March 1, 2010 - 8:41am
Vancouver
Island University History professor Tim Lewis is clearly delighted with the
challenge of picking Canada’s finest hockey moment.
Arguments
can be made in favour of Sunday’s dramatic overtime gold-medal win by the
Canadian men’s team over the United States or Paul Henderson’s goal in 1972
when Canada defeated the surprisingly powerful Soviet Union team in Game 8 of
the Summit Series.
Canada’s
Olympic victory over the U.S. in 2002 was significant, as it broke a 50-year
Olympic gold drought, but the 5-2 win could
not come close to the impact of Henderson’s goal 38 years ago or Sidney
Crosby’s overtime winner at Canada Olympic Place. “The 2002 game produced no
one awe-inspiring moment where we said, ‘Yes, we did it,’” Lewis said.
It’s a
close call in Lewis’s mind but he gives a slight edge to
the Summit Series in terms of historic hockey value.
“It’s fair
to say Sunday’s game is a close second to ’72. The only reason I say that is
the political implications of 1972 were so much more significant. Most of the
players who participated in the Vancouver Olympics, including those from
Russia, earn their living in the NHL. Players such as Alexander Ovechkin are
heroes for fans around the world, including Canada.”
The Soviet
team in ’72, however, was a foreign entity, largely unknown in terms of the
players’ hockey abilities but all too well-known in terms of the state they
represented. The Soviet Union was the ultimate enemy. The fact that the Cold
War was still at its height and the threat of nuclear war remained real made
the ’72 Series far more than a sporting event.
The
members of Team Canada ’72, along with most Canadians at the time, came to view
the series as a clash between competing political systems. As a result, the eight-game
series, played in both Canada and the Soviet Union, reached extreme levels of
intensity with Bobby Clarke’s slash that fractured Valeri Kharlamov's ankle the most notorious example. “At the time, it was
war and that’s how the players saw it,” Lewis said.
Rivalry
with the Americans is intense, Lewis said, but does not have the same dark
element that existed in the 1970s. “Yes we like to beat the Americans but there
was a real fear in ’72. If the Soviets could dominate in hockey, something we
saw as so purely Canadian, what couldn’t they do?”
“In terms
of being a cultural moment, however, there are a lot of similarities. “The ’72
series lasted a month and built to the climactic moment that was the Henderson
goal, and at the Olympics we had two weeks of unprecedented sporting success
that culminated in another dramatic hockey victory.”
The power
of Canada’s performance at the Olympics has been evident with collective
cultural moments bringing people together in a way that is seldom achieved in a
country as diverse and immense as Canada.
“This
celebration of Canadianism has really been amazing. For years we used to joke
that Canadians didn’t know the words to our national anthem but evidently we do
now because we break out and sing it all the time,” Lewis said.
Lewis
developed and teaches two hockey history courses at VIU--Hockey and the
Canadian Identity to 1952: The Development of a National Obsession, and Hockey
and the Canadian Identity since 1952: Canada’s Game in the Cold War and Beyond.
“When
you see a phenomenon like we saw Sunday, it’s probably not understandable
unless you know about the history of the game and why it has such resonance
with Canadians,” Lewis said.
While
there is a strong message in the media and in advertising that hockey is “Canada’s
game,” Lewis said it is more than rhetoric.
After
Canada’s men’s and women’s teams captured gold at the Vancouver Games, Lewis
joked with his wife that there will be a strong significance for him
personally.
“I think
my hockey courses will be filled until I retire. A whole new generation now has
a shared hockey moment of their own to talk about. Most of my students weren’t
even alive back in 1972.”
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For more information, contact Tim Lewis
250-753-3245 Local: 2114, email Timothy.Lewis@viu.ca
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