The REAL. BIG. Blog

When Zach Parise tied the game with 24 seconds left to send the US and Canada into sudden death overtime I imagined all the emergency service calls flooding the switchboards across Canada as the country went in to collective coronary failure. But then Sid the Kid struck gold and what could have been a national nightmare turned into a tear-drenched rendering of “O, Canada”. It just seems right. The US had shown they could beat Canada only days earlier, surprising the world, and making the Canadians wonder what had become of their national pastime. So when the two met again in the Gold Medal game everything was on the line for Team Canada. Against a backdrop of red-draped fans, the local Vancouver Canuck Roberto Luongo in goal, on home ice and in front of a world stage with only one question to answer – is hockey still our game? – the Canadian team had to come through. It turns out nothing was wrong with Canada’s game – The US was just a really worthy opponent.

When the 22 year old from Nova Scotia had a breakaway opportunity earlier in the game and came up short, people were asking, as they had been all tournament, when their golden boy would pull through. It’s just that his moment hadn’t come yet, like he was being saved for when everything was at stake. How fitting then that Team Canada’s elder statesman, Jarome Iginla, should be the one to provide the assist, setting up Crosby to do what everyone was hoping he could – score the winning goal in the biggest of all games. It seems the hopes and expectations of Canada were not misguided or unfounded, whatever doubts might have been raised. After the game Crosby said what we have come to expect – that it was the team, that no one person makes the team, that it’s a team effort – only this time it sounded really quite genuine and heartfelt and not at all rehearsed. Which is why, at least in part, the kid is as good as gold.