For a couple of hours Sunday, much of the world, including much of this country and nearly everyone north of us in Canada, sat riveted, watching the action unfold.
In a hockey game.
Team Canada ultimately won gold, its collection of NHL stars defeating Team USA 3-2 in a game that required more than 7 minutes of overtime. It had a little of everything for the old or new hockey fan, great goaltending, physical play and perhaps today’s greatest hockey superstar, Sidney Crosby, scoring the game-winner for the Canadians.
Hockey never has been up with the big three pro sports in America, but it was making real progress until labor problems caused a season to be lost in the last decade.
That helped ruin a TV contract with ESPN and since it’s never really been the same.
So has Sunday’s game, as well as the American win last Sunday when the countries faced off, brought the sport to a new level?
As a longtime fan of hockey I sure hope it has. There is a lot of hockey further down the cable dial, but you still can’t find it on TV like you used to, even at playoff time.
Time will tell if it makes a move or ends up being like curling, a big thing during the two weeks of the Winter Olympics but otherwise sort of forgotten.