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AP: Complete Ignorance of Hockey History

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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