Since the Olympics have officially started, I thought it would be the appropriate time to honor one of the sports greatest moments; the Miracle on Ice.
There's not much left to say about the US' amazing victory over the Soviet Red Army team, so I thought the best way to appreciate them was to show just how impossible their task was. In 1980, a group of some of the most talented US college hockey players took down the best team in the world.
What would it look like if that were to happen today? I've assembled a team of what I think are the best US-born amateur players. Here they are:
Phil Kessel Scott Parse Robbie Earl
Brett Sterling Marty Sertich Ryan Potulny
Bill Thomas Chris Collins Drew Stafford
David Backes Dan Irmen Greg Moore
Matt Carle Andy Greene
Jack Johnson Casey Borer
Reid Cashman Matt Hunwick
Bobby Goepfert
Dave Caruso
It's a good team to be sure, but imagine them going up against, and beating Team Canada. In my mind, that's what makes the Miracle on Ice one of sports most unfathomable upsets.
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3 comments:
The Carle-Greene pairing would be absolutley awesome. They are the top two defenseman I've seen in nearly 15 years. Greene is just vastly underrated. Put him on Michigan and he's a Hobey finalist. Sadly he probably won't be.
They would probably have to play at least half the game.
The thing is, do they really compare to a pairing of Chris Pronger and Rob Blake? Or could they slow down a line of Martin St. Louis, Dany Heatley, and Jarome Iginla? It's hard to imagine that happening.
I was just saying in general. If you had some kind of college all-star team, this would be the best defensive pairing in more than a decade. I wish there was some game that pitted the college all-stars vs. the CHL all-stars or have a round robin involving eastern college all-stars, western college AA, Q & OHL stars, and WHL stars.
Also when comparing to the Candien team, this just shows that the 80' upset will never ever be done again. You would have a better chance winning today's powerball than seeing that happen again. I remember on a special that the Russian team beat the NHL all-stars comprised of the best players in Canada, U.S. and parts of Europe in a 2 of 3 game series. Pretty impressive. And all they did all day was practice, like 7 hours a day.
Also if you are trying to make a U.S. lineup to try to match up with Canada take out Kessel. He would get killed out there. He is not physically mature enough yet. Give him a couple more years, yes, but his "in between" the legs move that he always does will easily be contained by the defenseman listed.
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