Hockey Heaven
Wednesday, 24 February 2010 | by Pat's Picks
Today is one of those days a hockey fan with dual Canadian and American citizenship just dreams about. Team USA takes on Switzerland this afternoon and then tonight, Canada and Russia go head to head. There’s just one thing missing says Indianapolis Star sports columnist Bob Kravitz - a Cold War. He says he misses how the Cold War turned “every dumb event at the Summer and Winter Games into some grand geopolitical death match.”
I can assure you that USA vs. Switzerland won’t stoke a political fire. When I was in Vancouver last week, we happened to have a dinner reservation at the Swiss hospitality house for the night of the Canada vs. Switzerland game. There wasn’t a hiss or a boo to be heard when we walked in with our team Canada gear. Maybe Canada vs. Russia will generate a little more passion, but it’s all been pretty friendly in Vancouver.
Kravitz reminds his readers that it has been 30 years and two days since the “Miracle on Ice,” when the US hockey team defeated the Soviet Union at the 1980 Games in Lake Placid. I suppose Kravitz is right, that with the end of the Cold War also came the end of a dramatic era for hockey.
There is still some East-West tension and and a Russian superstar to fear. As the Wall Street Journal pointed out this morning the goal of every team competing in Vancouver this year is to keep Russia’s Alexander Ovechkin off the scoreboard. And, as Toronto’s Globe and Mail notes, the match up between Canada’s Sidney Crosby and Russia’s Ovechkin tonight will pit arguably, the world’s two best players against each other.
So even if the Cold War is over, the Ice Battle hasn’t even begun.
USA vs. Switzerland game is scheduled for 3:00 pm ET today. Canada and Russia play at 7:30 pm ET.
