Nostalgia Time: Lake Placid 1980

By Annie Detroit

I thought this next Nostalgia Time should allow us to reflect on what will never again be.





While I do believe in miracles, I do not believe that as long as NHL players play in the Olympics, another miracle will happen. With almost all of the Men's Hockey participants coming from the National Hockey League and Kontinental Hockey League, the best amatuer talent in the sport is now brushed aside to make way for what? Another two weeks we see a bunch of all-stars do what they're paid millions to do...their job.
To the players who skated on that 1980 team, hockey wasn't a job. It was a passion and lifestyle. They played so they could play. Many were convinced they wouldn't cut it in the NHL, so this was their last hoorah before they hung up their skates.
Watching these Olympics in Vancouver, I do see that passion carried on the ice, but not by the players that came from the NHL. Mats Zuccarello Aasen for team Norway caught my attention yesterday during the game between Norway and Switzerland because of his scrappy play that is a rare commodity in the NHL these days. He stands at a mere 5'7" and reminded me (and apparently the announcers) of Theo Fleury before the booze.
It was the kind of passion and love for the game that kids like him are bringing form the corners of the world. I don't really look forward to watching Canada vs. USA tonight because I will be watching two all-star teams try to out score each other, not out play each other. While Herb Brooks and the 1980 US team spent months analyzing, studying, and designing their game to beat the Soviet team, you won't see that in this new era of Olympic hockey. The players show up the day before the games, throw on a uniform, and go out there. If they win, it looks great on their resume when they file for free agency next year. If they don't win, they go back to their million dollar homes and back to their regular schedule of playing hockey for money with the hope that they'll win a Stanley Cup. The non-NHLers and non-KHLers don't have that luxury. They'll go back to Europe and their low paying jobs and hope that one day they'll get to play again. Those are the players I want to see in the Olympics, because they're the ones who play like their lives depend on it. They're the ones who are playing for their lives, just like all the other athletes in the games. That's the way it should be and that's what makes the games great.