I believe PRIDE is the exact appropriate word when it comes to describing how I
feel over this US hockey team win.
 
For weeks, I've been trying to explain to anyone who will listen just how huge
a tournament the World Cup was -- even to people who are normally hockey fans.
My biggest selling point was telling people to ask the players what they'd
rather win, that or the Stanley Cup, and most players would be torn with their
answer.
 
Of course it probably hits home for us a little more.  After following college
hockey for 9 years, I don't know how many times I've heard that college players
can't compete, or are at a disadvantage.  To see this now, is absolutely
tremendous (and let's not forget, the best player on Canada in this tournament,
CuJo, was also a US College product).
 
I distinctly remember the team with Amonte, McEachern and Tkachuk playing at
Lynah Rink in '91 -- It was a game in which Ryan Hughes scored 4 goals and the
Big Red blew out BU. I remember LeClair in his last year and how he wasn't even
considered the best player on his team. The BC guys, the Lake Staters,
Smolinski, etc... all probably told there was something wrong with their game
at one time or another.  Thankfully, there's people like Lou Lamoriello in the
pro game now who will give these guys a shot.
 
The only thing that takes away from this a bit is that relatively few Americans
gave a damn, and that's a crying shame.  I agree this is bigger than the '80
Olympics in hockey terms, but, unfortunately, not as many people were watching.
 I just couldn't convince most people that this was a huge tournament.
 
But, certainly, in my mind anyway, the torch has been passed from one BU player
(Mike Eruzione) to another (Tony Amonte).
 
It disturbed me greatly to hear the vicious anti-americanism being spewed by
many Canadians in Ottawa and Montreal.  Here in Philly, we rooted hard for
Canada vs. Sweden.  I understand how huge hockey is to them, but I've always
considered the two countries to be hockey allies as well as regular allies.  To
hear "Let's go Russia," even though we have no reason to hate Russia anymore,
really got to me.
 
This equates to when many American idiots rooted against Toronto in the World
Series for inane reasons.  I like to think I scolded those people, and I hope
there are many Canadians out there who chastised the people that were booing
the US anthem last Thursday.
 
Anyway, back to the topic -- it is true that those involved in US College
hockey can feel proud of this, but beyond maybe the ability to develop players,
the bottom line is, more of our better athletes are playing collegiate hockey
now, and thusly, more are in the NHL.
 
A Canadian friend, before the tournament, said he didn't realize LeClair and
Tkachuk were Americans because they "played like Canadians."  I realized he
meant nothing vicious by the comment, but I was a little offended.  He also
said the US lacked the firepower to win.  So we ribbed each other all series --
though now, he is no longer appreciative of the ribbing <G>.
 
But it points out the perceptions many people still have.  This goes a long way
to change it, even though it's something I believed for a long time.  Look at
the top 8 best young players in the league, in my opinion --- Roenick, LeClair,
Tkachuk, Kariya, Sakic, Forsberg, Jagr, Lindros.  3 US players, 3 Canadians, 2
Europeans.  That Canadian team had way too many older players.   Most of our
best players are still young.
 
This stems, for the most part, directly from the 1980 US team victory.  And
these players of this generation, as a whole, like LeClair, Tkachuk, who are
big AND fast, decided to play hockey over other sports for the first time in US
history.
 
In the last couple of years, US colleges seems to be losing more recruits to
juniors than they did in the late 80's -- Let's hope that changes once again
--- and this way, we can continue to have great US players, who also played
collegiately.
 
Adam Wodon - AC Productions
Host: "Around the Rinks" - The only National College Hockey talk show
http://www.audionet.com/sports/shows/rinks/
Premieres: September 23
 
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