AP: Complete Ignorance of Hockey History
by Hawerchuk on Feb 22, 2010 4:46 PM EST
in Zzz...2010 Olympics
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Alan Robinson of the Associated Press writes of yesterday's game between Canada and the US:
"they pulled off the biggest Olympic hockey upset since the Miracle on Ice, stunning Canada 5-3 on Sunday..."
For real? What about:
Feb 11, 1984 - Norway 3, USA 3
Feb 16, 1988 - Switzerland 2, Finland 1
Feb 13, 1994 - France 4, USA 4
Feb 20, 2002 - Belarus 4, Sweden 3
Feb 16, 2006 - Switzerland 3, Czech Republic 2
Feb 18, 2006 - Switzerland 2, Canada 0
Now those are upsets! The really good US team beating a Canadian team that was a 60% favorite (66%, actually) to win the game? Not so much. Isn't it a bit of an insult to a team full of NHL stars to think that they're no more likely to beat Canada than a bunch of NHL-ready college kids were to beat the Soviets?
The irony of all this is that our flag-waving journalist who looks for every opportunity to dredge up 1980 nostalgia conveniently forgets about the 1996 World Cup of Hockey. Anybody remember that? The US absolutely dominated Canada, beating Canada three games out of four, and sending me and my housemates home to wallow in national self-pity and lash out at the rules that allowed players born in Canada to compete for the US. So if you were an American hockey fan, why would you want to whitewash over the year when you were demonstrably the best team in the World? If the Swedes win Olympic gold this year, do you think they'll call it their biggest victory since the 1994 Olympics?
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Agreed, Gabe.
Canada was slightly favored, but what we all feared would happen, did. It wasn’t an unforseeable upset.
Brodeur made poor decisions every time he handled the puck, Pronger has looked slow, our forwards are misfiring, and not getting pucks up high often enough, and then at the other end, the States have enough offensive talent to make us pay for sloppy defensive play, and Ryan Miller happened.
You can’t fault people for being over-excited with the win. If you were roaming around and reading comments before the game you would have seen Canadians telling Americans they had no chance. We know there is no comparison, but emotions and logic never were buddies. :)
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by ang6666 on Feb 22, 2010 5:50 PM EST reply actions
All night last night I kept saying “No it’s not” every time I heard that.. NBC remains a joke. On behalf of Americans who actually follow hockey, I apologize.
by DoctorMyBrainHurts on Feb 22, 2010 6:43 PM EST reply actions
Don't forget Czech 1998 (Hasek)
IIRC, that team had 12 NHLers. And I seem to remember that Czech considered it their own Miracle on Ice.
Is it just me...
or is Slovakia’s win over Russia more of an upset?
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Let’s just put it this way…the original Miracle on Ice wasn’t as much of a miracle as people set it out to be (more from understanding the state of the Soviet team at the time), so that’s the initial inaccuracy everyone makes. Then, we can talk about the relative closeness of the U.S.-Canada matchup two nights ago (though I think identifying the oddsmakers’ takes doesn’t really do the disparity justice; who has at least one if not two of the top 5 players in the world at every position?).
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by Bettman's Nightmare on Feb 22, 2010 10:49 PM EST reply actions
By all means they are upsets, but I think we’re getting to the point where if Switzerland gives a contender a run for their money, it isn’t as big a deal.
But keep in mind that the USA was probably the 5th best team coming in to the tournament, and Canada seemed to be icing their best Olympic team ever. Russia also. Because of that I tend to favor the view that it is a big upset (also one that relegates Canada to face Germany, then Russia, after that Sweden if they all win) while the USA gets the top seed and the easier half of the bracket.
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by red army line on Feb 23, 2010 8:32 AM EST up reply actions
Top Ten Olympic Hockey Upsets Since the 1980 Miracle:
Honourable Mentions: France tying USA 4-4 in 1994, and Latvia tying the US 3-3 in 2006.
10. 1988: Poland ties Defending Bronze medalist Swedes 1-1
- Would rank higher but it was only a tie
9. 1984: Norway ties the defending Gold medalist USA 3-3 the year after the Miracle on Ice
- Would rank higher but it was only a tie
8. 1994: Germany beats the USA 4-3
- The last Olympics where the NHL didn’t allow their players to compete, otherwise this would rank higher
7. 2002: Belarus beats Sweden 4-3
- Mats Sundin and Nicklas Lidstrom in their prime somehow lose to Belarus?
- The first major shocker that I remember.
6. 1988: Finland 2 USSR 1
- This was when USSR was practically unbeatable (Miracle on Ice notwithstanding).
- Soviets went on to win Gold, with legends Krutov, Larionov, Fetisov, Makarov, et al.
- Otherwise I would never put a Finland win on a list of major upsets
- I don’t think the Finns made a movie out of this.
5. 2006: Switzerland 3 Czech Republic 2
- The Czechs would win the Bronze medal
- The Swiss are definitely Olympic hockey’s true Cinderella team
4. 1988: Switzerland 2 Finland 1
- Finland was awesome that year, upsetting the USSR, and eventually taking home Silver
3. 1988: West Germany beating Czechoslovakia 2-1
- The Czechs were a perennial powerhouse, playing professional players against amateurs, and were the defending Silver medalists
2. 1994: Germany beat Russia 4-2
- Russia was the defending champion
1. 2006: Switzerland beat Canada 2-0
- Canada were the defending champs, stacked with talent … shut out!
In each of these cases the Cinderella team had maybe a 20% chance of winning, at best. The USA had probably a 40-45% chance of beating Canada last night – at worst.
Not sure how 1996 relates
I’ve been in the choir fuming that commentators (mostly those who must not watch hockey, apparently) even referenced 1980 the other night, but I must admit I’m not sure how 1996 relates to this.
So if you were an American hockey fan, why would you want to whitewash over the year when you were demonstrably the best team in the World?
Isn’t the quote you’re picking apart referring to “upsets” though? 1996 was, like the 2010 preliminary game, a case of two squads of decently matched NHLers going at it and predicting an entirely unshocking result. Since it was hardly an epic upset, it wouldn’t even go into the equation of “Biggest [hyperbole] since…” and there would be no white-washing of 1996.
But all of this just rides shotgun to the absurdity of saying “The U.S. hasn’t beaten Canada in 50 years” or whatever they’re saying. Restricting it to Olympics competition is like when NHL commentators say a given Western conference team hasn’t beaten an Eastern Conference team since xxxx, ignoring the fact that they rarely play each other and in some recent seasons didn’t face each other at all.
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