David Meets Goliath on the Ice – Miracle 2008

Title: David Meets Goliath on the Ice – Miracle 2008

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Begin Transcript:
, [00:00:00] this is beyond the big screen podcast with your host, Steve Guerra. This is part two of an episode discussing the story behind the 1980 miracle on ice team USA. Men’s gold metal hockey team as portrayed through the 2004. Miracle. I highly suggest you listen to power. One of this episode before we drop the puck on power too.
Don’t worry. We’ll be waiting for you beyond the big screen.
Per Brooks got this team together just when they’re getting ready to go to lake Placid for the Olympics, they played a series of games against different teams. How did those turn out for the team USA team did her Brooks [00:01:00] demonstrate and those early games that they were ready to take on the Soviet juggernaut team two to two examples.
One is famous. Anybody who knows the story is going to get to know this one. They play. Team Norway. And they tied them three to three. And Herb’s mind that is a game they should have won outright. No two ways about it. They should have destroyed team Norway because Hurd had been training them so hard that they were in the best shape of their lives.
He said that you might not be the most skilled team in this. But I swear to God, you will be the most conditioned. And it’s, it’s funny. I have to deviate for a second with my own local team, the blue jackets, we got a new president of hockey operations a few years ago. I don’t know if he consciously borrowed this from herb or if it was just the planets aligning or what, but he said, you know, we might not be the most talented team out there, but we will be the best condition we will [00:02:00] play all, all 60 minutes.
And I thought that was a really good way to do it. Cause you can lose a game. And the flick of a switch. I mean, it, it’s, it’s very easy. And so you, you, you want to play all out all the time and, um, and that’s what herb was doing to them and getting them in shape for, because. If they couldn’t do that against a quote unquote puny little team like Norway, how would they ever do it against the very best against the Soviets who were routinely beating all-star teams from the NHL?
How could they possibly accomplish that? If they, if they can’t beat team Norway, he caught several players looking into the stands and this is featured in the. Uh, looking at some attractive young ladies and thinking about where they’d like to take them for dinner. And herb, herb caught him and he says, at the end of this really embarrassing three-three tie, you [00:03:00] don’t want to skate during the game.
You’ll skate right now. So, uh, they, they get back on the ice and then that is what leads to the famous Herbie’s in the dark. And, uh, he skates them, skates them into the ground red line to red line, red line to blue line. So on and so forth down the length of the ice. And when they’re done, he has them do it again and again, and again, and again, he just, and he’s yelling at him the whole time.
He wants them to get through their head, but this is the way it has to be. If they’re going to compete, this is the way it has. So that’s where that, that famous scene comes from now. The movie makes it seem like it’s going on all night and you know, people are puking and, and all of this stuff. And in reality, the, the session lasted about an hour.
I’m not saying that skating all out for an hour is easy. It’s not, but nobody was no players reported throwing up or anything like that. But, and, and really that attitude of [00:04:00] Herb’s that doesn’t let up until. They have the gold metal. Um, even after they beat the Soviets, he still eyes on the prize all the way.
And the, uh, the other game that I want to touch on is the, uh, exhibition match between the Soviets and USA. And that takes place on, uh, February 9th at Madison square garden. The whoever’s listing, if you want to see. Uh, butt-kicking pull up some game footage of this, this game, Soviets destroyed team USA, 10 to three.
They do it with one glove tied behind their back. I mean, it’s just, it’s pathetic. And that happens all of three days before opening night. So those are the two big, uh, exhibition games that, that, that we, you know, really talk about today, uh, is, uh, one that resulted in that. Getting their butts kicked physically by, by her Brooks and then [00:05:00] getting their butts kicked on the scoreboard by the Soviet union, going into this 1980s Olympics who were the favorites.
And how was team USA favored in this? Where they expected to metal, not metal. The USA was expected to basically be destroyed. They were picked to finish fifth, I believe. And the S the Soviets were. Were picked to just walk, walk with the gold medal. And, uh, they, they were the absolute best in the world. And, uh, Czechoslovakia at the time they were the second best team in the world.
And the fact that that team USA ends up facing both of them and emerging Victoria says is really incredible. So, so yeah, it was Soviet union and then the Czech Republic. Oh, I’m sorry, Czechoslovakia. And, and then it was, it was all the rest. How did team USA fair in the earlier part of the Olympic tournament?
Okay. Yeah. They’re their [00:06:00] first game against Sweden. They almost lost, they actually tied the game with something like 27 seconds left on the clock and this tie will actually come into play. Later in the tournament and had they lost to Sweden, they would have been in, in big, big trouble, even if every result of every other game had remained the same, a loss in that first game to Sweden, they would have been in big, big trouble.
So this, this opening game, they’re down two to one with less than a minute to go. And Jim Craig keeps looking at the bench at her Brooks. Someone looking at that game through 21st century eyes knows exactly what Jim Craig is looking for back in the, in the 1980s and earlier, they might not have known what he was looking for.
But anyone today will tell you that he’s looking at [00:07:00] herb to see if he’s going to be pulled from the ice for. Six attacker, because you can have six men on the ice at one time, five skaters and a goalie, or you could play all 60 minutes with, with no GoLean six skaters, if you really want it to. So, Jim Craig is, uh, is waiting to be waved over to the bench.
So about the 32nd mark, he gets the wave. It goes over to the bench and with 27 seconds left and the Sexter attacker now on the. Team USA is able to tie the game. And essentially, even though they didn’t know it at that point, truly keep their hopes alive to metal at all. I mean, they lose that game and they might not have gotten the metal at all.
That proves to be a very, not even important crucial game for them. And then they go undefeated the rest of the, um, initial round against the, the, um, the other teams and, uh, and one [00:08:00] of those two. As we mentioned earlier was the second best team in the entire world, Czechoslovakians and faded, just beat the checks.
They pummeled them, they beat them seven to three, and that is, is kind of its own miracle because of how good they were. And to give you an idea, to put this into perspective, how good they were. The Soviet union was only worried about one team in this term. And that was the checks. That’s all they were worried about.
It thought if we can get by the checks or get me for saying we’re golden, but that didn’t happen. Team USA beat the ever loving snot out of the checks and suddenly the Soviets don’t oh, well, we don’t have to worry about the checks. This is fantastic. All we have to do is beat a bunch of kids. And so that was very much a miracle all on its own because team USA, wasn’t supposed to win that.
But they were [00:09:00] so well-prepared and so well conditioned that they just took everyone by surprise getting into this game, the big game against the Soviets, what will be later called the miracle on ice game? What was so important about this gay man? I mean, obviously they’re playing the Soviets. What was critical about who won this game in particular?
Well, this, um, whoever won this game, Essentially have the best chance at winning gold, um, because whoever would win team USA versus Soviet union would, would then go on to play Finland. And the, the Soviets had already beaten Finland. Now, granted they had to come from behind in order to do it earlier in the tournament, but they’d already beaten them so that you know, that if they can get by the U S then you know, then they’re going to be fine.
But it’s, it’s so huge. Yeah. Maybe a broader sense, I guess, just [00:10:00] because of all of the, and