VANCOUVER – A couple of days ago, the American men’s and women’s hockey teams were having dinner when a predictable, and somewhat painful, subject came up concerning the events of the Salt Lake Games eight years ago.
Anyone else remember what happened? The Yanks couldn’t forget it if they tried.
There, at the E Centre in the Salt Lake suburbs, the Americans dropped both gold-medal games to the Canadians and there, on their home soil, they had to watch their greatest hockey rival celebrate the greatest victory in global sport.
Suffice to say a pint of sulphuric acid would have gone down easier.
Now, eight years later, the Canadian and American women meet again in Thursday’s gold-medal game. The men’s story is still in the process of unfolding, but the women’s final will mark the latest instalment in the ongoing cold war between the Canucks and Yanks. And lest you think this rivalry has grown stale over the last decade or so, the two old foes would suggest otherwise.
“There’d be nothing better than to flip the stage,” said American defenceman Angela Ruggiero.
“(Salt Lake) is what they want to talk about, but that’s not the story we want to write,” said Canadian captain and resident institution Hayley Wickenheiser. “We’ve been through it. We’re ready for anything that comes our way.”
And that’s the way it’s been since the women’s game came into the Olympics 12 years ago.
Monday night at Canada Hockey Place, the Carthage and Rome of women’s hockey took care of the formalities in the form of Sweden and Finland and now move on to the gold-medal matchup which has become appointment viewing on the Olympic menu.
True, a larger question remains about the ongoing viability of the women’s tournament, but Canada-States III is the gold-medal game everyone wants to see and that includes NBC, that Canadian TV thingy, the fans and, most of all, the players.
The rivalry, at least the Olympic version, goes back to ’98 and Nagano when the States bested Canada 3-1 in the gold-medal game. Four years later in Salt Lake, Canada returned the favour with a 3-2 win. In Turin, the Americans were upset in the semifinals by Sweden before Canada coasted to the gold.
This brings us around to 2010 and while the two teams have improved exponentially over the last 12 years, the essence of the rivalry is still rooted in the back alley. Six players – Ruggiero and Jenny Potter for the US; Wickenheiser, Jayna Hefford, Jennifer Botterill and Becky Kellar for Canada – have played in all four Olympics and, for all of them, this game remains their motivation for playing.
“The intensity is there,” said Potter. “Hate is a strong word. But there’s dislike, definitely, and that’s why we play this game. This brings out the best in each other.”
“In some ways, it’s almost disappointing we didn’t face them in 2006,” said Hefford. “We’ll take the gold medal any day, but it’s something people love to watch and we love to play in. It’s going to be a battle.”
Monday night, then, the Americans made certain the calamity of Turin wasn’t repeated when they perforated Swedish goalie Kim Martin, who almost beat them single-handedly in Italy, in a 9-1 win. The Canadians followed with a 5-0 win over Finland – with heroic Finnish goalie Noora Raty stopping 45 of 50 shots – and the stage has been set one more time.
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