There’s a concept in international best-on-best hockey that some causal fans may not be completely familiar with, mainly because I made it up just now: The double player.
It’s a player who’s represents his country both internationally and in the NHL. A double Canadian is a Canadian player who plays on a Canadian NHL team. A double American is an American player who plays on an American NHL team.
Jack Eichel is a double American. Matthew Tkachuk became one when he forced his way out from Calgary to Florida. Connor McDavid is a double Canadian, at least for now. Mitch Marner was, but not anymore. And Mario Lemieux, as great as he was, never earned the double distinction. So far, neither has Auston Matthews, Sidney Crosby or Cale Makar. But Quinn Hughes just did, a few days ago.
Cool. So who wins, a team of Double Canadians or Double Americans?
On Saturday night, after over eight years of waiting, it’s finally back: Canada vs the USA in a best-on-best men’s hockey tournament.
OK, maybe the 4 Nations Face-Off doesn’t have quite the same claim to “best-on-best” status as some of the tournaments that have come before, given that there are only four teams competing. But those four teams are bringing the very best players they have available, so yes, this is a best-on-best matchup. And it should be a good one.
Tomorrow marks the 20th time in men’s hockey history that Team Canada has faced Team USA in a true best-on-best, by which we mean the Canada Cup, the World Cup, and the Olympics in years where the NHL sent its players. Canada has dominated the head-to-head with a record of 14-4-1, but it’s been closer since the dawn of the World Cup and Olympic era, and this year the Americans may be slight favorites.
We’ll see how it turns out, and whether we have to settle for just this one game or also get a rematch in next week’s championship game. For now, let’s look back on those 19 previous matchups and rank them from worst to best.
Last Friday was the 10th anniversary of Sidney Crosby’s golden goal, the overtime winner against the United States that delivered Olympic gold in front of a delirious Vancouver crowd.
It was a remarkable goal that still holds up as a “where were you” moment to this day, and the anniversary spurred a rush of pride and patriotism among Canadian hockey fans. But it also prompted something else, something far more rare and wonderful: a good tweet.
Specifically, a tweet by user @thupka1982 asking a seemingly simple question: What’s the Mount Rushmore of Team Canada goals? In other words, which four stand above the others as the best and/or most memorable in Canadian international hockey history?
I’m going to take the liberty of expanding the question to not just goals, but moments. The beauty of the question is that the first three are obvious. Just about everyone would give you the same list: Crosby’s Golden Goal, Paul Henderson’s winner in 1972 and Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux teaming up to beat the Soviets in 1987. You can’t get hockey fans to agree on anything, but I can’t imagine anyone who wouldn’t have those three moments on their list.
But what’s No. 4? That’s where it gets interesting. Today, with permission from our pal @thupka1982, let’s break down some of the candidates.
Darryl Sittler’s fake shot
The game: The inaugural Canada Cup in 1976 was meant to expand on the success of the 1972 Summit Series, with the expectation that we’d get a rematch between Team Canada and the Soviets. Instead, Canada ended up facing an underdog Czechoslovakian team in the final.
The moment: Canada won the first game of the best-of-three in a 6-0 blowout. But they had a tougher time in Game 2, needing a late goal to send the game to overtime. That’s when this happened:
Why it’s in the running: It was the first great international moment to happen in sudden death, and it’s an absolute beauty of a goal. (Side note: Don Cherry has tried to claim the credit for the move, which may or may not factor into where you rank it.)
The case against: Not having it come against the Soviets hurts the case a bit, as does the fact that it wasn’t a must-win game for Canada.
Bottom line: It’s definitely in the conversation, although I’m not sure there’s room on our Mount Rushmore for two games from the 1970s.
John Slaney plays the hero on home ice
The game: Heading into the 1991 World Junior Championship, Canada was the defending champs. But they’d never won back-to-back tournaments and had never won the tournament on home ice. They had a chance to make history on both fronts when they faced the Soviets in their final game of the tournament, with the winner taking gold.
The moment: Late in a 2-2 tie, a draw in the Soviet zone ended up with the puck sliding back to Canadian defenseman John Slaney, who had time to step into the shot of his life.
Why it’s in the running: It’s not the greatest goal on the list, although it might challenge for the best celebration. But this moment, along with the crowd reaction and TSN’s coverage of it all, may have been the one that elevated the world juniors from a vaguely important tournament to a Canadian institution.
The case against: In terms of big names to score a crucial goal, Slaney doesn’t exactly rank up there with Crosby or Lemieux or Sittler. Then again, when it comes to the world juniors, that might be part of the appeal.
Bottom line: It’s probably hard to explain to younger fans, but this one really was a huge moment back in the day and set the stage for other great WJC moments to come. Like this one …
Jordan Eberle’s buzzer-beater
The game: Canada and Russia renewed international hockey’s greatest rivalry at the 2009 world juniors in Ottawa. Canada had won four straight golds, but the Russians held a one-goal lead late in the game.
The moment: With the goalie pulled and Canada pressing in the final minute of the third, Ryan Ellis made a play at the blue line to keep the puck in the Russian zone. After an extended scrum along the sideboards, the puck squirted free to Jordan Eberle in front of the net.
Why it’s in the running: There may not be a goal in Canadian hockey history that came out of nowhere quite like this one. One second, the puck was by the boards as the game ticked away; the very next, Eberle was somehow all alone in front of the Russian net. The whole thing played out almost too quickly for a fan’s brain to process in real time, which made it one of the great “Did I actually just see that?” moments ever.
The case against: Memory is a funny thing. You know Canada went on to win the game, but do you even remember who scored the winner in overtime? Nobody did because the game was decided in a shootout, which is kind of lame. Another piece you may not remember, with shades of the Miracle on Ice: This wasn’t the gold medal game. It was the semifinal.
Bottom line: The fact that a goal that didn’t end a game or a tournament is still remembered to this day just drives home how insane the moment was for those that watched it live.
Twenty years from now, you'll probably still remember. I was watching the game with three-year old Little Goes Brown (nicely recovered from the day's earlier unpleasantness). When Crosby scored, my natural instinct was to grab her and hold her over my head like the Stanley Cup. She thought that was hilarious, and told me she wanted to walk on the ceiling.
So that's what we did. While Team Canada piled onto the ice and the crowd went crazy, I helped my daughter do a victory lap around the basement ceiling. At that moment, I felt like I wanted to do one too.
It was a good day at DGB headquarters. It started with a voicemail from Wendel Clark ("I hear you have some sort of blog. Good luck with that"). And it ended with the most ridiculously cliched hockey game you could imagine. Really, hockey gods? Sidney Crosby? In overtime? You really think anyone's going to believe that?
Two weeks ago, nobody thought it would end this way. After all, if you were going to scrap these two teams and form a Team North America, which US players would make the squad? Parise and Miller for sure. Kane, probably. Maybe you could make a case for a few more to round out the checking line.
But the team would be dominated by Canadians, because we have the best players in the world, at every position, for any particular skill, for every situation. And yet the US gave us all we could handle.
Not many of us gave them a chance. I know I didn't. But down two goals, in front of a hostile crowd, outmatched by a mile on paper, they almost pulled off a miracle. Any American hockey fan should be proud of these guys.
And now it's back to the NHL grind. The trade deadline countdown starts now. Then the stretch drive. Then the playoffs, which I'm told is some sort of tournament thing. And of course, we'll get to hear all about how the NHL isn't sure about continuing to play in the Olympics, because if there's on thing this league is good at it's identifying something its fans love and screwing it up.
But that all starts tomorrow. Tonight, I'm going to do one more quick lap around the ceiling.
Update: I'll be on Rink Side Radio tonight at 9:00 EST to talk more about the gold medal game.
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So where were you for The Goal?
