Don't Wreck My Column, You Hoser – HotAir
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One of the main joys I’ve had after marrying into my current family is their love of hockey, and having that sport grow on me over the years. I still have a major in baseball, as far as sports preferences go, but I’d have to admit my minor would now be in hockey. It’s tremendously fun to watch. 

Over the past fortnight, we have watched the biathalon, curling (including the Canadians continually giving the poor stone the finger illegally), figure skating, Super-G, whatever it is the G stands for, and the halfpipe stuff – board and skis. But those are all fun things to watch in between the main event – men’s and women’s hockey. 

Both squads for the United States were promised to be good. Very good. Medal contention good. But on paper, the Canadians were absolutely stacked in the men’s division, and the women’s team were not going to be pushovers. We were supposed to be good, but could easily get beat by our neighbors up north, and probably would in the men’s division. 

In the women’s bracket, when both teams showed they were destined to play in the gold medal game, the Miracle hype began. Comparisons were made from this year’s Olympic hockey teams to the 1980 legendary team coached by the Late Herb Brooks that came out of nowhere to defeat the vastly superior powerhouse Soviet team before winning the gold medal two days later. 

Why the comparison? Well, in short, because Canada’s Prime Minister, Mark Carney, is a churlish jerk. At the World Economic Forum in Davos last month, Carney stayed an extra day and decided to drop this beauty on the international community as part of a veiled Trump-hating screed to global elites. 

Carney, without demonstrating the courage to utter about whom he was referring, compared the U.S. and China as being basically the same thing, and that Canada was one of many middle power countries trying to pit themselves against the big evil two. 

Canada is about a much a middle power as a goose is a middle bird of prey. It was a ridiculous speech made by a ridiculous Canadian leader of a British protectorate that still has the now-deceased Queen Elizabeth II on their currency. If someone were to attack Canada internationally, there is only one country on Earth that would keep them from being consumed – the United States. The ingratitude of Mr. Carney, compounded by immediately making trade deals with the Communist Chinese because he believes them to be a more honest broker than America, added a lot more fuel to the fire of the rivalry between Canada and the U.S. 

So although the Canadians certainly are not the Soviets, the Canadians have offered themselves up as bulletin board material in the locker room to get U.S. teams motivated. And the U.S. women were exactly that – motivated to win gold. 

As a gold medal game like this deserves no other ending than to be decided in overtime, with two incredibly talented teams competing in sudden death fashion (or as the Canadians refer to it, free public healthcare), Megan Keller took an insanely accurate outlet pass from her own goal line and faked the lone defender out of her skates, turning the toe drag deke move into a quick dash to the net and a sprawled-out goal for the ages.

How did Canadian fans react? About as well as you’d expect. 

It was the ref’s fault.

It was the coach’s fault for botching a line change when the U.S. controlled the puck. 

In typical Canadian woke fashion, the spin was pretty laughable. 

With the U.S. women capturing gold, the intensity and build-up for the men’s gold medal game very early Sunday morning grew into fever pitch. 

Yahoo Sports reported that Americans all across the United States streamed Disney’s Miracle Saturday night, starring Kurt Russell as the salty Herb Brooks, coach of the last U.S. men’s hockey team to capture gold at Lake Placid in 1980. 

“Bars opened before sunrise in New York, Minneapolis, Milwaukee and other hockey hotbeds. Fans across the U.S. watched “Miracle” on Saturday night to hype themselves up, set their alarm clocks for an early wakeup and then gathered over early-morning beers and bloody marys.”

I have to admit, my wife and I watched it on Amazon. We were pumped for the big game. The question is…why? 

As Miracle opens, it’s a montage of all the really bad things happening to America in the 1970s – the fall of the Shah in Iran resulting in 52 Americans taken hostage for 444 days, the gasoline/energy crisis causing odd/even gas line days, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, inflation leading to stagflation, the Three Mile Island nuclear plant scare, rising crime, Carter’s malaise speech, and Cold War anxiety. People were not feeling comfortable about much of anything, and needed a shot in the arm. The U.S. Men’s performance against all odds at the Olympics was that adrenaline boost our national psyche needed. The game was more than just a game. It was about a very young and powerful country that had convinced itself it wasn’t up to the task of leading on the world stage before reminding itself through these young college players what was possible with a lot of effort. The country lived vicariously through this Miracle hockey team. 

Today, Donald Trump is making great strides in repairing the malaise of the Joe Biden regency. People couldn’t stand the COVID restrictions, the porous border, losing jobs to people here illegally, housing and rental prices skyrocketing, inflation nearing double digits again, crime rates climbing out of control, the woke virus permeating corporations, educational institutions, and the military, the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, the 10/7 terrorist attack on Israel resulting in Americans being held hostage in Hamas tunnels in Gaza, and the Russian invasion and long war with Ukraine. 

Trump is doing everything in his power to be that shot in the arm, but along comes Canada to thumb its nose at the United States and equate us to Communist China, the same entity that killed roughly 7 million people globally with the COVID-19 virus, and that enslaves Uyghur Muslims in labor camps as part of a genocide. What has always been a good-natured rivalry in sports had now become personal. 

After breaking the ice, pardon the pun, the U.S. was up, 1-0 after the first period. The Canadians tied it up in the second. The third period was reminiscent of the Miracle game in that the American goalie, Connor Hellebuyck, single-handedly kept the Americans in this game with one remarkable save after another. 41 times, Canada’s high-powered offense was turned back. It’s as if Hellebuyck just shifted into another gear, much like Jim Craig did for the Americans 46 years ago to the day, deciding that he would not allow this team to lose. 

Jack Hughes, again in overtime, a situation fitting for a game of this magnitude, scored the game-winner in the first two minutes of the bonus period, and it’s a gold medal sweep for the Americans in hockey for the first time ever. 

So how did the Canadians react? Here’s a watch party that pretty much sums it up.

Team Canada’s coach, Jon Cooper, was bitter about the 3-on-3 format for overtime in the Olympics. 

If the final score had happened to be 2-1 Leafs, do you know what criticism Cooper would not have offered? The overtime format. 

In Vancouver soon after the game was over, very early in the morning on the West Coast, flags were already flying at half staff because of the school shooting by a mentally-disturbed trans person in British Columbia last week. But after the game, a bald eagle came to rest symbolically on top of the flagpole. 

The assistant captain for the Candian squad is Nathan Mackinnon. He wants everyone to judge who won the game by literally every other lens possible besides…the scoreboard. 

He can gripe all he wants. He’ll be seeing this open net shot in his nightmares for the rest of his life. 

As the late Bob Eucker said in Major League as Indians’ broadcaster Harry Doyle, “Juuust a bit outside.” 

Canadian broadcasters were not very pleased. I don’t speak French, but this does not sound like happy French to me. 

J.D. Bunkis is a Canadian sports podcaster and host on SportsNet, Canada’s version of ESPN. 

Of course, the fun part of X, or back in the day, Twitter, is that everything is forever. Same guy, three years ago when the aboot was on the other foot, as it were. 

So where am I going with this? Overall, it was quite enjoyable to watch the Olympics this year, because the people performing to their level best understood that they were there represeting all of us, and they were honored and delighted to be there. And the relative few that chose to turn their moment in the Olympic spotlight to spread their ideological hatred at the country because of who they voted for and the reasons why they cast that vote, and/or to proclaim their own personal preference of what gives them procreative pleasure, failed. Often in spectacular fashion. Their focus was not on why they were there, and it cost them dearly. I’m not at all a believer in karma, but if there was such a thing as Olympic karma, it was the equivalent of Kamala Harris at Christmas, by and large. 

I don’t know the politics of the members of the Olympic men’s or women’s team that won gold for the U.S. I’m told that many, or perhaps most of them are lefties. As a conservative, let me state for the record that I could not care in the slightest. You know what I care about? This. Here’s just one of many interviews Megan Keller gave after her gold medal-winning goal in overtime. 

The hero for the men’s team, besides Connor Hellebuyck, was Jack Hughes.

The guy just had his two front teeth knocked out on the ice after receiving a high stick. He didn’t lose focus for a second about what this game meant to him, to the team, and to the country. This is what it’s all about. 

Finally, there’s this. Johnny Gaudreau, who would have worn number 13 for the United States on the Olympic men’s roster, died alongside his brother, Matthew, when they were struck on their bicycles by a drunk driver in 2024. The brothers were in New Jersey to serve as groomsmen for their sister’s wedding the following day, and the tragedy didn’t just devastate the Gaudreau family, but his Olympic hockey family as well. When the team gathered at center ice for the team photo wearing their new golden hardware around their necks, Gaudreau’s jersey joined them for the picture, along with two of Johnny’s three children – three-year-old Noa and two-year-old Johnny, Jr. 

This is why sports matters. 

Canada, you should have taken up the offer to become the 51st State. You’d have a share of the gold. Instead, your most important gold from these Olympic games is from a foul-mouthed cheater who poke-checked a rock in a shuffleboard contest on ice and blamed his cheating on the other team seizing and pouncing with a camera to set him up. Congrats, Canada. You should be so proud. 

Oh, and you still have this guy. 

Now if you don’t mind, the game’s been fun, it’s certainly nice to have the gold, but we’ve got a world to make right, continuing, mostly likely this week, in Iran. We’d ask you to help, but let’s be honest. You can’t. 

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