It worked. An enormous 7-3 quarter-final win against Russia would follow, along with a hard-fought victory in the semis over Slovakia, whose third-period comeback bid reminded a Canadian team packed with NHL stars that they could take nothing for granted. By the day of the gold medal game, Vancouver was bursting with anticipation, not least due to some anti-Canadian barbs uttered by U.S. forward Ryan Kesler, who in his non-Olympic life plays for the Vancouver Canucks. Adding to the drama was news that Canada’s next gold medal would set a Winter Games record of 14, a potential cherry on top of an Olympics whose early troubles were suddenly a distant memory.
The weight of expectation was crushing, recalls Troy Crosby, Sidney’s father. So great, in fact, that he took the unaccustomed step of checking up on his preternaturally confident child. The response, he recalls, was reassuring. “He seemed really calm and focused, just like he’s always been,” Troy says, adding with a chuckle: “I think the parents of the players were more anxious than the players themselves.”
Crosby and company were certainly ready when the puck dropped on Feb. 28. Goals by Jonathan Toews and Corey Perry put Canada up 2-0 before the midpoint of the game, and the dream looked well within reach. It was Kesler, of all people, who put the Americans on the board at 12:44 of the second, setting the table for the Parise goal, which was scored with U.S. netminder Ryan Miller on the bench for the extra attacker. The fans were stricken. Babcock recalls a subdued dressing room during the subsequent intermission, but no sense of fear. “I told them that there was too much talent on the ice, that this thing was going to be over fast,” he recalls. “I told them that, within the next seven minutes, one of you is going to be a hero for the rest of his life.”
He was off by 40 seconds. With 12:20 left in the first overtime, the attacking duo of Crosby and Jarome Iginla forced the puck deep into the U.S. zone, where Iginla gathered it up in the corner. The Calgary Flames winger reversed the current of play as Crosby bolted for the net, shouting “IGGY!” so loudly that TV viewers could hear it at home. What happened next was quintessential Crosby: Iginla delivered a pass, and in two touches, No. 87 pulled the puck from behind him to the shooting position and fired it between Miller’s feet.
It’s hard to imagine a sporting moment for which more people could feel greater ownership. For decades, Canadians had watched teams from the Soviet Union and other countries skate away with Olympic gold. They salved their pride with the knowledge that Canada’s best players were excluded due to Olympic rules preventing professionals from competing. But by the time IOC rule changes allowed NHL stars to compete, other countries had mastered the frozen game. Disappointing outings in 1998 in Japan, and in 2006 in Italy, bookended Canada’s gold medal performance in 2002 in Salt Lake City.
While the 5-2 victory over the U.S. in the final at Salt Lake City was enormous, it did not match the drama of Feb. 28, 2010. More than a storybook ending, Crosby’s goal seemed to spring from the combined will of the fans in the building, the millions of Canadians watching on TV and—not insignificantly—the other Canadian athletes (in late June, Crosby ran into Bilodeau at a Hockey Canada gala in Edmonton, and told the skier that Bilodeau’s gold medal run had inspired him and his teammates for the rest of the tournament).
That, at least, is how Furlong sees it. The CEO of the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee has been sorting through his memories and emotions for his book, to be published on the anniversary of the start of the Games, Feb. 12. Like Crosby, he stands in awe of Canada’s response to the great moment, and permitted himself some modest flights of fancy. The goal resonates, he says, because so many Canadians believe “they got a touch on that puck,” that they played some part in pushing it past Miller, the best goaltender in the tournament. “By the time Sidney Crosby took that shot,” he says, “the entire country was on the ice.”
That might not be what Fasel intended when he wished us a touch of misfortune. But you won’t find a Canadian now who would have it any other way.
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