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Jul 1, 2020
9:12:51pm
In honor of Canada Day: Salt Lake 2002, Gold Medal game
Sorry not trying to dunk on you Americans, can I just have this on Canada’s birthday? Summit Series in 1972 may be a more defining moment in international hockey history but I wasn’t born yet so I’m posting this. I was 13 during this Olympics, perfect age for a 2 week international hockey tournament to mean waaaay too much. Huge event for young MVN. I remember nervously watching the ROSTER ANNOUNCEMENT way before the games even started.

Let’s set the stage: Hockey Canada was down. The prior Olympics in 1998 were the first to feature NHL players. Canada’s men, coming off a loss in the 1996 World Cup to USA, got Haseked in the semis and left without a medal. Canada’s women lost to USA in the gold medal game that same year. Canada’s world juniors (under 20) coming off of 5 straight golds finished a shocking 8th (even lost to Kazakhstan) the month before Nagano, and still hadn’t won another gold when 2002 rolled around. Canada hadn’t won gold at the men’s world championships since 1997. And it was exactly 50 years since Canada had last won gold in ice hockey at the Olympics. So we were, uh, kinda panicking.

But the team was loaded: Mario Lemieux, who had been recently retired in 1998, was the captain. Joe Sakic and Jarome Iginla were arguably the two best forwards in the world that year. Paul Kariya was healthy, unlike 1998. Eric Lindros was playing and seemed healthy. Patrick Roy was... well, screw that guy. So the first game rolled around and Canada... got... spanked. Blown out by Sweden. Next up was Germany who had maybe 1 or 2 NHLers. Canada BARELY squeaked by 3-2. Tied the Czechs. Barely hung on vs Finland in the quarters then lucked out by getting Belarus (RIP Tommy Salo) in the semis. So they were in the gold medal game with lots of momentum but were they for real? The US had destroyed Finland and Germany, who Canada struggled with, and knocked off the vaunted Russians. This was the last hurrah for the group of American vets who had won the ‘96 World Cup: Roenick, Amonte, Weight, Leetch, Richter, Chelios, Tkachuk, Hull, LeClair, Modano etc. Great roster, tons of experience and especially deep at forward. And they had home ice.

One last thing: regardless of where your support was for this game, you gotta love that first Canadian goal where Mario just lets the puck go through. What a player. Hot take: Canada wins gold in 98 if he plays and is healthy, and then there’s way less urgency and pressure in 2002, and maybe they don’t win gold here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlEMtNBAt5s
Martin Van Nostrand
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Martin Van Nostrand
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