re: 1980 USA Hockey Team - What made them successful?

The Boys of Winter is a great read if you’re interested in more info.

quote:

---

Ralph_Wiggum

---

real hated for anything positive about the country

quote:

---

Relatively very few people knew the results before the game aired on a three hour tape delay. There was a spoiler broadcast locally in DC that spoiled some.

---

This was 1980... But I remember 1984 Winter Olympics and even that had a total tape-delay news blackout.

Nobody knew shite, that's how Television did it back then. NBC and CBS weren't going to stab ABC in the back.

No internet, cooperative Networks...I mean, maybe you knew the result of Lake Placid by listening to radio stations not owned by the big 3 Networks.

By this asinine idea, that you just turned on your rabbit ears and immediately got news in 1980 is absurd. Nobody was scrolling shite and you didn't have an ESPN ticker...news came on @ 'Eleven.

And ABC wouldn't announce the results at 6, two hours before the broadcast. If anything, people reported hearing the result in their cars via radio and honking their horns.

quote:

---

Ralph_Wiggum

---

This dude is the definition of a buzkill.

luck

quote:

---

Most people don’t realize the USA team had to turn around and beat Finland 2 days after The Miracle to take home the gold.

---

And not only that, had we lost there was a possibility we wouldn't have medaled at all.

quote:

---

The game was shown on tape delay in the US. We all knew that the US won when it was broadcast.

---

No one in my family or neighborhood had any idea who won. There was no internet or 24/7 news on TV. We barely had 5 channels to watch.

quote:

---

Even more people don’t realize that, due to the format (it was more like a “round robin” than tournament bracket), the game against Finland wasn’t the “gold medal game” and the Soviets would have actually still won the gold if the U.S. had lost to Finland. The Soviets ended up with the silver.

---

Right on. The movie only mentions beating Finland got them the gold; no mention of the danger of finishing with only the bronze, and round robin is something us youngsters have to read up on. USA and USSR were in a group with Finland and Sweden. From I have read, Sweden and Finland were no slouches, so USA tying Sweden and beating Finland also speaks well of the team's ability.

quote:

---

The game was shown on tape delay in the US. We all knew that the US won when it was broadcast.

---

Yes, it was shown on tape delay. I was a freshman in college at NLU and literally everyone I knew was watching that game. No one I knew at the time knew the outcome. The news channels didn't really tell the results then. They wanted everyone spoiler free. In fact, spoiler wasn't even a word that was every used at the time. It was extremely easy to not know who won and you'd have to go to some effort to find out the results ahead of time.

The US fell behind to start. They then scored on kind of a long(ish) flukey goal given the goaltender they were facing.

The second USA goal changed everything.

It should have been 2-1 USSR going into the first intermission. The US player then slapped a long shot at the goal from damn near center ice with a little less than 10 seconds remaining. It was more of a throwaway shot than anything else. However, the USSR goalie allowed it rebound well out on to the ice with the USSR players kind of skating lazily thinking that was just going to be the end of the period. The US player took the rebound and scored against a USSR team that wasn't 100% focused in that moment. That set in motion the USSR coach becoming pissed at his team and pulling the best goalie in the world for the final 2 periods.

That single play allowed the US to go into the half tied rather than trailing, which enhanced their confidence they could compete that night. It also stupidly forced the USSR to pull their best player from the game. Jim Craig, the USA goalie, was as good as he ever was in the second half to allow the USA to hang in long enough to take the lead. Desire and emotion then took over for the US.

Without that second goal the USSR doesn't pull their goalie...who had only given up 1 uncharacteristic goal. He likely performs as usual in periods 2 & 3 and holds the US to probably only 1 (maybe 2) goals, which likely would have been enough for the USSR to hang on.