player on the ice. Not even close. Teammates Rick Nash and Jonathan Toews both had wonderful games. That old smoothie on defence, Scott Niedermayer, too.
On the American side, centre Patrick Kane had been, according to Canadian coach Mike Babcock, “magic,” while U.S. goalie Ryan Miller was named tournament MVP before overtime even began.
Crosby had even botched a clean breakaway with three minutes left in regulation, hurried from behind by a hustling Kane.
Yet Crosby still decided it. An instant after beating U.S. defenceman Brian Rafalski off the boards and shrieking for the puck from linemate Jarome Iginla, Crosby gathered a pass at the left circle slightly behind his left heel and, without looking or even seeing the result, whipped the winner between Miller’s legs.
As though he had been born for just that moment in Halifax on Aug. 7, 1987.
“I dunno about that,” he said, blushing. “But I dreamed of this moment.”
That a remarkable, two-week international sports festival produced this conclusion seemed almost overkill. See, while the suggestion had been for months, years really, that nothing Canada could accomplish at the Vancouver Games would ease the national angst if the men’s hockey team wasn’t victorious, that proved not to be the case at all.
The U.S. could have won the gold-medal game — heck, only Roberto Luongo’s shoulder getting in the way of a Joe Pavelski drive in OT stopped it from happening — and these Olympics would still have been proclaimed a joyous, wondrous success.
The 13 golds that preceded the hockey victory proved there were other sports in which Canadian men and women could not only rise to the challenge, but also capture the imagination of the country. We fell in love with Maelle Ricker, the Hamelin brothers, Jon Montgomery and, of course, Joannie Rochette.
It was a Games that didn’t require a signature moment because before the hockey game even began, that signature had already been provided by the spirit and organizational excellence of the event.
Plus, of course, all those gold medals.
Still, Canadians naturally wanted the hockey gold. Bad. Birthright and all that, although there’s a generation of post-Lake Placid Americans who clearly have started to believe that birthright is shared every bit as much as the continent is.
They sure contested the gold-medal game that way. After Crosby missed his breakaway late, Zach Parise — son of a member of Team Canada ’72 — shocked the arena and the country by tying it 2-2 with 25 seconds left in regulation.
But in a four-on-four OT session played in such a pleasingly aggressive way by both countries that you knew it couldn’t last long, Crosby ended it, and then it was a blur. A mob around Sid the Kid. Shattered Americans receiving their silver medals. Crosby the last Canadian to get his from IOC boss Jacques Rogge. Drew Doughty, then Scott Niedermayer, then Luongo, then Crosby skating around the ice with a giant Canadian flag tied to a 20-foot-long pole.
“We said going into the dressing room after the third that it would just feel better when we scored in overtime,” said Crosby’s linemate, Eric Staal. “It sure did.
“This country loves sport and loves hockey and loves hockey players. For us to be able to come to Vancouver and deliver is pretty awesome.”
One Canadian player after another agreed that Crosby was the appropriate hero.
“He’s the face of hockey in Canada. On this stage, he stepped up and scored a huge goal for Canada,” said Staal. “People are going to remember that. For a long time.”
To attach meaning to such events is always the challenge and often a fool’s pursuit. This wasn’t redemption for Canada, or the end of a drought, or victory over a hated foe.
What this was, in retrospect, was a national drama similar in many ways to ’72, played out over 14 days at the greatest hockey tournament ever held. Over that fortnight, Canada celebrated and agonized on a shift-by-shift basis. New stars emerged. Toews, for example, was seen as a spare part coming in, a player “who might check a bit,” according to Yzerman, and emerged with a heightened reputation in the sport and the country.
A devastating loss to the U.S. in the preliminaries was the turning point. It gave Canada an extra game against Germany to “sort things out,” as Babcock said, and to make a controversial goaltending change to Luongo that proved to be the correct one.
There were no great lessons learned. Just greatness in one athlete confirmed.
Of course.
Crosby now even more like Canada's own Great One
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/
February 28, 2010
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) -- Sidney Crosby's overtime goal against the United States on Sunday brought Canada a desperately wanted Olympic gold and propelled him into the pantheon of the country's hockey greats: Wayne Gretzky, Maurice "Rocket" Richard, Gordie Howe and Mario Lemieux.
Crosby won the Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins eight months ago and to that he can now add Olympic gold -- all by the tender age of 22.
VANCOUVER, BC - FEBRUARY 28: Sidney Crosby #87 of Canada drives to the net just before scoring the matchwinning goal in overtime during the ice hockey men's gold medal game between USA and Canada on day 17 of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics at Canada Hockey Place on February 28, 2010 in Vancouver, Canada.Crosby's career has been tracked in his homeland since he was in puberty, the son of former goaltender Troy Crosby, whose own career lasted only two seasons after he was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens.
After the match, Crosby raised his right hand and waved it almost sheepishly to respond to the deafening chants of his name. Then he looked down at the gold medal dangling from the pale blue ribbon around his neck.
"It's a pretty unbelievable thing," Crosby said. "You know what? Every kid dreams of that opportunity. Being in Canada, that's the opportunity of a lifetime. You dream of that a thousand times growing up. For it to come true is amazing."
The hero of a hockey-crazed nation pulled it from his chest and checked both sides, as if to confirm it was real.
"He's got a little destiny to him -- his entire career, throughout minor hockey, junior hockey, NHL," Hockey Canada executive director Steve Yzerman said after he scored 7:40 into overtime to beat the United States 3-2.
"So it's just another monumental moment in his career. And he's what, 22 still?" Yzerman said. "He's a special, special guy. Kind of like Gretzky."
After being denied from a breakaway late in regulation by a backcheck from winger Patrick Kane, Crosby chipped the puck off the stick of Brian Rafalski in the corner of the Americans' zone in overtime. Teammate Jarome Iginla got the puck, heard Crosby scream that he was free near the net and pushed the puck his way.
"Oh, he was screaming. He was yelling pretty urgently. There's different phases of yell," Iginla said, chuckling. "You can tell he had a step."
Crosby broke across the face of Ryan Miller and put the puck between the goalie's legs, setting off a wild celebration from Newfoundland to the Yukon.
Its epicenter was in the opposite corner of the ice, where Crosby threw his stick, threw off his gloves and then absorbed nearly every Canadian player in a mosh pit along the boards.
Miller stayed on both knees for a second while the puck was in the back of the net, then he collapsed forward mask down onto the ice.
Canada's gloves were all over the ice around Crosby, known as Sid the Kid.
"He's unbelievable. There's nothing that kid can't do or hasn't done already," said Canada forward Jonathan Toews, who scored Sunday's first goal. "We were saying after the third period that someone was going to be the hero, someone was going to find a way to do it for us, and it's no coincidence he was the guy.
"He's a tremendous leader. He's accomplished so much in his young career."
Crosby, goaltender Roberto Luongo and other Canadians said the longer intermission between regulation and overtime, instead of the brief breaks that had been the norm in the earlier Olympic rounds, allowed each player to get over the shock of Zach Parise tying the game with 24.4 seconds left in the third period.
During that break, Canada coach Mike Babcock whispered in Crosby's ear.
"He just said, 'Put the puck on net,"' Crosby recounted later. "So good advice."
It gave Canada the perfect ending to their Olympics, and gave further evidence the Next One is already here.
"It's just fitting, I think, that Sid would get it," Luongo said, near tears. "I couldn't think of anyone better."
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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