U-S-A! U-S-A!

Tomorrow - my random thoughts on the Olympic tournament, but today - an ode to the boys in red, white, and blue:

I've never been this pumped about US Hockey before. The 1996 World Cup victory over Canada was sweet, but the event didn't have the big hype and analysis beforehand, so the main excitement came after the fact, in the stunning and awesome realization that the American hockey players could hang with any in the world.

The 2002 Silver Medal run was cool, but we ended with a home ice loss to the damn Canadians, so it left a bitter aftertaste. Also, it was clear this was the end of an era, as that incredible core of skaters wouldn't be making much of a mark on the international level again.

Because I was born in 1979, I wasn't lucky enough to experience the 1980 team, still the greatest sports story of all time. Side note - if you ever have a chance to actually watch a broadcast of that game, DO SO! It doesn't matter that you know how it'll end, it's still one of the most tense and exciting games you'll ever see. I watched a chopped version on ESPN Classic, missing random chunks of 5 or 7 minutes here or there (seriously ESPN Classic - is the programming schedule really that in-demand you can't afford to give it a full play?!?) and still found it to be one of the best sporting events I've ever seen. That's no exaggeration - an incomplete viewing of a game I knew the ultimate outcome of and still was up there with the most thrilling things I've ever seen. I can't fathom what it was like to watch at the time.

But within my hockey fan lifetime, no U.S. Hockey feeling compares what I'm going though right now. Yeah, we lost yesterday. And yeah, I'm pretty damn pissed and upset about how we lost (more on that later). But holy balls am I pumped about the brand of hockey I saw the Americans play the last two weeks. And holy balls am I proud of what those kids did.

Now being proud of a team is generally reserved for parents or coaches. It sounds pretty odd to think of yourself as being proud of one of your pro teams. But that's the beauty of international sports - it's the rare situation it's completely justified to be proud of the team you're a fan of.

This U.S. hockey team was the perfect example of why. These kids faced the most established, most talented, most complete hockey team in the world, only to out-work, out-gut, and out-execute them. They won when no one believed in them and then again when all eyes were on them. They won in blow-outs and nail-biters. And in one short week, they went from a team that was lucky to steal a win from a dominant Canadian team to having Canada be lucky to steal a game from them because of a brainless rule (again, I'll get to that).

And what was the major motivation for these kids on Team USA? Obviously it wasn't money or personal accolades - there are no contracts to be earned, no awards given out. It wasn't for the team or some special camaraderie - these guys first skated together exactly 14 days ago. It wasn't for pride or bragging rights - they faced little expectations and had already exceeded them, and you don't show that kind of amazing heart just to have something to talk smack about.

Nope, what drove these kids was that they were Americans, that they were damn proud of that, and that they were thus going to give every single ounce of what they had to make all of us, their fellow Americans at home living and dying with every rush up the ice, damn proud of the hockey we watched them play out there.

So hell yeah I'll tell you I'm proud of these guys - they've more than earned that from me. I'm proud of a team that found a way to beat a pesky Swiss squad to open the tournament on the right note. I'm proud of a team who used a blow-out against Norway to build up some confidence. I'm proud of a team that showed no fear against the Canadians, who responded to every Canadian goal with another of their own, and who didn't let being out-gunned and out-played keep them from believing they still could win.

I'm proud of how they handled the pressure of being the number one seed and talk of the tournament by again dispatching a scrappy Swiss team. I'm proud of how they came out guns blazing against a highly-accomplished Finnish squad in a do-or-die game and didn't let off the gas until the game was in-hand.

And most of all, I'm proud of how they played the Canadians last night. Unlike the first game, it wasn't obvious who the clear-cut superior team was. The Canadians had the better players, but the Americans played better. They won the free puck battles, they played stellar positional defense, and they were constantly working together as a unit.

But what made me most proud was that they got down but never gave up, not even a little. At about the midway point of the game, Canada was up 2-0, and while not skating circles around the U.S. by any means, were clearly the better team. But from that point on, the U.S. took it to the Canadians. Didn't matter that the Canadians were hanging back in a suffocating trap - the U.S. hustled and fought and kept creating chances. And despite having to sell out everything forward, the U.S. wasn't getting beat back the other way, even against an entire Canadian roster of guys capable of doing just that.

They got that first goal in the second period to keep the game tight, keep the pressure on the Canadians. As then as the seconds and minutes ticked off in the third, as the chances for that tying goal kept slipping away, they just kept battling. Dump it in, dig after it, pay the price on every rush. Work along the boards with physicality and intelligent positioning. Keep the sticks and legs going when forechecking in the Canadian zone to cause turnovers and increase chances. Move the puck, find open teammates, put shots on goal, crash the net, and don't ever give up on a play.

And then it all paid off. On that tying goal, pretty much every single thing the U.S. team had been busting their butt to do, everything that allowed them to hang as equals with the greatest in the world, all of that came into play. That dramatic tying goal in the waning seconds of the game - it only happened because of about 10 to 20 different small and big things that the U.S. skaters did on that shift. The same 10 to 20 different small and big things they had been fighting to do all game long, all tournament long.

I couldn't be prouder. They played Canada to a 2-2 tie in 60 minutes of incredible hockey. They didn't simply hang with them, catch some lucky breaks or get some incredible goaltending. They showed that out there on the ice, their team was as good as the Canadian team. Sure Canada had more pure talent. But the U.S. had more grit and hustle, and better utilized their advantages as a team.

Would winning in the 4x4 or a shoot-out have been more fun? Of course, but it wouldn't have made me prouder. The fact was that the U.S. game was built strictly for normal hockey. A 20-minute 4x4 period? No bastardization of the sport could have favored the Canadians more. It took away the grind, the physical battles against the boards. It took away a lot of the teamwork, the positioning, the hustle.

The worst part? The U.S. had all the momentum. If this game goes into a normal 5x5 overtime, the U.S. has the edge. Not only mentally, but in the game's execution. The Canadians had gotten completely away from their game, trying to hang on to their lead through a trap. Everyone knows how hard it is to then flip a switch and get back to an aggressive style of play. On top of that, all the pressure was on the Canadians, not only as home ice favorites to win gold in their national pasttime, but now also because of the 2-0 lead they had let slip away.

On the other side, the U.S. had all the confidence in the world. They knew their brand of hockey worked. They had their backs against the wall but now had fought back to where they could taste victory. They knew that Canada had thrown the full weight of their immense talents completely into shutting down the Americans and still could not do so.

So there was no pride lost in how the Americans lost. They had accomplished something no one could have predicted - entering that overtime, had it been a 5x5 set-up, they would have been even money, if not holding a slight edge, against the mighty Canadians.

So I'm a little bummed that these kids and us fans didn't get a fair chance at the dream ending. I'm bitter at whomever sits on the Olympic hockey rules committee and didn't think through the fact that a 4x4 overtime would be an unnecessarily poor way to conclude a great game. I get they can't play 5x5 forever - that's why you have the necessary evil of the shoot-out. But if you're gonna play another 20 minutes, why the hell not play it as the game was intended? As it had been fought to a dramatic stalemate after the previous 60 minutes? You're already committing to 20 minutes of extra time - why completely change the way the game is played in order to decide the victor?

But as frustrating as that is, it will pass. Instead I'll just be left with the memory of two great weeks of rooting for a bunch of my fellow Americans, mostly young kids, almost all having yet to make their mark on the game. The appreciation of a group of guys born and raised here, who gave every single ounce of themselves on the ice, and did it all to make people like me proud. And the resulting pride I felt in the way they used endless hustle, unceasing physicality, and incredible teamwork to prove themselves the on-ice equals of one of the greatest collections of hockey talent ever.


(check in tomorrow for more of my thoughts on the Olympic tourney)