Reflecting on the Biggest Canadian Sports Moment of a Generation
Sports are usually a great pastime; a 2-3 hour distraction from the mundane realities we put ourselves through. But sometimes they mean just a bit more.
Every now and then in the sports world, we get a moment so dramatic, a story so compelling, an event so impactful and emotional, that it causes people to scream with joy and lose all sense of reality. There are a lot of great sporting moments in history, but there are a select few that are iconic. So iconic, and in this case woven into the fabric of Canadian culture, that when people ask “where were you when?”you’ll be able to place yourself right in the moment again no matter how long it’s been.
February 28th will mark 10 years since one of those moments: Sidney Crosby’s Golden Goal at the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games. Let’s take a trip down memory lane and reflect on Canada’s greatest Olympic triumph.
For the first time in history, Canada had the opportunity to host the Olympic Games while also sending a team filled with the country’s best hockey players. Since they were professionals and an agreement had not been reached otherwise, NHL players were unable to participate in the Olympic Games until 1998, therefore Canada’s hockey team at Calgary 1988 was filled with amateurs (Note: The NHL and IIHF have recently clashed over this issue, preventing NHL players from going to PyeongChang 2018 and potentially Beijing 2022).
But with such a momentous occasion came monumental expectations. Canada was pegged as the unanimous favourite, and after their disastrous 7th place finish at Torino 2006, which included a round-robin 2-0 loss to Switzerland, the only acceptable outcome would be a gold medal. Things were a bit rocky for Canada out of the gate. Although they thumped Norway in their opener 8-0, they barely squeaked by Switzerland with a 3-2 shootout victory. And in their first head-to-head battle since the 2002 Gold Medal Game in Salt Lake City, they fell to the United States 5-3. Their path to the Gold suddenly became twice as difficult.
But instead of folding at the first hint of adversity, like another hockey team with a maple leaf on their chest seems to always do, Canada rallied and came back stronger. They shuffled around a lineup littered with future hall-of-famers like Sidney Crosby, Jarome Iginla, Jonathan Toews, Joe Thornton, Scott Niedermayer, Chris Pronger, Drew Doughty, and Duncan Keith; each of them pushing the other to be better. They replaced the struggling Martin Brodeur with the hot hand in Roberto Luongo. And it was a team re-born.
They blew out Germany 8-2 including a goal from Shea Weber that went through the net. They then put forth the greatest Team Canada performance in history with a 7-3 obliteration of long-time hockey rival Russia, who was undefeated up to that point. From there, Canada narrowly defeated Slovakia 3-2 to secure a rematch with the United States in the Gold Medal Game.
This was the most hyped-up hockey game in not just my lifetime, but in the history of the game. To add a little incentive on top of the Canada-USA rivalry, the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games had been a resounding success for Canada with 27 total medals, the most in Canadian history for a Winter Games. In addition to finally winning a gold medal on home soil, courtesy of moguls skier Alex Bilodeau, Canada had 13 gold medals heading into the culminating event of the Games – the men’s hockey Gold Medal Match versus the United States. A Canadian victory would give them 14, the most ever by a Winter Games host. Meanwhile, a loss would leave a stain on an otherwise perfect two and a half weeks that Canadians might never recover from.
Between the hours of 12-6pm on February 28th, 2010, you’d have a tough time finding a Canadian who wasn’t glued to a television set. 26.5 million Canadians tuned into the Gold Medal Game at some point, making it the most watched television event in Canadian history. Because this wasn’t just another best-of-seven Stanley Cup matchup; this was a one-game, winner-take-all final, in a tournament that happens every four years, being held on Canadian home ice for likely the only time in a generation. The outcome was supposed to be a storybook ending, a Canadian prophecy written in the stars that would unofficially declare once and for all that hockey is truly Canada’s game.
Like they had in their previous three matchups, Canada came out of the gate like they were on a mission. They played a dominant 1st period and took the lead on a Jonathan Toews goal, while Corey Perry added an insurance marker to make it 2-0 early in the 2nd period. But the Americans would not go quietly into the night. A couple minutes later they made it a 1-goal game again, and with 24 seconds remaining, with millions of Canadians able to taste the gold medal, Zach Parise tied the game at 2 for the United States
After giving up the lead in the dying seconds, the intermission between the third period and overtime felt like an eternity. A nation left hanging on the edge of their seat. Canada had deserved a victory; they should’ve all been celebrating in that moment. Instead, there was still more hockey to be played, more tension-filled action to be endured, and one Canadian slip-up could bring the dreams of a nation crashing down.
Sometimes I think back to that game and I ask myself, what if Canada had lost? What if it was the Americans who emerged victorious with a 3-2 overtime victory, to capture Gold in Vancouver and break the hearts of millions of Canadians? Honestly, I think we’d still be commiserating about it today like a scorned ex. Even if Canada did end up making amends for it by winning at Sochi 2014, it wouldn’t have healed all the scars from that loss. Having a national moment and gold medal in “Our Game” stolen from us by our neighbours to the south, defeating Canada twice in the process, would’ve set the country back years in an identity crisis.
Luckily, Sidney Crosby was there to “fulfill his destiny”. Canada’s golden boy, who had a middling tournament up to that point, showed up when it mattered most. He called for a pass out of the corner from “Iggy”, ripped a lightning-quick wrist shot through the legs of Ryan Miller, and in an instant, immortalized himself into hockey and Canadian history.
Chris Cuthbert’s call of the goal couldn’t be more accurate, words which still send chills down my spine when echoed 10 years later: “Sidney Crosby! The Golden Goal! And Canada has once-in-a-lifetime Olympic Gold!”
As a sports fan, you devote countless hours of your time chasing that rush you’ll be lucky to feel once in a lifetime, and in that moment, I along with millions of other Canadians, felt the pure indescribable ecstasy that sports can bring. This moment was our generation’s Paul Henderson Summit Series goal to defeat the Soviets in 1972.
Some have come close to matching that feeling since then; Kawhi Leonard’s quadruple-bounce shot in Game 7 vs. Philadelphia is up there. And some stories are still yet to be written. But in my opinion, Crosby’s goal is the greatest sporting moment of our generation, and there isn’t much that would be able to top it.