BigBadBruins7708
Registered User
Yeah, no.
The Soviet team is easily the most important and talented team in the history of the sport. No Team Canada can touch the talent on that team
Miracle on Ice or 1996: which was the USA's most significant victory?
- Thread starter PrimumHockeyist
- Start date
Yeah, no.
The Soviet team is easily the most important and talented team in the history of the sport. No Team Canada can touch the talent on that team
The Panther
Registered User
Crosby2010
Registered User
- Mar 4, 2023
- 1,089
- 900
They didn't have a goalie that probably still isn't the starter and they didn't have Roenick who probably goes on the wing if he is playing. I don't think that compares to the talent Canada was missing in 1996. There are some years where we seem to have the best guys there like 2010 or 2002 and other years where a lot of talent is missing like 1987, 1991 and 1996. It doesn't matter, because the roster we had still could have won but man even a trifecta of Mario, Roy and Bourque on that team changes the outcome. Even just one of them does. Because Joseph did have some shaky goaltending vs. the U.S.
Yes, but what established then, imo, is that the days of thinking that the US could not win any bestie were over. They claimed their seat and there hasn't been a game since when they weren't a threat to win any tourney since. That distinction was totally earned. That what made 96 so historic imo. Personally, I'd rather leave it on that.
As for Canada, my lingering feeling was wanting to be on the ice with the likes of Mess and Gretz in 96. They gave me so many great moments, they were my age. It was so beautiful how they fought. It sucked like hell to lose, but I was also glad for the real hockey Americans who 'got' what that victory really represented. Dingo was entirely correct, although we rarely say such things, but here's the bottom line regarding how the last half century has played out: You wanna be a real world champ? You go thru Canada in a bestie. But the idea that we were unstoppable was a fifteen year old myth by then.
Here's a thought. In Game One in 72, after two periods we knew that we had totally underestimated the Russians. But what is someone said that in 24 years the Americans would beat us in a bestie in the same town? Which would have seemed more improbable, then?
I by sheer good fortune was at both the game against the USSR in Lake Placid and Game 3 of the 1996 World Cup.
My GF back in 1980 had bought the tickets for the Friday afternoon game a month earlier and of course with no clue on the matchup - the evening game was sold out as conventional wisdom was the best matchup would be in primetime. Little did we know.
Driving up from Boston that morning my GF Annie was so happy saying we can win. I would nod but as a BU grad, I feared the worst knowing how good the USSR was. In retrospect it is obvious Brooks tanked the friendly at MSG 3 weeks earlier just in case they would meet in Lake Placid.
Lake Placid wasn't the biggest upset in hockey history, it ranks as perhaps the biggest upset in North American sports history in any sport.
The late Jim McKay said it best that night.
1996 was another kettle of fish.
That 1996 USA Team was most certainly inspired by the 1980 team but that World Cup was ignored in the US except by puckheads but in Canada winning meant everything.
FOX produced the 1996 WC but did not air the games on the main network and in many markets the games wound up on SportsChannel as ESPN wanted nothing to do with it.
I also attended Game 1 of the 1972 Summit Series in Montreal and I can tell you that the USA's victory 24 years later had the same effect as what should have been a vibrant Saturday night in Montreal felt like a Tuesday.
What I remember most about Game 3 was sitting in the first row of the 300 level in what was then Centre Molson on the blue line in a single seat and everybody around me was annoyed that I was waving a tiny US flag and all claimed to not speak English.
With about 6 minutes left, I screamed in English 'We got this' and the person sitting to my right suddenly said 'Yes you do'. He shook my hand after the game.
A year and a half later CBS showed this game live and tried to explain to Americans what this game meant to Canada
My GF back in 1980 had bought the tickets for the Friday afternoon game a month earlier and of course with no clue on the matchup - the evening game was sold out as conventional wisdom was the best matchup would be in primetime. Little did we know.
Driving up from Boston that morning my GF Annie was so happy saying we can win. I would nod but as a BU grad, I feared the worst knowing how good the USSR was. In retrospect it is obvious Brooks tanked the friendly at MSG 3 weeks earlier just in case they would meet in Lake Placid.
Lake Placid wasn't the biggest upset in hockey history, it ranks as perhaps the biggest upset in North American sports history in any sport.
The late Jim McKay said it best that night.
1996 was another kettle of fish.
That 1996 USA Team was most certainly inspired by the 1980 team but that World Cup was ignored in the US except by puckheads but in Canada winning meant everything.
FOX produced the 1996 WC but did not air the games on the main network and in many markets the games wound up on SportsChannel as ESPN wanted nothing to do with it.
I also attended Game 1 of the 1972 Summit Series in Montreal and I can tell you that the USA's victory 24 years later had the same effect as what should have been a vibrant Saturday night in Montreal felt like a Tuesday.
What I remember most about Game 3 was sitting in the first row of the 300 level in what was then Centre Molson on the blue line in a single seat and everybody around me was annoyed that I was waving a tiny US flag and all claimed to not speak English.
With about 6 minutes left, I screamed in English 'We got this' and the person sitting to my right suddenly said 'Yes you do'. He shook my hand after the game.
A year and a half later CBS showed this game live and tried to explain to Americans what this game meant to Canada
Voight
#winning
To be fair they did make the Gold Medal game in 2002 (with a lot of guys who were on the 96 team).
Depends on how you look at it. 2002 was huge for Canada after the massive failure of 1998 (and not having an Olympic Gold in 50 years; mind you that only happened because of the IOC's insistence on "amateurs" despite ignoring the eastern blocs fake amateurs) not to mention they beat the US in the US, as a sort of revenge for 1996.
2010 they were of course the favourite but winning on home ice was huge to every Canadian. Imagine the headlines and chirps had Canada lost on home ice in the Gold Medal game, this time to the Americans (their biggest rival).
You are one well travelled hockey fan.
I felt a similar sense of isolation in 1988, at a Seattle pizza parlour where myself and a roomful of Americans all sat transfixed in front a TV in anticipation of the 100 meter final. I didn't have a flag to wave and tried to be low key. But somehow several people seemed to know that I was a Canuck.
What a great 24 hours that was.
"I also attended Game 1 of the 1972 Summit Series in Montreal and I can tell you that the USA's victory 24 years later had the same effect as what should have been a vibrant Saturday night in Montreal felt like a Tuesday."
A while ago we were talking about 72, and a poster I think his name was Jack Slater provided clippings that said Bostonians were overwhelmingly dialed into that series v the Sox who I think were in a pennant run that year. Wow. I always knew Boston was a hockey town but that's next level. I now feel that Boston deserved Bobby Orr, although perhaps not as much as the guy I met online once who told me he has been spelling 4 "forr" since those glory days. (Maybe some sort of honourary citizenship, lol?)
I was in the States during the Miracle on Ice and it was such a beautiful thing. We got what you guys did from coast to coast, but so few American markets really understood back then. People got interested, but few knew the story, in particular what North American hockey had been forced to confront since Game One in 72. I was happiest for the 'hockey" people among you. But there were no hands to shake, in my case, as the nearest rink was then about two hours from where I lived.
Likeable though he was, Jim McKay is not a 'hockey' person. He proved it by likening the Soviets to a Super Bowl champ and that's selling the American team's accomplishment short. The Steelers were a club team among many others in the NFL. USA80 faced an all-pro team of Pro Bowlers that was playing its second-most important game of a given four year cycle and trained all year round.
Primary Assist
The taste of honey is worse than none at all
- Jul 7, 2010
- 5,964
- 5,859
The 1980 win is the biggest upset in sports history, at least for team sports. There just isn't really a comparison. That same Soviet team just barely lost the Summit Series a few years before when Canada was the undisputed talent pipeline for the NHL. Hell, the 1980 Soviet team may have been even better.
It would be like a team of top college basketball players beating a team of comparable talent to an NBA all star team.
1980 gets my vote
It would be like a team of top college basketball players beating a team of comparable talent to an NBA all star team.
1980 gets my vote
Wee Baby Seamus
Yo, Goober, where's the meat?
Primary Assist
The taste of honey is worse than none at all
- Jul 7, 2010
- 5,964
- 5,859
Hard disagree. That was a professional club going on a remarkable run, no question. They were professionals though, and even if they were on the verge of relegation they were still ostensibly in the same league as the competition.
The 1980 Americans were a team of amateurs beating a professional team that was amateur in name only. But I do think Leicester is worthy of being mentioned as a top all time upset so thank you for the response
Wee Baby Seamus
Yo, Goober, where's the meat?
Full season is what makes it count way heavier for me than a single game. A sustained shock.
Primary Assist
The taste of honey is worse than none at all
- Jul 7, 2010
- 5,964
- 5,859
Agree to disagree - but I will point out that the Americans won the Olympic Gold that year, so it was more than just a game. Cheers to civil disagreement on the Internet though, that alone is an odds-defying win for the both of us
Dingo
Registered User
- Jul 13, 2018
- 1,786
- 1,794
the Llanelli Scarlets beating the Allblacks, when the entirety of Wales has never, was enormous. The Day The Pubs Ran Dry.
edit - from the poem "9-3"...
"There were people singing everywhere, and I saw a grown man cry,
not because we'd won the game, but because the pubs were dry!"
edit - from the poem "9-3"...
"There were people singing everywhere, and I saw a grown man cry,
not because we'd won the game, but because the pubs were dry!"
Last edited:
thank you. was it a pennant race?
Theokritos
Global Moderator
- Apr 6, 2010
- 12,543
- 4,949
As far as single-game upsets go, the Miracle on Ice wasn't even the biggest upset the Soviet national team experienced, as others have pointed out in various threads over the years:
But as far as single-tournament upsets go, the American gold medal in 1980 is indeed hard to beat.
But as far as single-tournament upsets go, the American gold medal in 1980 is indeed hard to beat.
Yes - Tigers won the AL East by 1/2 game
1972 American League Standings & Expanded Standings | Baseball-Reference.com
Check out the American League Detailed Standings including East and West Division Stats on Baseball-Reference.com
www.baseball-reference.com
Even better.Yes - Tigers won the AL East by 1/2 game
1972 American League Standings & Expanded Standings | Baseball-Reference.com
Check out the American League Detailed Standings including East and West Division Stats on Baseball-Reference.com
Mind you, there was very strong representation on TC72
Any thoughts on how 81CC went over in Russia?
I have often wondered if Kharlamov's recent passing made that victory especially meaningful...?
"Here is what Leicester City's two-year turnaround looked like, up to and including the championship clincher against Sunderland, in Wins, Draws (d)and Losses:
2014-15 dLdWWLdLLLLdLLLLLLWdWLLLLdLdL--facing relegation, burial Richard III 26 March 18
turnaround begins --- 4 April 18: WWWWLWWdW --end 2014/15 ,avoids relegation --
2015/16 WddWdLWdWWWWdWWWLddWdWWWLWdWWWWW"
Rob
Registered User
The internet was in its infancy in 96 so I don't recall how much attention the World Cup of Hockey received in the US but from my understanding the tournament received little coverage outside of hockey circles.
1981 CC has received renewed importance in hindsight. But, at the time, the Canada Cups were engulfed by the Olympics in terms of media attention and importance.
The players likely didn't feel the same way though.
Makes sense. It was, for the players anyway, a great victory on its own. But doing it for VK, or some such thing, would seem to add another layer of meaning. From the Soviet Russian point of view is VK the biggest star or one of a select few? I mean, of course he's not alone. But they way I've read things over these last few decades it seems like VK has an extra special place as a cultural icon. Maybe that's just me.
Fish on The Sand
Untouchable
That's what a lot of people don't realize.
Imagine an NCAA all-star team today taking down Team Russia. Then imagine that an NCAA all-star team today is way better than one in 1980 and Team Russia likely not as good as 1980.
Ad
Upcoming events
-
GAME 7 - North Bay Battalion @ Oshawa Generals - Series tied 3-3Wagers: 6Staked: $1,397.00Event closes- Updated:
-
-
Series Winner Florida Panthers vs Boston BruinsWagers: 17Staked: $123,192.00Event closes- Updated:
-
-
GAME 6 - Portland Winterhawks @ Prince George Cougars - Portland Winterhawks leads series 3-2Wagers: 4Staked: $384.00Event closes- Updated: