Flame still burns for Olympic fans

Times Union ^ | February 13, 2005 | DAVID FILKINS

[ConservativeStatement]

(Jim) Craig, goaltender for the 1980 United States hockey team, stopped 39 shots as the U.S. defeated the Soviet Union 4-3 in the "Miracle on Ice." He was back in Lake Placid Saturday, helping light the Olympic torch in commemorating the silver anniversary of the Games. It's been a quarter-century since Al Michaels uttered the now famous words, "Do you believe in miracles?" The same amount of time has passed since the Cold War took sport form, a team of U.S. collegiate hockey players toppled the mighty Soviets, Eric Heiden's tree-trunk legs powered him to five speedskating gold medals, and the little town that couldn't, did. "USA, USA, USA."

[ConservativeStatement]

USA, USA, USA, indeed!

[God luvs America]

Will never forget the events of that time up to the detail of being a hockey fan in my teens and calling Sports Phone in NY because I could not bear to wait until that night to watch the game and get the final results.

I have the game on film as well as several documentaries about it and I'll tell you this- each and every time I watch it the excitement of the final ten minutes of that game, from the point Eruzione scored and the Americans took the lead, is the same today for me today as it was 25 years ago.

In 1997 I was in that tiny little arena and the hair on the back of my neck literally stood up realizing what had taken place there!

[rs79bm]

They are celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Lake Placid 1980 games this week.


Spectators and dignitaries fill the Lake Placid Horse Show grounds Saturday for the Opening Ceremonies of the 25th Anniversary of the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid.

[mainepatsfan]

I wish was old enough to have appreciated the Miracle.

[mainepatsfan]

What I can't understand is why they didn't have the USA-USSR game at 8:00 and the Sweden-Finland game at 5:00?

[Uncle Vlad]

The Soviets refused to move the time of the Friday night game. They said they would play at the originally scheduled time or not at all. I'm not sure why they didn't play the gold medal game on Sunday at a later time. I think it was probably because when they made up the schedule, no one in their wildest dreams expected a bunch of fuzzy-cheeked college kids to beat the Soviet Union and then play for the gold medal.

But they did win.

[Uncle Vlad]

I have the game on film as well as several documentaries about it and I'll tell you this- each and every time I watch it the excitement of the final ten minutes of that game, from the point Eruzione scored and the Americans took the lead, is the same today for me today as it was 25 years ago.

Anyone who doubts the idea of Einstein's Theory of Relativity should watch that game if they haven't already seen it. Watching the clock tick down on that game was the longest 10 minutes of my life! And what a beautiful memory.

[mainepatsfan]

Seems strange that the Soviets didn't want to change times. I'm sure they were convinced they were going to do the same thing to the Americans they did a couple of weeks earlier at Madison Square Garden. Why wouldn't they want to do it live in front of a large American audience during prime time?

[Uncle Vlad]

The Soviets didn't think of it as a big deal. They had won every Olympic gold medal from 1964 on. With the exception of the literal thrashing they took from the Philadelphia Flyers (1975 or 1976; I can't remember), they had won every tournament and almost every game they ever played. They were arrogant, with good reason. They were having some fun, trading for blue jeans, and they were therefore, according to U.S. Olympic coach Herb Brooks, ripe for an upset. Oh boy, was Herb ever right about that one.

[k2blader]

I'ma lready lookign forward to the next Winter Olympics. Oh, and the World Cup is in 2006 too. :-)

[k2blader]

Good grief. This is a day I should use spellcheck....

[mainepatsfan]

When teams dominate so often they forget what it's like to play in a tight game. It's also never good to be behind in the third period when the other team's goalie (Jim Craig) is hot.

[mainepatsfan]

I guess the players will show up for that. It's not like they're doing much else right now.

[gridlock]

It's not like they're doing much else right now.

Yeah. It's a shame there is not some kind of big-time professional hockey league where the best players in the World could show-case their talents. That would really be something...

[God luvs America]

The schedule for the Olympics is always set way in advance...the seedings for the hocky finals were already set. The Americans, rather ABC, tried to move the game till the evening for prime time but the Ruskies said "nyet!"

[Alberta's Child]

I read a great article about this last year, right around the time the Kurt Russell movie came out. There were a lot of fascinating little details that I never remembered about that Olympic tournament in 1980.

One of the most intriguing points they made was that Herb Brooks never considered that victory the kind of monumental, improbable upset that it has been portrayed to be. He put together a team that year with the sole purpose of matching up well against the Soviets, specifically to provide strangths that matched up well against Russia's few weaknesses. Going into the Olympics, he said his team was good enough to win at least a bronze medal -- an odd comment when you consider the U.S. was seeded something like #7 out of the 12 teams.

[Finalapproach29er]

Bump for later

[ConservativeStatement]

I highly recommend that movie to anyone and everyone. It is a superb portrayal of the events both in a hockey and politcal sense.

[mainepatsfan]

Hopefully when the NHL comes back it will be a format where that can happen.

[solitas]

I was old enough; and I couldn't've cared less about the hockey. Was too busy trying to find biathlon coverage, like every other winter olympics.