Olympic gold in Vancouver: What a difference one year makes

One year ago today, the eyes of the world – at least those parts where snow and ice are found – were fixated on Vancouver for the final event of the 2010 Winter Olympics, the Men’s Gold Medal Hockey Game between the United States and host Canada.  The Americans surprised most experts in their run-up to the championship final, going undefeated in their three preliminary round games including a convincing upset over Canada.  They crushed Finland in the semi-final to book their ticket to the Gold Medal Game.  Conversely, Canada did things the hard way, needing a shootout winner from Sidney Crosby to eke out a preliminary round win over Switzerland and an extra playoff win over Germany before advancing to the quarterfinals.

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The Gold Medal Game: forever burned into the memory of every Canadian.  Canada went up early on goals by Jonathan Toews, who clearly shone above any other individual player in the calendar year 2010, and Corey Perry.  Ryan Kesler put the U.S. on the board shortly after Perry’s goal and Zach Parise tied it with a desperate pulled-goalie tap-in with less than half a minute to go in regulation.

Midway through the overtime period, Crosby tried to streak into the American slot but was met by all four U.S. players and forced to the far half-wall.  But Crosby stayed on the puck sliding it to Jarome Iginla in the corner as Crosby rolled off toward the net.

“Iggy!” Crosby screamed.  The pass was right on his tape…

Today, Crosby rests and waits to see if he can salvage something, anything, out of a season where he was scaling new heights with ridiculous ease before being sent to the sidelines with a concussion suffered on or shortly after New Year’s Day.  Iginla’s Flames started the 2010-11 season slowly to the point where the Calgary captain was the subject of trade rumours.  Since then, Calgary has made a strong push for the playoffs.

This is what I wrote on the night Crosby scored in overtime, February 28, 2010:

Sidney Crosby was born and bred for this moment.

In a country that elevates its sublimely talented hockey superstars to iconic status, it was only appropriate that out of the many star players populating Team Canada’s roster, the wunderkind from Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia would emerge as the one who seized the moment that asked for a hero.

Out of the many, Sidney.  E pluribus, Crosby.

At 2.54 pm local time, with over 15-million alarmed fellow citizens anxiously looking on, Crosby took one small step toward Ryan Miller, flicked the puck past him, then took one giant celebratory leap for Canadian mankind.  OT game-winning goal.  Gold medal-winning goal.  On home ice.  Lights out, Vancouver.

Did you seriously think it would turn out this way?

Of course you didn’t.  After all, Hollywood is an American institution and surely, Canadian hockey fans never believed that a script worthy of an Academy Award next weekend would play out in living colour on the silver screen of Canada Hockey Place.  In a Winter Olympics that has simply been magical for host Canada, it was stretching the bounds of reality to ask for one more storybook, golden moment.  Oh sure, Canadians could envision winning gold in a business-like, non-fairy tale fashion over the United States, and it certainly looked likely when Jonathan Toews scored in the opening frame and Corey Perry scored mid-way through the second period to give Canada a 2-0 lead.

However, when Ryan Kesler cut the lead in half five and a half minutes later on a deft deflection, Doubt cast her dark shadow clouds over sunny Vancouver.  When American Zach Parise scored the tying goal with Miller on the bench during the United States’ last, desperate push with just 24 seconds remaining in regulation time, not only was a storybook golden moment unlikely, it was completely out of the question.  Even the possibility of a business-like golden finish became questionable.

Every Canadian in the arena or watching at home, at the corner pub, or pressed up against the windows of an electronics store looked up and down that home team bench and wondered about all the many talented, battle-tested players and asked the same question: Who would be the one to rescue Canada?  Who would be the overtime hero?

Out of the many, Sidney.  E pluribus, Crosby.

In Canada, there is a reason why we label Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux “hockey icons” and place them on a higher tier than their merely “star” contemporaries.  For Gretzky and Lemieux, their natural gifts, their stratospheric accomplishments and their uncanny ability to succeed in pressure-cooker situations gave them the right to be labelled “icons”.  Crosby traces his hockey ancestry to this royal lineage.  It was Gretzky who tabbed a then 14-year old Crosby, fresh off a 193-point season in Nova Scotia Minor Hockey, as the one who had a shot at breaking his records.  It was Lemieux, the King Penguin, who drafted Prince Crosby and welcomed him into his castle, where they both still reside together.

Icons identify the moment; icons seize the moment; icons create one frozen moment that will be remembered for all time.

Every great achievement Crosby has earned thus far in his still young career was but a prelude to what we witnessed yesterday.  Youngest to score at the World Junior Championship.  Youngest to win a scoring title.  Youngest captain ever.  Youngest captain to hoist the Stanley Cup.  All, mere arrows pointing to this frozen moment that was waiting for him from the day he was born, a prodigy on skates.

Some critics lamented, even as late as Saturday evening, that Crosby was underachieving and not scoring as much as he should in the Olympics.  They wanted Crosby to rediscover his finishing touch in the same manner that Perry, Ryan Getzlaf and Rick Nash seemed to do as the tournament proceeded.  What the critics constantly fail to grasp is that there is no need to fret about the performance of icons.  Out of the many stars on Team Canada, some will score in bunches and some will periodically slump.  As we speak, out of the many Canadian teenagers, mesmerized by the hockey that they observed the last two weeks, some will in four years, populate a portion of the next Olympic roster.  Out of the many, there will be stars but likely, no icons.  Out of the many, there will still only be one hockey icon for this generation, ever to the rescue.

Out of the many, Sidney.  E pluribus, Crosby.