Oldtimers, Be Warned: We'll Call It a Miracle, Too

After the U.S. men’s hockey team smoked Canada, the buzz started to build. The 2-0 win Wednesday over Switzerland was expected, and it was all some fans needed to start dreaming of 1980.

However, some fans of that Miracle on Ice team are determined to protectt its legacy, should you DARE to try and compare this team’s potential to the 1980 US hockey team that won the gold medal. You don’t even have to say the ’10 team is as good or better. Simply mentioning the two teams in the same breath is enough to get their dander up. You can’t do that! That team was comprised of amateurs! Just kids! Russia was unbeatable! People were honking their horns! There was a movie! THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE MIRACLE ON ICE!

Relax. Calm down. You take your chill pill and you relax right now, old timer. There’s always an annoying subset of old people ready to reprimand you for comparing something going on today with something that happened back in the day. This annoys me. I’m well aware that circumstances surrounding the Miracle On Ice are now impossible to duplicate. However, and this is the critical part: I don’t care. At all. I was four years old when that happened, so I have no recollection of its majesty. Furthermore, that game was shown on tape delay (shockingly, not a decision made by NBC), so no one in the U.S. got to see the event live on television and revel in the joy of the actual moment.

But here, now, is a very young and exciting U.S. team that could be on the verge of greatness. Yes, they are comprised of NHL millionaires and there’s no more Cold War symbolism involved. A gold medal win wouldn’t be shocking. However, this doesn’t mean that I can’t go completely bananas should they win one. AND I WILL. I will honk my horn. I will grab a two by four and scream U.S.A.! HOOOOOOOOOOO! And I will have a fonder experience of this team than I did of the 1980 team, because I was four and I don’t remember any of that.

So to you old fogies ready to correct us when it comes to all matters important in sports, a polite request: Can you just let us enjoy this run before you go stomping all over it? Can we please just savor this moment without you denigrating it in relation to some other team and era, as so many annoying sports fans do with virtually every championship team?

Because, right now, I’m having too much fun to worry about any of that. IT’S 1980 ALL OVER AGAIN, ONLY I’M COGNIZANT! WOOOHOOOOOOO!!!!

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