What's a "Miracle On Ice"?

I saw this cartoon scouring the web for art from one of my favourite cartoonists Charlie Teljeur.The famous "Miracle on Ice" from the 1980 Olympics lives as one of the great upsets in sports history. The video link sets the stage for the contest well: The United States lost in Vietnam, suffered through Watergate, and endures a crippling recession late into the 70s. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan forces the United States as much as other nations to boycott the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow. The game was truly a "David versus Goliath" contest as the Russians won 8 of the previous nine hockey championships, and had an Olympic hockey streak of 24 games undefeated. The Americans entered the contest with above average college players handpicked by Herb Brooks for the 1980 tournament.

As the images fade from our memory, and the vintage call from Don Matthews towards the end of the game becomes less and less audible, I wonder if hockey has lost something too. There is no certain dominant hockey power; there are six. We Canadians may answer with certainty that Canada is the hockey power to beat, it is Sweden that holds Olympic gold from the previous Olympics in 2006. Also, the youngsters from the United States won the world juniors in Saskatoon during this past year against our Canadian boys. Canada, the United States, Russia, Sweden, Finland, and the Czech Republic are the hockey powers; they pass the torch of dominance with each passing season, passing the flame to and from Canada with regularity.

Will there ever be an upset of that magnitude in hockey again? Will there ever be a team, whether in amateur or professional circles, to dominate the game or cloud it with suspicion and fear like the Soviet "Red Machine"? What hand-picked team of college players will defy the odds and capture the hearts and minds of hockey fans everywhere like "Herb's Heroes"?

Perhaps questions like these should be left 'on ice'.