Oh Canada!

We did it! We absolutely did it! In all my years of watching and playing sports, this was certainly one of the 9 greatest moments in my sports (watching) life. Here they are in no particular order…

!985 Blue Jays Division Championship – the Drive of 85 If you will

1987 Canada Cup…Gretzky to Lemieux

1988 Summer Olympics…Ben Johnson…thanks buddy!

1992 Blue Jays World Championsip…still can’t believe that happened

1993 Maple Leafs March to the Cup, until Gretzky cheated and derailed the whole damn thing, particularly Game 7 vs. Detroit in Round 1

1993 Blue Jays World Championship..touch ‘em all Joe! Followed by a broken arm from the celebration

2002 Olympic Gold Medal. Canada 5, US 2

2002 Maple Leafs Playoff Drive (high fives and head rubs on Glenside)

2010 Olympic Gold Medal on Home Ice

Is that sad of me to admit that? Perhaps, but what else brings a massive group of people together than a win by their favourite team*, especially when it is your country. Sure the Blue Jays may have had a similar impact in Toronto, but I doubt very highly it was something the entire country celebrated as vigorously.

What made it even more incredible was that we beat our biggest current rival to win the Gold Medal. You could hear my entire block erupt as Sydney Crosby buried the overtime winner past a stunned Ryan Miller. I am still way to excited to even properly articulate what was going through my mind at that moment. I do know that the bottle of Spumante bambino was sprayed from Glenn’s balcony and will no longer sit in my kitchen as a horrifying reminder of the Tigers collapse last fall…

As soon as the puck went into the net, Ryan, Clement, Tannis, Carly, Glenn, Lyla and I were jumping up and down, doling out high fives and head rubs along with hugs in a jubilant dance in my living room. No sooner had we emptied the champagne in celebration of the win and our new house, we took to the streets…a scene I had not witnessed since 2002, people leaning out of cars waving flags, hugging strangers, all in an unabashed show of patriotism. My neighbourhood had turned into one giant victory party…everyone sharing their love of country and our team, and the most successful Olympics by a host nation ever! Sure, we were expected to win the gold in hockey, but that only made the realization of those expectations that much sweeter. Let’s hope we get to experience this again and again and again.

Gary Bettman, the man who is singlehandedly killing hockey, has already raised doubts as to whether we will be shutting down the league to allow players to participate in the 2014 games in Russia. From his perspective I can sort of see why as we have been spoiled by such a superior product over the last 12 days that going back to watching regular season NHL hockey is going to be very difficult. Not just because the product is worse, but because in the Olympics everyone has a chance right up until close to the end. For me as a Leaf fan, my season is already over so I am watching simply to watch hockey, with no stake in who wins or loses. With the Olympics every country was at least playing meaningful games up until Tuesday. I realize it is a short schedule with single elimination games once the preliminary round was done, but that is part of what makes it so great. Pro sports seasons do go on far too long in most instances and that makes it hard to feel the importance of every single game. This magical tournament takes pressure to a whole new level. It is what makes the NFL so successful…one loss and you are out. Each game has significant importance and once you move to the next step each game feels likea proverbial game 7…win or it’s all over until next year.

I know that from a financial standpoint leagues would never abandon the playoff series format, but from a fans perspective it certainly makes every nuance of every single game that much more important. From a health standpoint, my heart is probably very happy that this only comes around every 4 years. This is why we are hockey fans though and what makes us so proud to be Canadians!!!

See you in Russia, I hope!