VANCOUVER — There was a tear in every beer in Canada, where hockey is a religion. Team USA turned Canadians red, white and a very depressing blue, beating them 5-3 at their own game in the Olympic tournament.
No miracle required.
Ever heard of a goaltender getting in the head of his foes?
Well, on Sunday night, U.S. goalie Ryan Mil ler messed with 34 million minds of every man, woman and child in Canada.
Walking around town with his family in the days leading up to the showdown against our northern neighbors, Miller heard trash talk from Vancouverites in the streets. The 29-year-old goalie bit his tongue. “I was outnumbered,” he explained.
And what verbal abuse did the hecklers hurl at him?
With a wry smile, Miller revealed, “They’d say something like, ‘Go Canada!’ “
That’s it? A harmless cheer was the best smack they could bring?
Well, that’s Canada for you. Are the hosts of the Olympics really so understated as people and so committed to running a green Winter Games that even their trash talk is odor free?
“Yes, they were very polite,” Miller said.
One day short of the 30th anniversary of the Miracle on Ice, Miller got his revenge against the humble hecklers. He went out and made 42 saves in a preliminary-round game that determined no medals but immediately exacerbated Canada’s growing inferiority complex.
A loss in hockey just became the biggest glitch in these Games where the home team seems to find a way to mess everything up, whether we’re talking the lack of snow on Cypress Mountain or the lack of Canadians on the medals podium.
Mike Babcock, the hockey coach overseeing a national disaster in the making, is already messing with combinations on his top scoring line, playing a shell game with Sidney Crosby, Rick Nash, Mike Richards and Jarome Iginla with all the melodrama of an adolescent who can’t decide on a prom date.
And how’s this for premature panic? After watching a soft goal (or two, but who’s counting?) be scored by the Americans, Babcock did not rule out benching goaltender Marty Brodeur, who’s only the all-time leader in regular-season NHL victories.
When Roberto Luongo was asked if he might get the next start between the pipes for Canada, he curtly replied, “That’s not my call, buddy.”
My, aren’t we sensitive?
Could it really be possible in a Games in which everything Uncle Sam touches seems to turn to gold that the hockey team might honor the miracle many Americans still consider the fondest sports memory of the 20th century?
Well, in the right light, doesn’t Chris Drury, a fourth-line grinder for the U.S. squad, look a little like Mike Eruzione, the pure grit in the upset of Olympic proportions 30 years ago?
“I know this is going to sound corny, but he reminds me of a Mike Eruzione- type player,” U.S. coach Ron Wilson admitted on the eve of this international tourney. “I’m not saying if we get to the gold medal (game) that it’s going to be Drury who is going to score, but he’s that type of person. The glue in the room.”
With the game against Canada tied 2-2 in the second period and the sea of red in the arena seats beginning to find a voice that could turn the momentum, Drury did what he does best: He scored a dirty, workingman’s goal when his team really needed a hand. The Americans never trailed again.
Team USA, which earned a bye to the quarterfinals despite being outshot 45-23, has found reasons to believe fate is on its side. Right now, the Canadians appear more of threat to set a Guinness record for squeezing the stick.
“Their expectations are gold or get out. Anything less than gold isn’t good enough for Canada,” U.S. center Paul Stastny told me. “At these Winter Olympics, if they don’t win gold in hockey, I don’t think it’s going to be successful for 2010 Vancouver. That pressure can help teams like us. We’re going to try to play a loose game. That’s when you’re at your best.”
Frightened at the prospect of unruly drunks roaming a beautiful city whose infrastructure has been pushed to high- stress levels by more than 150,000 daily visitors who have caused pedestrian gridlock near the Olympic caldron, Vancouver police ordered all downtown liquor stores to cease sales at 7 p.m.
Considering the pain inflicted by Team USA’s chest-thumping on Canadian ice, local authorities might want to reconsider that alcohol policy for medicinal reasons.
In a nation of 34 million hockey mourners, there’s a lot of sorrow to drown.
Mark Kiszla: 303-954-1053 or mkiszla@denverpost.com
