Originally Posted by
Concart
Being from Minnesota, I am a huge hockey fan. This game, believe it or not, was NOT shown live. It was played in the late afternoon, and by the time the game was shown on network TV, the entire country was aware of it. I listened on the radio and went nuts. If you are at all familiar with Soviet hockey at the time, you'd realize this was, and probably today still is, the greatest upset in sports history. It is akin to the Tom Brady Patriots losing to a collection of college players, or the Lakers losing to some college all-stars. The Soviets were as good or better than any NHL team at the time. It was a remarkable achievement. The other thing that isn't well known among the younger generation is that this was not the gold medal game. The US had to beat Finland two days later in order to win the gold. Herb Brooks gave perhaps my favorite motivational speech ever before the Finland game. 'Gentlemen, if you lose this game, you will take it to your fucking graves'. That was Herb Brooks in a nutshell.
And yes, this was an incredibly unifying experience. Height of the cold war, and the Russians had invaded Afghanistan. The US would go on to boycott the summer games in Moscow that year. It was a tense time.
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