Olympics: What would be the modern equivalent of 'Miracle on ice' and the U.S. 1980 Olympic gold?

[Elvs]

Obviously, USA is one of the world's super powers and, for example, Latvia (with it's population of just 1.9 million people) wouldn't recieve the same level of hype (as the 1980 U.S. team in Lake Placid) if they somehow managed to win an Olympic gold.

But, if we're strictly talking about on ice performance, what would be today's equivalant of 'Miracle on ice' and the U.S. winning Olympic gold in 1980? Is it Czechia or Switzerland winning in 2022? Germany or Slovakia? Denmark or Latvia? Someone else?

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[Lartsaman]

Finland or Switzerland winning olympic gold at the Beijing olympics.

 

[Shocker]

Finland or Switzerland winning olympic gold at the Beijing olympics.

Really, Finland? It would obviously be an upset, but not anything close to a miracle.

 

[Dueling Banjos]

Nowhere near attractive as actually winning something but Slovenia's quarter-finals in Sochi, knowing Slovenia only has about 1000 registered hockey players and out of those something like 100 pros, maybe even less?

Imagine having a pool that tiny and getting to the qf.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

Belarus vs Sweden was pretty ridiculous in 2002 as well.

I think Germany came close to this in the last Olympics but fell short in the Gold Medal round.

I mean the USA was still a top 6ish country when they won Gold, they had won it previously in their history. I am not sure who to label here, would that not be the equivalent of the Czech Republic running to Olympic Gold in the next Olympics?

 

[Elvs]

Belarus vs Sweden was pretty ridiculous in 2002 as well.

I think Germany came close to this in the last Olympics but fell short in the Gold Medal round.

I mean the USA was still a top 6ish country when they won Gold, they had won it previously in their history. I am not sure who to label here, would that not be the equivalent of the Czech Republic running to Olympic Gold?

Belarus beating Sweden is of course one of hockey's (and surely all of sports) biggest upsets ever, but I'm looking for a team not only winning one game, but also the gold medal. I realize 'Miracle on ice' only refers to that single upset against the Soviets, so to clarify I've updated the thread title and my first post.

The format was obviously different then. I guess the equivalent today, with the current format, would be a non-top 5 nation reaching the finals and beating Canada for the gold?

 

[FinPanda]

Finland beating Canada with a team full of Liiga -players.

 

[MattiasSnall]

Finland beating Canada with a team full of Liiga -players.

They kinda already did that....

 

[FinPanda]

They kinda already did that....

I know. It was partly a joke.

 

[Yozhik v tumane]

Really, Finland? It would obviously be an upset, but not anything close to a miracle.

Oh no, they should definitely be one of the favorites in a best on best tournament. On paper, I think they project to be at least on par with the Swedes, if not better. It wouldn’t even be close to a miracle if they won an Olympic gold in 2022.

In the world championships, we’ve seen some great upsets or near-upsets. Not best on best tournaments, but compare the two Swiss finalist rosters to some of the teams they eliminated. And I would agree that the last Finnish World Championship team performed something of a miracle.

 

[Statsy]

The Swiss almost won the World Championships and Germany almost won the Olympics. Either of those would absolutely qualify.

 

[End on a Hinote]

2006 Torino Women's hockey semi final when Sweden defeated the Americans.

Unfortunately nobody talks about or remembers these upsets unless it happens in favour of the US (not trying to troll just stating facts).

 

[InfinityIggy]

I mean, there are a bunch of perspectives you could take with this.

Like Switzerland beating Canada in the round robin, for example, would be similarly impressive in my opinion, if all teams had their best players (NHL players are included).

 

[golfortennis]

I mean the USA was still a top 6ish country when they won Gold, they had won it previously in their history.

Sure, but nobody had been as dominant in "amateur" hockey in 1960 as the Soviets were by 1980. Then add the political drama....

I don't know if you actually could get anything such as that again. When it's best on best, no one is beating all of the big countries. Maybe in the U20, a team from relegation beating Canada.

I would also wonder how much format has to do with it. Back in 1980 it was the round robin, best record wins format. There wasn't a playoff round. I know a lot of European countries struggled with the change initially at least because they weren't conditioned for some games to mean more than others(literally, not figuratively "Swedes really want to beat Finns" type.)

 

[snipes]

Austria beating one of the Big 6 teams.

 

[Hanji]

What national team is on par with an NCAA all-star team?

Now imagine them beating Canada among others in 2022. There's your answer.

 

[Zub]

Finland or Switzerland winning olympic gold at the Beijing olympics.

Finland will have a stacked NHL team concisting elite talent and overall very good depth, couple that with our superior coaching and fighting spirit which is the cause for "overachieving" and i wouldn't be suprised we take home the gold whatsoever.

 

[Siludin]

Denmark beating Canada whereby Canada sends guys like Connor McDavid and Patrice Bergeon while Denmark sends guys like Mathias From and Malte Setkov

 

[ManofSteel55]

The Swiss almost won the World Championships and Germany almost won the Olympics. Either of those would absolutely qualify.

Came to say Germany winning the Olympics. That was the biggest underdog I have personally witnessed in a tournament like that.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

What national team is on par with an NCAA all-star team?

Now imagine them beating Canada among others in 2022. There's your answer.

pretty much this.

Make an NCAA all star team and have them go out and beat Canada's best NHL players

 

[garbageteam]

I'm not sure any of these more modern examples compares contextually, as it was basically amateur or college / minor leaguers on the US team vs a fully professional Soviet team with seasoned players, some of which were considered among the best in the world in their positions. The US team obviously was really good though, as they were undefeated in group play, as did the Soviets.

2002 Belarus was a professional team, as was the Slovenian and Latvian teams in 2014. Switzerland is a mid-tier hockey team that, in senior men's competitions is practically always competitive. I'm not sure squeaking a few close wins together with massive shot differentials, something they can do all the time, to make a semis is quite the same thing. Finland is a medal contender every tournament. Team Great Britain beating Canada at the Worlds would be a bigger shocker.

Today it would probably be something like this year's US gold medal WJC team winning against an elimination game against a senior Russian team with the entire NHL player pool available. Plausible it seems, but when you consider these are kids with next to no NHL experience vs. Ovechkin, Malkin, Kucherov and Panarin... that would be another miracle on ice.

 

[ES]

Looking at USA 1980 and other teams they played against. Can someone confirm how I see it:

* Draw against Sweden - I guess Sweden was very close to 3rd in pre-ranking, behind Soviets and Czechoslovakia
* 7-3-win against Czechoslovakia - This was already a big surprise and put them in the medal round
* Won against Norway, Romania and West Germany much like expected

* Finland could be seen closest to USA beforehand. Obviously after the MOI, this game was seemed to favour US, and they won after being down going into 3rd.

As the answer to the initial question, I would rate someone outside of top six winning the tournament which includes all the best players from the world.

 

[2Pair]

The equivalent would be a country like Sweden, Finland, Russia sending their WJC team and beating all the NHL loaded teams

 

[HanSolo]

I don't think there's an equivalent here. I mean sure, ice the current best of the Canadian best and that's more or less the modern day equivalent of that USSR team.

Thing is that USSR team was nearly unstoppable on the world stage and could and did go toe to toe with the best of the NHL.

They were upset by a bunch of college kids, most of whom did not go on to have NHL careers, or at least not notable ones. I guess maybe the bottom seeded team in the Olympics beating Canada would come close in this modern age.

 

[Hansen]

That Latvia game with Kristers Gudlevskis standing on his head, except winning imo