The goal

There haven't been a lot, but I can remember some pretty great moments in sports over my lifetime. Like the time when Joe Carter hit the game winning homerun to win the World Series for the Toronto Blue Jays 17 years ago. Or the spectacular catch by David Tyree off his helmet to make a crucial first down for the New York Giants, who then went on to win the Superbowl. Donovan Bailey's gold medal winning 9.84 second 100M run which was slowed by the fact that he raised his arm at the end.

Yesterday topped all of those.

My wife and I watched the Canada-USA hockey Olympic gold medal final together, just the two of us. We had invited others but they were either unable to make it or chose to go elsewhere for maybe a bigger party or whatever. I think it would have been more fun with more people, but what can you do.

I can't remember a more exciting game in my life. To me, I would have been happier to see Team Canada finish 4th by losing to the Slovakians than to lose to the Americans. It was so intense that both my wife and I were exhausted by the time we had finished watching the first two periods. Emotionally we were completely drained.

I was thinking about how destiny works, how God selects certain people in this world to do amazing things. Sidney Crosby had been somewhat ridiculed because he hadn't scored anything in several games, even though he was supposed to be the best player we had. Meanwhile Crosby was probably just playing like he always plays, creating opportunities, handling and battling for the puck, constantly being harrassed by 1-2 opponents, also not knowing himself when he'll be able to affect the game in some shape where everyone would notice.

And then there it was, he battled for the puck the corner, left it back for Jerome Iginla and then skated unobstructed for once, towards the net, and then called for it and slid the puck into the net. It seemed so innocent, not like the many other huge scoring chances.

Back home, my wife and I went absolutely nuts. We danced in front of the TV, shouted, we jumped up and down, we hugged, we hugged while jumping up and down (this is no easy task) and then we ran around the living room cheering.

Greatest hockey game ever.