http://www.boston.com/sports/
March 1, 2010
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - International Olympic Committee president Dr. Jacques Rogge and International Ice Hockey Federation president Rene Fasel moved left to right, alternately placing the gold medals around the necks of the victorious Canadians.
When Dr. Rogge reached the last man, he gestured to the crowd, as if to say, “OK, let’s hear it. Here’s your saviour.’’
And with that he placed the final gold medal on No. 87, Sidney Crosby.
With the weight of a nation no longer on his shoulders, Sidney Crosby got a just reward from IOC president Jacques Rogge. (Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
In the matter of Truth vs. Fiction, it is always advisable to take Truth, plus the points. So how could anyone be surprised that in an hour of monumental national need, the 22-year-old wonderchild with the 42-year-old head blasted the puck past the quasi-impregnable Ryan Miller at 7:40 of overtime to give his homeland the gold medal that, for millions upon millions of Canadians, was worth more than the other 13 put together?
It was the perfect ending to a spectacular week of Canadian athletic triumph. Canadians had skated, snowboarded, and slid their way to podium after podium, but the partying would not have been half as joyous had the men’s hockey team failed to win gold on home ice, and it would have been doubly disastrous had their squad lost to the impudent upstarts from the USA.
The Americans made them work for it, tying the game with 24.4 seconds left in regulation. With goalkeeper Miller pulled, Zach Parise scored a six-on-five goal that equalized things after the Americans had fallen behind, 2-0, at 12:44 of period two. You want to talk about quieting a building.
Losing after being up, 2-0, would have been unthinkable, and losing after being within 25 seconds of victory would have been beyond devastating. This is when a team has to rely on more than mere talent.
“We’ve got so many guys who have been in Game 7s and have won Stanley Cups,’’ said Eric Staal. “We knew how to handle it.’’
The obvious plan was to attack, attack, attack, and we’ll worry about any quick transitions or odd-man rushes when the time comes. Jarome Iginla had a chance. Scott Niedermayer had a chance. Patrick Marleau had a chance. Dany Heatley fired an absolute bullet, and so, too, did Rick Nash, who was omnipresent all afternoon.
But Miller, who would have to be regarded as the tournament’s most consistently outstanding player, stopped them all. Until he didn’t.
Crosby wasn’t feeling all that great at the time. He had not been capitalizing on scoring chances for a few days, and he had failed to score on a breakaway with about 3:15 remaining in regulation, being caught from behind by a hustling Patrick Kane (“The fastest I have ever backchecked in my life’’), who got his stick on Crosby’s to prevent any kind of a shot from being launched.
But given one opportunity in OT, Crosby didn’t miss. He fired from Miller’s right, the red light went on, and the national partying could begin. For the record, young Sidney said he never saw it go in. But 37 million, give or take, of his fellow Canadians did.
So, had the Canadians won? Or had they simply not lost? It’s hard to tell.
The signage said it all. Amid the predictable “Our Gold, Our Game,’’ and “Hockey Is Canada’s Game’’ signs was this one: “Someone Offered Me $50,000 For The Seat, But I Am Canadian, Eh?’’ You think that guy came to Canada Hockey Place to hear “The Star-Spangled Banner?’’
VANCOUVER, BC - FEBRUARY 28: Sidney Crosby #87 of Canada celebrates after 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. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)It turns out the Americans did the Canadians a favor last Sunday by beating them. It meant Canada would be forced to play another game in order to reach the medal round, and what the Canadians needed was time to figure themselves out as a unit. They dusted off Germany, 8-2, and we now know it actually meant something. With roles better established, the Canadians came out roaring in the quarterfinals, sending the Russians home with a 7-3 thrashing. In just three days the Canadians had transformed themselves into a much more cohesive unit.
The country was down on them the morning after the loss to the US, but by yesterday morning it was as if that game had never happened. All the hockey-mad nation knew was that it was the gold-medal game, it was on Canadian soil in the home rink of an NHL team, and these guys had damn well better win the game.
The players knew what was going on out on the prairies and up in the Northwest Territories and in the Maritimes and in the big cities of the East and up and down the province of Quebec. Our game. Our sport. Skating is nice and, boy, we can flip and twist and spin with the best of them, but this is hockey. This is Us.
“There was definitely pressure,’’ acknowledged Staal. “But the coaches and management did a really good job of putting us in a position to win. The emphasis was for us to get better as a group, and that’s what we did. We got better with each game.’’
“We focused on what we could control,’’ agreed Crosby. “And that was getting better as a team. Even in the game we lost to the US, I thought we played pretty well [outshooting the USA, 45-22]. But we kept getting better.’’
No one needed an OT, and, for sure, no one needed a shootout. But when you’ve got the latest living legend on your side, you shouldn’t worry. You just get ready to pop the cork.
Bob Ryan is a Globe columnist and host of Globe 10.0 on Boston.com. He can be reached at ryan@globe.com.
Crosby answered nation's call as Canada waited to exhale
By Jim Souhan
Minneapolis Star Tribune
http://www.startribune.com/
March 1, 2010
VANCOUVER - When the United States beat the Soviet Union in Lake Placid in 1980, Al Michaels asked, his voice rising with emotion, "Do you believe in miracles?''
When Bobby Thomson hit The Shot Heard 'Round the World in '51, Russ Hodges hollered, "The Giants win the pennant!''
When the Canadian hockey team scored an overtime goal to beat the United States in the Olympic gold medal game, 3-2, Sunday, one TSN announcer declared, "And a nation ... is relieved.''
"Honestly,'' Canada hockey General Manager Steve Yzerman said, "it's an incredible relief.''
Sidney Crosby of Canada scores the game winning goal past U.S. goalie Ryan Miller in overtime to win the gold medal in hockey at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, February 28, 2010.(Reuters)
After Sidney Crosby beat U.S. goalie Ryan Miller 7:40 into overtime at Canada Hockey Place, Crosby screamed and a nation exhaled.
Canada's biggest home-grown sports star had scored the biggest goal of his career to capture the gold medal his country wanted most -- one available every four years, and achievable on home ice once in a generation. "I'm glad,'' teammate Chris Pronger said, "that Sid was born in Canada.''
In an country where ambition is accompanied by guilt, Crosby tried to downplay the skill that produced the goal that momentarily made a nation switch from Molson Canadian to Moet & Chandon. "I just threw it at the net,'' Crosby said. "I didn't see it go in.''
So at least one Canadian can make that claim.
Canada took a 2-0 lead on goals by Jonathan Toews and Corey Perry. For a team that played nervously throughout much of the Olympic tournament, losing to the less-talented Americans a week earlier and winning one-goal games over Switzerland and Slovakia, playing with a lead proved unnerving. "I think we got cautious,'' Canada coach Mike Babcock said.
The Americans scored on Ryan Kesler's deflection to make it 2-1 in the second period. As the final minute of the third period ticked away, U.S. forward Patrick Kane threw a shot at the net that banked off the skate of Cloquet's Jamie Langenbrunner and bounced onto the stick of Prior Lake's Zach Parise, who stuffed the tying goal past Roberto Luongo with 24.4 seconds left and made Crosby flinch in regret.
Crosby had mishandled the puck on a breakaway earlier in the period that might have clinched the game in regulation. "It's awesome to see him get the game-winner,'' Canada's Jarome Iginla said. "Guys are trying to shut him down all the time. At the end of the third, he had that breakaway. He comes in the room after that, and it's got to be pretty tough for him -- that could have sealed it. He just keeps going, though.''
At 22, Crosby is the heir apparent to Canadian hockey greatness, following Wayne Gretzky, the general manager of the previous Olympic team, and Mario Lemieux, who provides Crosby with room and board when he's working for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Before the game, Lemieux texted Crosby "Good luck.'' Crosby used more old-fashioned communication methods to make his own luck.
In overtime, he rushed toward the U.S. net and was checked by two defensemen. The puck squirted to the corner. Crosby retrieved it and began skating back toward the blue line, lost the puck momentarily, and chipped it to Iginla.
Crosby bolted for the net and yelled something Canada might incorporate into its anthem. "He was yelling, 'Iggy-Iggy-Iggy-Iggy,'" Iginla said. "There are different pitches to his voice. You could tell, by his tone, he was saying he had a step.''
A step? Crosby is way ahead of the curve, even for hockey superstars. He has won a Stanley Cup and a home-ice Olympic gold medal before turning 23, and he scored the winning goal of one of the best-played games in Olympic history.
"If you're American, you think 1980 was the best,'' U.S. coach Ron Wilson said. "If you're Canadian, you probably think this was the best.''
For Crosby, winning a gold medal in the sport Canada invented on home ice to crown the Vancouver Olympics had to be as good as it gets. "I've dreamed of this moment,'' he said.
As Canadians celebrated the last goal and gold of their Olympics, he was hardly alone.
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