Just like every other Canadian who saw it, I will never forget Sidney Crosby’s overtime gold medal winning goal at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. Hey, who could ever forget that!
And I don’t want to diminish it because it’s one of the greatest and most significant goals in Canadian hockey history. But those that say it’s the most important goal in Canadian hockey history are either not old enough to remember Paul Henderson’s goal, or have forgotten the cultural and political significance of the winning goal in the 1972 Summit Series.
Crosby’s goal united a country and led to scenes of joyous patriotism throughout the nation. It was a fantastic moment in Canadian sports history. Ditto for the Mario Lemieux goal that gave Team Canada the Canada Cup in 1987 in the final game of that tournament – it was another shining moment in Canadian sports.
But Henderson’s goal was, and remains, the most significant sporting moment in our country’s history. It’s bigger than Crosby’s or Lemieux’s because this was bigger than sports…this was about a way of life.
The world has changed a great deal since 1972, some of those changes have made it better and some have made it worse. But that series was about Us vs. Them, Democracy vs. Communism, our way of life versus their way of life.
Canada trailed the series 3-1-1 at one point remember. The Soviets weren’t supposed to be able to compete with us. And to rally back the way they did, well it was a vindication to Canadians everywhere after an intense series that made us question our game and our nation.
Canada HAD to win that series in our minds. If Phil Kessel had scored the goal and the U.S. won the gold, it would have been a crushing disappointment. But if the Russians had won that Game 8 in Moscow, it would have been much more than that – it would have been national calamity.
You had to have been alive at the time to fully understand what I mean by that, and what that goal meant to Canada. Henderson’s goal didn’t win Canada a gold medal, it vindicated the Canadian way of life.
A hockey game today just couldn’t do that, so with all due respect to Sid The Kid, it’s 1. Henderson 2. Crosby 3. Lemieux..in that order.
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